Top Trades: July 29-August 5

Welcome back, everyone! It's Thursday, and that means it's time for Top Trades, the series where we break down the top movers and shakers here at Cardsphere from the past week. So, what cards are moving around the most? Let's dive in and find out.

Honorable Mention - Consign to Memory

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

It wouldn't be Top Trades without something from Modern Horizons 3, so starting us off as our honorable mention for the week is Consign to Memory. This powerful piece of sideboard tech has been steadily trending upwards recently, both in terms of the number of decks registering it in tournaments as well as the dollar value of the card (a whopping $5 - quite the price tag for an uncommon). So, why is it so popular? One word: Eldrazi.

Many of Magic's most threatening Eldrazi are both colorless spells and have abilities which trigger when they're cast, meaning that Consign to Memory can be used to great effect when it comes to countering the entire Eldrazi package. Very few spells let you counter triggered abilities, and even those that do aren't powerful enough to see much constructed play, but by also being capable of countering colorless spells Consign to Memory has earned its place as an important card in many blue players' sideboards.

#5 - Fountainport

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Coming it an number five on our list is Fountainport, the first of several cards on our list from Magic's newest expansion, Bloomburrow.

Fountainport is a land that enters the battlefield untapped, can provide colorless mana, and has a whole host of generically good activated abilities. Put bluntly, this means that it's a card that's going to see a lot of Commander play from now until the end of time, simply because it's decent, the deckbuilding cost of running it is low (it's a land), and it doesn't have a color identity. Pretty good stuff.

#4 - Innkeeper's Talent

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Next up on our list is Innkeeper's Talent, Bloomburrow's sleeper hit (a card which very few people saw being good and that turned out to be a competitive star). So, what does it do, and why is it so popular?

First off, a bit of a reintroduction to Classes. This enchantment subtype has made a return in Bloomburrow and functions similarly to creatures with the level up mechanic, such as Hexdrinker, except without the need to use counters. At base value (Level 1), Innkeeper's Talent has the triggered ability of "At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control." For the cost of , Innkeeper's Talent can be brought to Level 2, at which point it gains the static ability "Permanents you control with counters on them have ward ." Finally, at the cost of , Level 3 gets you the replacement effect of "If you would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, put twice that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead."

Immediately, this bevy of effects screams Commander. I've been to a lot of gamestores and played in a lot of pods, and just about every one of those communities has a green deck that loves counters. Odds are that those decks will love Innkeeper's Talent, too. Despite this newfound staple, however, the real force behind this card's demand right now is actually Standard, where a mix of Gruul and Golgari lists are putting it to work with impressive results. Bloomburrow has only been in Standard for a little bit now, but it appears that Innkeeper's Talent has left a strong impression in just that little window already.

#3 - Devourer of Destiny

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Alright, time to check back in with Modern Horizons 3, this time for an Eldrazi threat, as opposed to an Eldrazi answer.

For seven mana - - Devourer of Destiny is a 6/6 Eldrazi that goes beyond our previously mentioned trending of on-cast triggered abilities and also has one that triggers even before you cast it, provided it's in your opening hand. When the game starts, you can reveal Devourer of Destiny from your opening hand (before anyone has taken a turn). If you do, at the beginning of your first upkeep, you look at the top four cards of your library and may put one back, then exile the rest.

After the game gets going, Devourer of Destiny also has a typical on-cast trigger, letting you exile target permanent that's one or more colors. So, if you aren't playing against another Eldrazi deck, chances are that you can hit just about anything that matters. This late-game power, coupled with a mana value of seven (all of which is payable via generic mana) and relevancy at the earliest stages of the game has made Devourer of Destiny a mainstay in Eldrazi Tron decks across Modern. After all, one of the main issues which Tron has always struggled with is the ability to assemble the three titular lands in perfect succession, and an opening hand Devourer of Destiny can provide a lot of valuable card selection in that pursuit.

#2 - Emberheart Challenger

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Now we're back to Bloomburrow, this time for Emberheart Challenger - boy, Standard is on a roll today. So, what is this little Mouse?

It's an incredibly efficient threat is what it is. For two mana - - Emberheart Challenger is a 2/2 Mouse Warrior with haste, prowess, and valiant - a triggered ability reminiscent of Theros block's heroic - which here reads as "Whenever Emberheart Challenger becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card." This valiant trigger has been a key part of Emberheart Challenger's success, as it has cemented it as more than just an earlier game aggressive play, but also a flexible engine which can provide card advantage in the mid to late game (not that many of the decks that Emberheart Challenger calls home want a long game, but now they can more readily survive it).

Additionally, it's this valiant trigger that has gone hand in hand with Innkeeper's Talent and catapulted Gruul decks forward. Since Level One of Innkeeper's Talent can trigger valiant every turn, that turns into a lot of value - and a very big mouse - as the game goes on.

#1 - Fabled Passage

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Here we are! Time for our most traded card of the week - a Bloomburrow reprint from way back in Throne of Eldraine - and that's Fabled Passage. While it's unfortunate that this is probably the closest we'll ever get to having a Fetchland in Standard again, it's certainly a welcome return. So, for those of you new to Fabled Passage, what's so important about this card, and this type of effect in general?

Fabled Passage walks the line between mana flexibility and mana efficiency carefully. Lands are near universally better when they're untapped, and the same is true when they can provide multiple colors of mana. Looking to Fabled Passage, we can see that it offers a bit of both: selection in which type of mana it will produce via the land type it searches for you, and untapped mana once you clear the four-lands threshold as the game goes on. However, in doing so, it cuts a compromise; an early Fabled Passage will only get you a tapped land, and regardless of what land you chose you'll be limited to one color once you make that choice. Overall, this is still a very powerful card for Standard and Pioneer, as can be seen in its rampant popularity, so now's a great time to pick up some copies. It'll certainly be relevant for a while, and the new printing has been very effective at tanking the price.

Wrap Up

Well, in just under a week, Bloomburrow has gone on to completely dominate Top Trades. We're still seeing the ripples from Modern Horizons 3, that's for sure, but it certainly is a nice reprieve to see our Top Trades filled by cards from something other than a premium set. Tune in next week, where we'll check back to see how much staying power Bloomburrow has.