Top Trades: March 10 - March 17

Starting Town | Illustrated by Hristo D. Chukov

Howdy folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, what's been making moves this week? Let's find out.

Honorable Mention - Chomping Changeling

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

First off, what else could it be but the honorable mention that just won't quit, Chomping Changeling.

Chomping Changeling is a 1/2 Changeling for with the aptly named changeling ability (meaning it counts as every creature type in all zones all the time). When it enters the battlefield, you can destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment.

We've talked about this card plenty of times before, and the reasons it was popular last week are the same as why it's made our list today: it’s a flexible piece of removal that slides into any typal deck, but it’s especially handy in typal Commander builds that want to maximize synergies while packing utility. With Lorwyn Eclipsed shaking up tables, this is one of the easiest ways to sneak artifact/enchantment hate into decks that normally miss it (or to just double up on copies of Reclamation Sage).

#5 - Starting Town

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Kicking off our main list for the week is a contemporary classic that has become ubiquitous as mana fixing across formats: Starting Town.

A Town land from Final Fantasy, Starting Town enters tapped unless it’s your first, second, or third turn of the game. It has ": Add ," and ", Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color." While not quite as strong as City of Brass or Mana Confluence, this suite of early-game power and mana flexibility makes it a strong fixer that’s painless if you see it in your opening turns of the game (exactly when mana fixing matters the most). If you're playing a multicolor deck in high-bracket Commander and don't already have a copy, I'd pick one up.

#4 - Mental Note

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 9

Next up is a bit of nostalgia that's been brought to the fore thanks to its reprint in Secret Lair: DanDân.

Mental Note is an instant for that lets you mill two cards, then draw a card. A potent inclusion across blue decks seeking to pad their graveyards, this card has surged in popularity over the past couple months, if not years, because of its home in the shared-deck casual format DanDân, a version of Magic recently seeing new support because of Wizards of the Coast's spotlight on it via Secret Lair sales.

#3 - Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 15

Alrighty folks, time to toss that nostalgia out the window and head to the streets of New York.

Our first Top Trades pick from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising is a legendary 3/1 Human Ninja for . Alternatively, you can pay and return an unblocked attacking creature to your hand to put Oroku Saki into play tapped and attacking thanks to its sneak cost. Either way, Oroku Saki has the triggered ability letting you draw a card and lose 1 life whenever it deals combat damage to a player.

All in all, Oroku Saki is an on-rate Ninja with a combat damage trigger and a way to sneak in for easy combat damage (pun intended). It may not be the most broken creature in a Ninjas deck, but it sure is an effective early-game threat, especially when bolstered by the likes of Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow.

#2 - Skateboard

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

Here as out penultimate pick is a pretty nifty Equipment that doubles as a bit of a combat trick: Skateboard.

For , Skateboard is an Equipment artifact that, when it enters, lets you tap target permanent. As for creature buffs, it has equip and grants equipped creature +1/+0 and haste. All in all, a cheap way to give your creatures a burst of speed all the while having an enters trigger that can clear a blocker or temporarily disable any other problematic permanent.

#1 - Sewer-veillance Cam

Number of Trades: 11 --- Number of Cards Traded: 26

Last but not least, our most traded card of the week is another one-mana artifact from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, although this one brings with it the upside of combo potential: Sewer-veillance Cam.

For , Sewer-veillance Cam is an artifact with flash that, when it enters or leaves, lets you choose to tap or untap target creature. Additionally, you can pay and sacrifice it to draw two cards, meaning that Sewer-veillance Cam brings with it a built-in way to get that leaves trigger as well.

Already, this versatility makes it a real contender in all sorts of tempo decks, disrupting opposing creatures at instant speed in the early game serving as a value payoff later on. That's far from all it can do, however.

For all the cEDH folks out there, Sewer-veillance Cam also has a whole host of combos with it, primarily off the backs of Urza, Lord High Artificer, the Construct token it creates, and Retraction Helix (or its functional replacement, Banishing Knack). Give the Construct the Knack, tap Sewer-veillance Cam for mana (thanks to Urza), tap the Construct to bounce Sewer-veillance Cam, use the leaves-trigger to untap the Construct, recast Sewer-veillance Cam, have the Cam's enters-trigger target the still untapped-Construct, tap the Cam and the Construct for mana before the enters-trigger resolves, then (once the the enters-trigger resolves and the Construct untaps), rinse and repeat. Now you have infinite to funnel into Urza.

Whether you're playing this card fairly or in a broken combo, one thing's for sure: don't underestimate Sewer-veillance Cam. It's one of those commons that packs a wallop.

Wrap Up

That's the week, folks - a new combo piece, a resurfaced nostalgia hit, and plenty of Universes Beyond. Check back next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!