Top Trades: January 6-January 13

Happy Thursday, everyone! The week is just about over, so you know what that means - it's time to jump in to Top Trades, the weekly column where we check in with the most popular cards from the previous week of trading action here at Cardsphere. So, what cards are moving around the most this time? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Stormchaser's Talent

Number of Trades: 13 --- Number of Cards Traded: 14

Returning from last week's Top Trades - where it debuted as the week's most traded card - is Stormchaser's Talent, now playing the role as our honorable mention. So, why are players so in to this blue Class?

For starters, Stormchaser's Talent enters and immediately returns impactful value, costing only and creating a 1/1 blue and red Otter creature token with prowess as a result. No heavy cost, no trigger requirements, just for a 1/1 with a relevant keyword and all the rest of Stormchaser's Talent as latent potential.

Beyond just being an efficient critter for combat, Stormchaser's Talent also is a mana sink with plenty of value to offer. Pour in another , and then it goes to level 2, triggering an ability which allows you to return an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to hand.

Finally, you can invest another to reach level 3, at which point Stormchaser's Talent is granted a triggered ability which will create a 1/1 blue and red Otter creature token with prowess whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell. One mana for the first token, four mana to return a card, and six mana to start building an army? That's a whole lot of opportunity from just one enchantment.

#5 - Dionus, Elvish Archdruid

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

Kicking off our main list this week is is one crazy mana doubler...in disguise, that is. Let's dig into Dionus, Elvish Archdruid.

For , this legendary 3/3 Elf Druid (A legendary Elf? I sense a Commander deck afoot...) has a single, but potent, triggered ability as its wall of text: "Elves you control have 'Whenever this creature becomes tapped during your turn, untap it and put a +1/+1 counter on it. This ability triggers only once each turn.'"

At first, this comes across as an Elf-specific combat bonus. Move to declare attackers, tap your Elves as they attack, resolve Dionus's triggers, and now suddenly your army is both bigger and untapped - vigilance, but better. Well, while this use case is certainly valid, I'd argue that the best (and most common) use for Dionus is doubling up activations of cards like Elvish Mystic. Tap for mana once, resolve Dionus's ability - gaining a counter and a untapping the Elvish Mystic, then tap for mana again.

#4 - This Town Ain't Big Enough

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

Moving on, we come to our first of two cards this week which are tied in both the number of trades and the number of cards actually traded. Fitting, considering the name: This Town Ain't Big Enough.

For , this instant allows you to bounce (i.e. return to hand) up to two target nonland permanents to their owners' hands. That's a pretty powerful effect, but one which is severely limited by such a high mana cost. Fortunately, you can bring this cost down by in a pinch - provided you bounce one of your own things as part of the pair of This Town Ain't Big Enough's targets.

While bouncing your own permanent may seem like a steep cost, many savvy decks can actually turn this in to upside, especially considering that This Town Ain't Big Enough is an instant. Hold up mana, wait to use it until an opponent's turn, then cast it to get rid of a threat and return some sort of value permanent to your hand, essentially granting you a pseudo-flicker effect. I know I've bounced my fair share of Eternal Witnesses before, so why not give it a try with this?

#3 - Fellwar Stone

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

Our other tied card for the week is an example of an old, classic design that just can't help but stay relevant (and reprinted) across decks throughout Magic's history: Fellwar Stone.

Initially debuting in The Dark back in 1994, Fellwar Stone is an artifact that costs , enters untapped, and has ": Add one mana of any color that a land an opponent controls could produce."

Before multicolored lands were anywhere and everywhere, Fellwar Stone was a meta-call in terms of successful deployment. Pre-Commander, this card often read as an untapped mana rock that functionally added . Thanks to Commander and the prominence of multicolored lands nowadays, however, Fellwar Stone has surged to become among the premier mana rocks to which players have access. In most games it will add at least one relevant color, if not all of them, and so Fellwar Stone's ubiquity has rocketed.

#2 - Moonsilver Key

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

Speaking of mana rocks, we've reached our penultimate pick from the week - a card which can't add mana itself, but will certainly help you find cards that can. Here's Moonsilver Key.

For , Moonsilver Key is an artifact which you can tap, pay , and sacrifice in order to tutor-to-hand either a basic land or an artifact with a mana ability. Certainly a restrictive ability, but one that is well worth it in decks with a limited artifact tutor economy (basically anything without blue or black), especially considering the potent cards which it can grab.

Last week, we talked about the combo between Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith, a readily available infinite-colorless mana generator that can be tossed in just about any Commander deck. Well, guess what, this combo uses an artifact that has a mana ability (Basalt Monolith), meaning it is partially assembleable thanks to Moonsilver Key's ability. The list of broken artifacts goes on (Grim Monolith, Sol Ring, etc), made all the more easily findable by Moonsilver Key.

#1 - Nowhere to Run

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Finally, for our most traded card of the week, we come to an incredibly hard to evade piece of Standard removal: Nowhere to Run.

For , Nowhere to Run is - get this - an enchantment! That's right, the removal here is going to come off the backs of a triggered ability, not a spell's target on the stack, something which (as we'll see in a moment) is very relevant.

First, the static abilities. Nowhere to Run has flash, significantly boosting its flexibility, as well as the effect "Creatures your opponents control can be the targets of spells and abilities as though they didn't have hexproof. Ward abilities of those creatures don't trigger." This sets up the actual removal effect stapled to Nowhere to Run, which is the triggered ability, "When Nowhere to Run enters, target creature an opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn."

At the very least, Nowhere to Run serves as a pseudo-Fog, preventing up to three damage from an attacking creature regardless of its toughness. However, as will be used more frequently, this card is more readily comparable to a Lightning Bolt that dodges creature-based evasion, all for the extra cost of . Not bad, especially considering the lingering bonus of removing hexproof (and functionally ward, too) from everything you don't control for as long as Nowhere to Run is in play.

Wrap Up

Alrighty folks, that's our list for the week! From Magic's newest set to some of its oldest, this week was a romp through cards found throughout decks and decades. Check back in next week for another issue of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!