Top Trades: June 10-June 17

Cecil, Dark Knight | Illustrated by Josu Hernaiz

Howdy folks, and happy Thursday! The week is almost over, and that means it's time for Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards from the previous week here at Cardsphere. So, what cards are people searching for? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Starting Town

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Kicking things off this week is Starting Town, an all-color-producing land that enters untapped... well, some of the time.

First off, the mana abilities. Starting Town can either tap for or one mana of any color, but when tapped for the latter you'll also have to pay a life (this card works like Mana Confluence, not City of Brass). So, should you be facing down a Yasharn, Implacable Earth-esque stax effect, then, you can still tap for , just not the one mana of any color. All in all, a small difference, but an important one.

Moving to the really important line of text on Starting Town, let's dig into its untap condition. Starting Town enters the battlefield tapped unless it's exactly your first, second, or third turns of the game. Fortunately, these early turns are often when having lands enter untapped or not is at its most consequential, as the tempo loss from missing a land (or just having one enter tapped) in the early game can really set you back. Once you've made it to the mid-to-late game, the value of lands entering untapped begins to fall, so Starting Town's drawback becomes less and less crushing.

#5 - Zell Dincht

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

Starting off our main list for the week is a card that cares a whole lot about lands, and surprise! It's a red card - Zell Dincht.

For , Zell here is a 0/3 legendary Human Monk creature that gets +1/+0 for each land you control, allows you to play an additional land each turn, and, at the beginning of your end step, forces you to return a land you control to its owner's hand.

Zell Dincht is super unique effect, as it provides you with a pseudo-ramp effect. Assuming you're able to play the full two lands per turn (Zell's bounce effect should guarantee you have one in hand as the turn begins, at the very least), then Zell provides you with an extra land's worth of mana each turn, but not cumulatively. Unlike Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Zell's mana production doesn't add up as the game goes on. So, what's the real power in this card? Landfall triggers.

Red isn't particularly well known for its land-based ramp effects. Sure, it has rituals and the like, but it can't turbo out a bunch of lands all in one turn quite the way that green can. That being said, red does have a lot of support pieces for lands-matter strategies, so a card like Zell is certainly going to find a home as support in similar builds.

#4 - Cecil, Dark Knight

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

Up next is very aggressive black (and later, white) threat that's giving me flashbacks to Death's Shadow: Cecil, Dark Knight.

For , Cecil is a legendary 2/3 Human Knight creature with deathtouch and "Whenever Cecil deals damage, you lose that much life. Then if your life total is less than or equal to half your starting life total, untap Cecil and transform it." On the back side, Cecil becomes Cecil, Redeemed Paladin, a legendary white 4/4 Human Knight creature with lifelink and "Whenever Cecil attacks, other attacking creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn."

While a 2/3 isn't the strongest statline, it is ruthlessly efficient for a single mana, especially considering deathtouch. This makes Cecil a comfortable attacker in the early game, when creatures are traditionally smaller, as well as in the late game, when players don't often want to trade large creatures for smaller ones. All this to say, transforming Cecil - or, at the very least keeping him around for a while - should be pretty doable most games. Once he does flip, a 4/4 with lifelink that parades a team of indestructible creatures can be game ending in its own right.

#3 - Traveling Chocobo

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

It looks like you don't need to be neon or gold to be in demand, because traveling into third place is none other than Traveling Chocobo (see what I did there)!

For , Traveling Chocobo is a 3/2 Bird which allows you to play lands and cast Bird spells from the top of your library (you may look at the top of your library at any time while Traveling Chocobo is in play). Additionally, if a land or Bird you control entering the battlefield would cause any ability you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

At the end of the day, Traveling Chocobo here is a lands matter card through and through. Magic has some interesting Birds (such as the next contender on our list), but barely enough for a proper Birds-kindred strategy to be successful outside of lower-bracket Commander. Lands, on the other hand, have a 30+ year history of mattering a whole lot in Magic, and Traveling Chocobo both gives you more consistent access to those lands as well as makes any triggers related to their entering double in efficacy.

#2 - Sazh's Chocobo

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

Alrighty folks, on to the other Bird on our list, a much more unassuming creature that, despite its smaller textbox, is making waves across competitive Magic: Sazh's Chocobo.

For , Sazh's Chocobo is a 0/1 Bird creature with "Whenever a land you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature." So, why is this making waves in competitive Magic? Two words: fetch lands. Here's an example.

• Turn one: Play a land, cast the Chocobo.
• Turn two, play another Chocobo, then play a fetch land. Both Chocobos will get their first trigger, so now you'll have two 1/2 Birds. Crack the fetch land, searching for another land to put into play, triggering the Chocobos again. You'll have two 2/3 Birds at this point, plus an untapped land.

The sequence above assumes a double-Chocobo start, which isn't terribly rare in decks which are running these as playsets, such as Modern Zoo. In Zoo, Sazh's Chocobo takes the place of creatures like Wild Nacatl: small threats which are played purely for their early-game pressure and statline. By comparison, Sazh's Chocobo both applies this same pressure and scales as the game goes on, making it all the more dangerous.

#1 - Louisoix's Sacrifice

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

We've come to the end of the line, folks, our final card for the list: Louisoix's Sacrifice, an incredibly flexible piece of interaction.

With a base cost of , this instant allows you to counter target activated ability, triggered ability, or noncreature spell. I say base, however, because Louisoix's Sacrifice brings with it a required additional cost: either sacrifice a legendary creature or pay .

I like to think of Louisoix's Sacrifice as comparable to Fierce Guardianship, in that both of them either require that you control a legendary creature (usually), or pay in order to counter a noncreature spell. In the case of Louisoix's Sacrifice, however, you're afforded the flexibility of not needing a commander - any old legendary creature will do - but that creature will be sacrificed should you choose to use it as fodder for the alternate cost.

Similarly, even at its cheapest Louisoix's Sacrifice isn't free - it'll cost you , a big step down from Fierce Guardianship's low, low cost of free. However, that extra investment allows you to counter abilities, too - a wide range of threats which are always relevant, such as Thassa's Oracle, Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy.

Wrap Up

This week was Final Fantasy's first week post-release, and it continues to dominate the trading scene. Chase mythics, powerful rares, competitively-viable uncommons: the set has it all, and it's all being traded here at Cardsphere. Come back next week for another installment of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!