Top Trades: June 3-June 10

Hi everyone, and welcome to Top Trades, the series where we'll be checking in each week to look at five of the most traded cards from the week before. But first, a little about the method: card selections for our list here are based off of not just which cards had the most copies moving around, but which cards had the most trades altogether. After all, a single trade of 50 cards is less interesting than 50 different players all coming to the same conclusion and trading the same card. The former is somebody collecting, or maybe building a deck like Dragon's Approach. The latter, an example of a real shift in the market.

So, what's in store for this week? Well, this series' premiere happens to just short of coincide with the release of Modern Horizons 3, a set that's causing a lot of players a lot of eager trades. So, let's jump right into it and see what's been moving!

#5 - Strength of the Harvest

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

Starting us off at number five is one of Modern Horizon 3's hallmark MDFC land cycle, Strength of the Harvest. This card might not seem like much on its front side, costing two generic and one hybrid green-white mana for an aura that buffs a single creature, but the flexibility of playing this as a tapped color-fixing land on the backside makes it an easy slot into any Commander deck that cares about going wide or playing a lot of enchantments. Since this is green-white we're talking about, that's already what most decks out there will want to be doing. So for those running tapped lands of any sort, Strength of the Harvest presents a near-zero opportunity cost swap to grind out that little extra utility. Also, did I mention this card costs next to nothing? Now that's a target for some easy trades.

#4 - Smuggler's Surprise

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Coming in at number four, meanwhile, is a card that's been roaming Magic tables for a while now, having been released a few months back courtesy of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Another hyper-flexible green card (no white pips on this one, however), Smuggler's Surprise can be card selection on the first mode, cost-cutting on high impact creature deployment via the second mode, board protection on the third mode, or any mix-and-match combination thanks to spree. This makes it an attractive addition to any green Commander deck that wants to play large creatures (and that's a lot of them), as can be seen in how popular this card continues to be with traders despite the hype from OTJ having died down.

#3 - Mystic Remora

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

Speaking of popular Commander cards that seem to be sticking around for the long haul, let's talk about Mystic Remora. As a cEDH player, let me tell you, Mystic Remora is a strong card. It's also a really easy to play card - most decks out there run noncreature spells, so odds are you'll get some value regardless of what pod you play this in (cEDH, casual, anything in between). Plus, it's a cheap card, with most copies coming in under $5. Put this together, and wham! You get a card that players will always be looking for. So, here it is, number three on our list - looks like some players out there are building blue decks this week.

#2 - Honest Rutstein

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Time to circle back on over to OTJ for our number two pick. Unlike our other popular Commander cards on this list, Honest Rutstein can slot in the 99 or in the command zone. And while that doesn't mean he's stronger than the other cards on our list, it does mean that players are free to get a lot more experimental with how they use him. A Mystic Remora in someone's budget Nezahal, Primal Tide list does the same thing as it would in a maxed-out Stella Lee, Wild Card tournament list, but good ol' Honest Rutstein can be a deck in and of himself. Reanimator? Check. Go-wide cost reduction for creatures? Check. He might not be the most interesting commander, but he is a commander, and a new one at that, which means people will be experimenting long into the future.

#1 - Disciple of Freyalise

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 16

Here we are everyone, our inaugural list's most traded card of the week - and a new release at that: Disciple of Freyalise. We started this list with an MDFC land and now we're here to end it with one. So, let's start by comparing the lands behind each of these cards. Unlike Strength of the Harvest, the backside of Disciple of Freyalise enters the battlefield untapped (provided you pay three life), but can only add green. This makes a world of difference, not just because being untapped is leagues ahead of being tapped, but also because the less-restrictive color identity of mono-green here makes Disciple of Freyalise much more accessible to the broader Commander deck pool. Not playing white? Not a worry, Disciple of Freyalise has you covered.

Now, on to the front side. For three generic mana and triple green, Disciple of Freyalise is a 3/3 creature that upon entering the battlefield provides you with the opportunity to sacrifice another creature. If you do, then you'll draw X and gain X, where X is that creature's power. This might seem like a heavy cost for a one-time effect, but let me ask you this: are you playing a basic Forest in any of your green decks? If so, then I can all but guarantee you your deck would be better by swapping it out for Disciple of Freyalise. Sure, the land attached here isn't fetchable off of a land tutor, but that is such a small trade-off (along with a Lightning Bolt's worth of damage) in exchange for the flexibility which late-game card draw like Disciple of Freyalise provides.

Wrap Up

Alright everyone, that does it for our first week of Top Trades! Thank you for tuning in to look over what cards are moving the most here at Cardsphere, and I hope you'll join me next week when we check back in to see what's been trading.