Top Trades: December 9-December 16

Happy Thursday, everyone! The week is wrapping up, and that means the data's in. It's time for Top Trades, the weekly column where we check in and see what the most traded cards over the past week at Cardsphere are up to. So, what's popular this week? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention - Heartfire Hero

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Kicking things off as our honorable mention for the week is Heartfire Hero, a key piece for just about every aggressive deck playing red in Standard right now.

For , Heartfire Hero is a 1/1 Mouse Soldier with the triggered ability "Whenever Heartfire Hero becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it." Additionally, when Heartfire Hero dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.

Aggressive red decks in Standard are currently supported in large part by the synergy between Heartfire Hero and a healthy dose of recurring triggered abilities that target creatures, plus pump spells for extra damage. Add that together and you have a low-cost creature that scales as the game goes on, placing a very real clock on your opponent's life. Factor in that death trigger and this little Mouse suddenly becomes a real problem, fast.

#5 - Utopia Sprawl

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

First up on this week's main list for Top Trades is a pretty ubiquitous little enchantment for just about any green Commander deck out there, plus a handful of experimental Modern designs: Utopia Sprawl.

For , Utopia Sprawl is an enchantment with Enchant Forest and "As Utopia Sprawl enters the battlefield, choose a color. Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color."

Somewhere between Birds of Paradise and Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl is an impressively flexible and efficient piece of ramp, especially at uncommon. The only problem, however, is that it has to enchant a Forest. Now, with all the Fetchlands, Tri-lands, and Shock Lands running around, this shouldn't be too much of a stretch, but it is something to keep in mind.

#4 - Sterling Grove

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 5

Speaking of enchantments, next up on our list is another oldie-but-a-goody: Sterling Grove, a card first printed way back in Invasion and added to Modern thanks to Modern Horizons 2. So, what's it do?

For , Sterling Grove is an enchantment that grants other enchantments you control shroud (meaning they can't be the target of spells or abilities). Additionally, you can pay and sacrifice Sterling Grove. When you do, search your library for an enchantment card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.

Overall, Sterling Grove is primarily a card with demand driven by Commander. There are very few broad tutors for enchantments, with most cards capable of searching for enchantments either grabbing Auras or enchantment creatures. Sterling Grove has no such restriction, a power that substantially increases its allure in singleton formats already struggling from an inability to routinely find key cards.

#3 - Birchlore Rangers

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 6

And now for another popular card from way back when: Birchlore Rangers, courtesy of 2002's Onslaught.

For , Birchlore Rangers is a 1/1 Elf with "Tap two untapped Elves you control: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool," as well as a morph cost of . So, what's the buzz on this old mana dork? Well, it's all thanks to Legacy.

Legacy has been in a bit of a turbulent spot these past few months, capping off a rough period with the bans of Psychic Frog and Vexing Bauble earlier this week. Despite all the tumult, however, one eternally playable deck continues to live at the format's fringes: Elves. And what would you guess; the Elves deck likes to play Birchlore Rangers (sometimes, at least).

Now, tapping two creatures to add one mana is usually significantly below rate for Legacy Elves, considering most creatures can tap to add a mana of their own, but Birchlore Rangers provides a neat workaround whereby players can tap creatures that are still summoning sick. Not too shabby.

#2 - Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Coming in at our penultimate pick for the week is another popular card initially from a set long-past: Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or "Gary" as some folks fondly remember it, initially from Theros.

For , Gary is a 2/4 Zombie creature with one powerful enters the battlefield trigger. When Gary enters, each opponent loses X life, where X is your devotion to black. Then, you gain life equal to the life lost this way.

For those unacquainted with devotion, this mechanic counts the number of mana symbols of a particular color from among the mana costs of permanents you control. As such, resolving Gray Merchant of Asphodel's trigger on an otherwise empty board will cause each opponent to lose two life, as you'll have two devotion from the in Gary's mana cost.

Already a particularly powerful effect, the real impact comes from playing Grey Merchant of Asphodel in loops - flickering it, reanimating it, bouncing it, all that good stuff. This creature has the pinnacle of abusable enters the battlefield triggers, and players have been lapping it up for years.

#1 - Phyrexian Arena

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Last but not least, our most traded card of the week, another old fan favourite given new life in recent years: Phyrexian Arena.

For , this enchantment has a single, straightforward, high-impact triggered ability. At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life and draw a card. Not too flashy, a bit outclassed by many powercrept card draw engines of late, but quintessentially powerful. There's nothing like drawing cards in Magic, and Phyrexian Arena makes sure that you'll do that in spades.

Like Sterling Grove before it, much of the attention on Phyrexian Arena right now is due to Commander. Sure, it had a reprint quite recently, but that didn't exactly spur demand for Phyrexian Arena across Standard. Instead, the price fell a bit and Commander players who didn't already have a copy of this age-old enchantment were reintroduced to its potential as a black staple. Not quite good enough for competitive, but definitely impactful enough for casual - especially with a fresh coat of reprint paint.

Wrap Up

This week has been the pinnacle of throwbacks. Invasion, Onslaught, Apocalypse, all sorts of cards from all ages of Magic made their way onto this week's Top Trades. Check back in next week for another installment, and thanks for reading!