Top Trades: March 17-March 24

Happy Thursday, folks! Another week is wrapping up, and with it comes another Top Trades, the weekly column where we check in with some of the most popular cards trading hands here at Cardsphere.

So, what are people picking up this week? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - The Khans of Tarkir Banners

Number of Trades: 28 --- Number of Cards Traded: 109

Alrighty, starting off with a bit of an odd one (or group of odd ones, I should say), this week's honorable mention goes to a group of five cards initially printed in September of 2014, thanks to the release of Khans of Tarkir, and those five are the members of the Banner cycle.

Each of these cards follows identical construction, adjusted for that card's namesake clan color identity (Mardu being white, black, and red, Sultai being black, blue, and green, etc). Each card costs and can tap to add one mana of any color from amongst its clan colors, and it can be tapped and sacrificed (at the cost of one of each mana from its colors) in order to draw a card.

All in all, the Banners are a fine cycle of cards for limited and lower-bracket Commander decks, providing mana in the mid game and flexible card draw as time goes on. As to why they're surging in popularity this week, however, you'd be hard pressed to find a competitive reason players are picking up these cards.

Instead, it all comes down to how fondly the original Tarkir set is remembered, magnified by the excitement by Magic's upcoming return to the plane via Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

#5 - Sundering Eruption

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

Starting off our main list for Top Trades this week is a good ol' classic: Sundering Eruption, an MDFC (modal double-faced card) from the ever-present Modern Horizons 3.

As a spell, Sundering Eruption is a sorcery for which destroys target land (although that land's controller can search their library for a basic land card and put it into play afterwards) and prevents creatures without flying from blocking until end of turn. On the back side, Volcanic Fissure is a land that can tap for and enters tapped unless you pay three life.

Sundering Eruption has made it to our list this week for a pretty simple reason: Magic is printing more lands that are important for reasons other than just mana fixing, but it hasn't quite caught up yet when it comes to interaction to properly deal with these cards. As such, the few viable options - cards like Sundering Eruption - are gaining more and more attention.

#4 - Lumbering Worldwagon

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

Look! It's a car! It's a Cultivate

! Wait, no, it's Lumbering Worldwagon - Aetherdrift's answer to the question "What if we tried to turn Primeval Titan

into a set-themed three-drop?" But what exactly is it good for? Let's find out.

For , Lumbering Worldwagon is a Vehicle artifact with a crew cost of four, power equal to the number of lands you control, and a toughness of four. Additionally, whenever it enters or attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.

All in all, Lumbering Worldwagon is a fine card but, as its name implies, lumbers just a bit too slowly to be a breakout star in most constructed formats. It's seeing some interesting play in Standard - particularly in green midrange decks looking to ramp out more impactful threats after resolving Lumbering Worldwagon - but this is still on the fringe side of things.

In Commander, however, a repetitive source of landfall triggers for just three mana is something plenty of folks are eager to sink their teeth into, and that's pushed the Worldwagon this far up our list

#3 - Slip Out the Back

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

Up next on this week's Top Trades is a blue combat trick that does a whole lot more than just buff a creature's toughness or give it hexproof, and that's Slip Out the Back.

Initially one of the more unassuming cards printed in Streets of New Capenna, Slip Out the Back costs and is an instant which grants a +1/+1 counter to target creature, then phases it out, essentially serving as a premier piece of protection while simultaneously offering the opportunity to blank out a potential threat for a turn, thanks in no small part to this card's ability to target any creature.

While Slip Out the Back hasn't made it to Pauper due to it only ever being printed as an uncommon, this card has drawn plenty of fans elsewhere. From +1/+1 synergies in Commander (*cough* Animar, Soul of Elements

*cough*) to aggressive blue lists in Pioneer, this one-drop is putting in work.

#2 - Ornithopter of Paradise

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 15

Moving up the list to our penultimate pick of the week is a card that did make it to Pauper, although that isn't the reason this card is seeing so much demand: Ornithopter of Paradise.

For , this 0/2 Thopter artifact creature has flying and, as its name harkens back to, the ability : Add one mana of any color."

Ignoring the creature component of this card, Ornithopter of Paradise can basically be treated as a copy of Arcane Signet

that enters tapped, and for many non-green Commander decks out there this is more than enough to warrant considering this card.

Low-to-mid bracket non-green decks of just about any sort are always looking to try and catch up with green's bevy of Elves and Cultivate

s, so the "enters tapped" part of Ornithopter of Paradise (i.e. the summoning sickness that comes with being a creature) is almost trivial. Sure, it will never be Arcane Signet, but that card was a design mistake, so let's revel in what we can.

#1 - Shambling Vent

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 14

Speaking of mana fixing, here we are folks, our most traded card of the week - give it up for Shambling Vent

This land - initially printed in Battle for Zendikar - is a white and black take on a "manland" effect, cards which can tap for mana and can have mana spent in order to turn them into a creature for a turn, with a notorious example being Mutavault

. So, what does Shambling Vent bring to the table other than being a tapped land which can add either or ? Well, if you sink into it, Shambling Vent turns into a 2/3 white and black Elemental creature until end of turn (that's still a land, of course).

Outside of seeing some fringe play in the slower control lists running around Pioneer at the moment, where Shambling Vent serves as a decent midgame threat, Shambling Vent's primary role is - say it with me now - Commander, where the most important part of the creature it turns into is lifelink. White and black are notorious for lifegain strategies in Commander, so slotting in a land which can both fix your mana as well as gain you some life later on is an easy decision for plenty of players.

Wrap Up

This week's Top Trades brought with it a teaser for the appetite players have for our next Standard set, as well as warning signs about the direction lands are going in modern Magic design and how players are trying to adapt.

Tune in next week for another installment of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!