Top Trades: March 24-March 31

Welcome back, folks! Another Thursday, another Top Trades - the weekly column where we check in with the most popular cards traded here at Cardsphere. So, what's moving this week? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Stock Up

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

Well everybody, it looks like all you needed to do in order to break Divination

was to have it pick two cards from the top five, rather than blindly drawing two. That's right, our honorable mention is Stock Up, an uncommon from Aetherdrift that just keeps putting up numbers.

For , Stock Up is a sorcery that lets you look at the top five cards of your library, pick two from among them to put into your hand, and then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Not too much text, but boy oh boy is it more than enough to warrant powerful decks playing this card. From Standard to Vintage, Stock Up exists perfectly at the crosshairs of card advantage and card selection in order to justify a three-mana cost.

#5 - Assassin's Trophy

Number of Trades: 4 --- Number of Cards Traded: 4

Speaking of simple, playable cards, our first pick from the main list this week is Assassin's Trophy - a card that, ever since its first release in Guilds of Ravnica, has maintained a devoted player base.

For , Assassin's Trophy is Golgari's take on Path to Exile

- an instant that gets rid of something and replaces it with a tapped basic land. The differences, however, are threefold: Assassin's Trophy destroys its target (rather than exiles), it can target any permanent (not just creatures), and it can't target your own permanents.

Outside of niche cases, not being able to hit your own permanents isn't that big of a deal, so what we're left with is a counterbalance of Assassin's Trophy's range: it can't hit some of the premier targets that Path to Exile can (you can't blow up an indestructible Ketramose, the New Dawn

), but that is made up for by the sheer increase in card types that Assassin's Trophy hits. Enchantments, lands, planeswalkers - the lists goes on. The real question is: is Assassin's Trophy

worth two mana? Well, from Standard to Vintage, that answer has so far been a resounding "Yes."

#4 - March of the World Ooze

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

We’ve seen some more competitive cards, but now on to Commander and every green mage’s favorite thing: making lots of big creatures.

For , March of the World Ooze is a rather...peculiar sort of anthem effect. Rather than outright buffing your team, this enchantment makes all creatures you control into Oozes (in addition to their other types) and sets their base power and toughness to 6/6. So your Emrakul might be a bit smaller, but an army of 1/1 Squirrels? How about an army of 6/6 Squirrel Oozes? Go big AND go wide.

Secondly, March of the World Ooze also has a triggered ability stapled to it, causing you to create a 3/3 green Elephant creature token whenever an opponent casts a spell while it isn’t their turn. It may not be a Grand Abolisher

, but making 6/6 Ooze Elephants (remember – March applies to the tokens it creates, too) is one hell of a way to dissuade your opponents from playing anything sneaky at instant speed.

So, where are we playing this card? Well, like I mentioned earlier, this is about as Commander as Commander cards get. A big enchantment that rewards long, drawn-out games while simultaneously profiting off of the multiplayer environment (more players to cast more triggers to create more Elephants), March of the World Ooze is going to be a casual favorite for years to come.

#3 - Hopeless Nightmare

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

Back from our Commander detour and into dreaming of competition, here comes Hopeless Nightmare, a little common from Throne of Eldraine that just keeps popping up.

For , Hopeless Nightmare is an enchantment that, when it enters, causes each opponent to discard a card and lose two life. Additionally, you can sacrifice it for . Why would you do that? Well, when Hopeless Nightmare is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you get to scry 2. Sure, it could’ve been cleaner if Hopeless Nightmare simply said “, Sacrifice Hopeless Nightmare: Scry 2,” but then it wouldn’t have all the cool cross synergies that come with simply scrying once it hits the graveyard. To highlight this, let’s look at a card that’s all the buzz since Pauper’s most recent banlist shakeup: Ichor Wellspring

For , Ichor Wellspring is an artifact that draws a card whenever it enters the battlefield and whenever it's put into a graveyard from the battlefield. So, anything that would cause you to sacrifice it, such as Deadly Dispute

, brings with it an opportunity to draw a card thanks to the trigger. By separating the scry trigger from the actual sacrifice clause on Hopeless Nightmare, similar design space is opened up.

#2 - Deathrite Shaman

Number of Trades: 13 --- Number of Cards Traded: 26

Oh, the card that almost was. This week’s penultimate pick is Deathrite Shaman, and with it a lesson in speculation during ban season. So, let’s get to it.

For those unaware, Deathrite Shaman is banned just about everywhere it would be viable (outside of Commander, that is). Legacy, Modern – nowhere was safe from this Elf. Why? Because it just did too much, too compactly.

For , Deathrite Shaman is a 1/2 Elf Shaman with three abilities. First, it has : Exile target land card from a graveyard. Add one mana of any color.” Second, “, : Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life.” Finally, “, : Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain 2 life.

At first glance, this card seems ok. Afterall, having cards in graveyards isn’t something you just start out with, meaning the part of the game where Deathrite Shaman would be the most impactful – the early game – is when it’s hardest to activate. But wait – fetchlands exist, and suddenly it starts to click. Deathrite Shaman is a better Birds of Paradise

This brings us to why Deathrite Shaman saw a lot of attention this week. Magic had another ban announcement this week, and in its anticipation some players hoped for a Deathrite Shaman unban. Magic has gotten a lot crazier since Return to Ravnica, so maybe, just maybe, Deathrite Shaman would be ok. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be; the announcement came and went, and Deathrite Shaman is still banned.

#1 - Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

Number of Trades: 25 --- Number of Cards Traded: 36

Last but not least, we return to the realm of Commander for our most traded card of the week: Miirym, Sentinel Wurm.

First up, a couple questions. Did you know that Tarkir: Dragonstorm has Dragons in it? Pretty cool. And did you know that Tarkir: Dragonstorm has a whole fifth of the set dedicated to the green-blue-red wedge, the Temur? Also pretty cool. Well, wouldn't you guess, but Miirym, Sentinel Wurm, is a Temur Dragon that cares about Dragons. Put it all together and what do you get? An incredibly popular commander for one of Magic's most popular creature types that just got a whole lot of support. That's a recipe for demand, and it shows. But now, onto the card.

For , Miirym, Sentinel Wurm is a 6/6 legendary Dragon Spirit with flying and ward . Topping it all off, however, is one killer triggered ability, "Whenever another nontoken Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, create a token that's a copy of it, except the copy isn't legendary if that Dragon is legendary."

The Ur-Dragon

may make it easier to cast a bunch of Dragons, but when it comes to amassing a boardstate, no one does it better than Miirym. Sure, you actually have to play your commander to do so in Miirym's case, but who doesn't love casting Dragons?

Wrap Up

Alrighty folks, this week sure was a wild one. Banlist speculations, Eternal staples, an explosion of popularity in an already fan-favorite deck - so much was moving around.

Come back next week for more Top Trades, and thanks for reading!