Top Trades: November 4-November 11

Welcome back, and happy Thursday everyone! I hope y'all are doing well. The week's just about over, and that means it's time for Top Trades - Cardsphere's weekly column checking in with the most traded cards from the week before. So, what cards do we have our eyes on this time? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Withering Torment

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 12

It's pretty rare for mono-black to have access to enchantment removal, especially unconditionally, and that is exactly what makes Withering Torment such a desirable uncommon. For , Withering Torment is an instant that destroys target creature or enchantment and causes its caster to lose two life. Simple, clean, efficient removal - no ifs, ands, or buts.

#5 - Arabella, Abandoned Doll

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

Starting off our main list for the week is another rather unassuming uncommon from Duskmourn; but don't let the simple text fool you - Arabella, Abandoned Doll can quickly have a massive impact on the game.

For , Arabella is a 1/3 legendary artifact creature with "Whenever Arabella, Abandoned Doll attacks, it deals X damage to each opponent and you gain X life, where X is the number of creatures you control with power 2 or less." At base rate, this means Arabella will drain your opponents for at least one damage per trigger, thanks to the ability counting Arabella itself. That said, white is the go-wide color if ever there was one (just ask Enduring Innocence), so it's not surprising for players to frequently find themselves in games with X being 3+, or even more in lengthy Commander games.

#4 - Malevolent Rumble

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 14

Up next is Malevolent Rumble, an important utility card in Pauper that has continued to put up strong results ever since its debut in Modern Horizons 3.

For , Malevolent Rumble is a sorcery that reads "Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. Create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with 'Sacrifice this creature: Add .'" So, to sum it up, Malevolent Rumble does a little bit of everything you could ask it to. Card selection? Check. How about filling your graveyard? Also covered. Need a creature? Malevolent Rumble has got you there. Plus, if you ever need it, you can get back half of your mana investment later down the line by sacrificing the Spawn.

This toolkit of benefits is why Malevolent Rumble keeps making waves in Pauper; a whole variety of decks want some combination of what Malevolent Rumble has to offer and are at the very least indifferent to the rest of the card. From Dredge to Weenie to Ponza, Malevolent Rumble will be there.

#3 - Hare Apparent

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 15

Alrighty folks, time for the newest Magic card to contain the coveted "A deck can have any number of cards named ____" line of text on it: Hare Apparent.

Remember how I said white was the go-wide color earlier? Well Hare Apparent might just be one of the most "go-wide" cards I've ever seen. For , Hare Apparent is a 2/2 Rabbit Noble with "When this creature enters, create a number of 1/1 white Rabbit creature tokens equal to the number of other creatures you control named Hare Apparent." On its own, this isn't to notable - at maximum you'd be making three Rabbits, not counting any clone shenanigans, right? Well, then comes that second ability, "A deck can have any number of cards named Hare Apparent." Knowing my fair share of Dragon's Approach Commander players, I eagerly await hearing of the game where someone's Hare Apparent creates 30 or more Rabbits.

#2 - Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

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

Finally, our first Room since Duskmourn was released! We've seen Glimmers, Overlords, and more, but now its finally time to unlock the house. Let's get to it.

First, an overview on how Rooms work. Rooms are an enchantment subtype, and when you cast a Room you choose one half to cast (kind of like split cards such as Fire // Ice). While on the stack, the Room spell has all attributes of only the half you chose to cast. Similarly, once it resolves, Rooms only have all attributes of the unlocked portions. You can unlock the other half of the Room (unlock the other door) by paying the mana cost of the locked half.

So, now that we know how Rooms work, lets start with Unholy Annex. For , this Phyrexian Arena-esque door reads as "At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. If you control a Demon, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Otherwise, you lose 2 life." Card advantage at a price is a common effect in black nowadays, but with plenty of low-cost Demons roaming about it won't be too hard to offset that life loss pretty quickly.

Moving on to the much more expensive door, Ritual Chamber. For , this door has only a single triggered ability which activates upon being unlocked, and its a doozy - "Create a 6/6 black Demon creature token with flying." Remember how I said it would be easy to offset Unholy Annex's life loss? Well, if you don't already have a Demon, Ritual Chamber has you covered.

#1 - Battlemage's Bracers

Number of Trades: 14 --- Number of Cards Traded: 21

Here we are folks, the most traded card of the week - Battlemage's Bracers!

For , Battlemage's Bracers is an Equipment that grants equipped creature haste. Additionally, whenever a non-mana activated ability of equipped creature is activated, you can pay . If you do, copy the ability, and you may choose new targets for the copy.

Despite having "Battle" in the name, this equipment has very little to do with combat. Sure, a hasty attacker is useful, and plenty of creatures out there have activated abilities which they can use to pump themselves up ahead of the combat step, but that's far from where the value lies with this card. How about doubling up on a Krenko, Mob Boss activation? Ask anyone who's played Commander long enough and they'll tell you just how lethal that can be. Or maybe you want something a little more repeatable, giving Sisay, Weatherlight Captain another spin for just instead of the usual ? The options are endless, as are the uses for Battlemage's Bracers.

Wrap Up

This week was a wild one for Top Trades - the picks may not have seemed too out of the ordinary, but if you look closely at the numbers then repeat readers might just notice something pretty interesting. There were a lot of trades this week. Was it new set fever? Perhaps, or maybe something else in the meta is shifting. Either way, come back next week for another Top Trades, and thanks for reading!