Top Trades: May 12 - May 19

Sleight of Hand | Illustrated by Scott Murphy

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards from the previous week of trading here at Cardsphere. So, what cards have been making moves? Let's take a look.

Honorable Mention - Bender's Waterskin

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

Leading things off this week is Bender's Waterskin, a mana rock built with multiplayer in mind.

For , Bender's Waterskin is an artifact that untaps during each other player’s untap step and taps for one mana of any color. That’s a simple effect, but in Commander, getting that mana back on every turn cycle can add up fast.

In practice, Bender’s Waterskin is mostly useful for helping low-bracket Commander decks hold up interaction turn after turn. Not every deck wants a three-mana rock (green certainly has more efficient effects), but this one does enough to stand out.

#5 - Emeritus of Abundance

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Starting off our main list for the week, we have Emeritus of Abundance, a pseudo-repeatable Eternal Witness.

Emeritus of Abundance costs for a 3/4 Elf Druid with vigilance. It enters prepared, and whenever it attacks, if you control eight or more lands, it becomes prepared again (assuming it is unprepared). Its prepared spell is Regrowth, a sorcery for which lets you return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

A 3/4 with vigilance (and an important creature type, Elf) for three mana is already a decent rate, but the real power is in the Regrowth stapled to it. Eternal Witness is a mainstay of green Commander decks and has been for pretty much its entire existence. Now, Emeritus of Abundance doesn't have the same flicker synergies as Eternal Witness, but it is naturally repeatable thanks to the attacks trigger.

#4 - Sleight of Hand

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Next up is an old favorite: Sleight of Hand.

For , Sleight of Hand is a sorcery that lets you look at the top two cards of your library, put one into your hand, and the other on the bottom of your library. It’s cheap, efficient, and has been helping blue decks find what they need for a long time now.

That kind of consistency never really goes out of style. Whether players are updating older lists or building something new, one-mana card selection is always going to have a place in decks that want to smooth out their early turns and dig toward key spells. While Sleight of Hand might not be the most potent cantrip in competitive formats these days, it's always going to have an audience somewhere, be it Standard, Commander, or even Pauper.

#3 - Flow State

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

Speaking of cantrips, next up is a card that shows just how much power creep can come with adding one more mana to a card's mana cost: Flow State.

For , Flow State is a sorcery that lets you look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand, and the rest on the bottom in any order. If there is an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard, instead you put two of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom in any order. At base rate, that's almost an Impulse; meanwhile, once you hit the instant-and-sorcery package in your graveyard, this is pure card advantage.

#2 - Cauldron of Essence

Number of Trades: 10 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

Just missing the top spot this week is Cauldron of Essence, a card with a lot to offer for both Reanimator and Aristocrats strategies alike.

Cauldron of Essence is an artifact for with "Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life." It also has ", , Sacrifice a creature: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery."

There’s a lot packed into this one card. Aristocrats decks want the drain effect, Reanimator decks want the recursion, and those two strategies have enough overlap that either deck will be able to benefit from the synergies with the other. When a card lines up that neatly with what a whole class of Commander decks already wants to be doing, it tends to move pretty quickly.

#1 - Stock Up

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

Last but not least, our most traded (and arguably most powerful) card of the week, Stock Up.

For , Stock Up is a sorcery that lets you look at the top five cards of your library, put two of them into your hand, and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. While three mana is certainly on the upper end of what's often playable in the card selection world, the power here is just too strong to ignore: digging five cards deep is an absurd amount of selection, and the difference between picking up one card and picking up two is huge. It may be subtle at first glance, but don't let that fool you: there's a reason this card made its way into Vintage.

Wrap Up

Well, folks, this week was blue's week to shine. Sleight of Hand, Flow State, and Stock Up are all potent picks that are smoothing out mana curves and pushing card selection (and card advantage) to new heights. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back next week to see what cards are making moves next.