Top Trades: October 21 - October 28

Ponder | Illustrated by Dan Murayama Scott

Howdy, folks, and welcome to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere. So, what have traders been up to? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention -

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

Continuing its run from last week is Drown in Ichor, this week's honorable mention.

For , Drown in Ichor is a sorcery that gives target creature -4/-4 until end of turn while simultaneously allowing you to proliferate. (To proliferate, choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each an additional counter of each type already there).

Sorcery-speed removal is typically a tough sell, especially considering the wide array of one-mana-value spells out there that can do a comparable job. However, proliferating is a potent mechanic when properly built around, so the bonus value offered here can be far from insignificant.

#5 - Thoughtseize

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 6

Speaking of one-mana spells, let's kick off our main list for the week with an absolute doozy of a card: Thoughtseize.

For , Thoughtseize is a sorcery that lets you pick any nonland card in target opponent's hand, then that player discards that card and you lose two life. It may not sound like much, but in 1-v.-1 Magic this card has essentially been competitively viable in nearly every format it's been legal in for as long as it has been legal.

Just as counterspells gain value from their one-for-one nature of equivalent exchange in sixty-card Magic, so too do single-target discard spells. When it comes to those, Thoughtseize's broad applicability makes it king.

#4 - Snap

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Back to the world of two-mana spells, now we've got an instant on our hands - one which, like Drown in Ichor before it, gets rid of a creature while also providing additional upside.

For , Snap is an instant that returns target creature to hand and allows you to untap up to two target lands. Often played to reset enters triggers and/or as a ritual with multi-mana-producing lands like Gaea's Cradle, Snap is one of Magic's most exploitable tempo cards.

#3 - Ponder

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

At third place is the second best cantrip in Magic (only behind Brainstorm): Ponder.

For , Ponder is a sorcery that allows you to look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle your library. Then, draw a card.

At face value, Ponder is card selection, pure in and simple. What that belies, however, is just how much power is captured by the line "you may shuffle your library." Plenty of cantrips force you to do that, and plenty more don't bring it up at all. Ponder's grant of autonomy - allowing its caster to make as many decisions as possible - is what makes this cantrip stand out.

#2 - Sting, the Glinting Dagger

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

Diverting from the world of instants and sorceries, our penultimate pick for the week is also our most recent card to be printed: Sting, the Glinting Dagger.

For , Sting is a legendary Equipment artifact with an equip cost of . Once attached, equipped creature gets +1/+1 and haste. Additionally, it has first strike as long as it's blocking or being blocked by a Goblin or Orc. Last but not least, at the beginning of each combat, untap equipped creature.

All in all, Sting is a great example of how many small bonuses can all sum together to something great. It's rare that it'll grant first strike, but +1/+1, haste, and psuedo-vigilance are all wholly respectable buffs.

#1 - Marsh Flats

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 10

Last but not least, our most traded card of the week, Marsh Flats!

It's no surprise that fetch lands are strong. I'll venture a guess that, if you're involved enough with Magic to be browsing a website like Cardsphere, then you know what fetch lands are. They enter untapped, you can tap, pay one life, and sacrifice them to find any land that has one of two basic land types (in this case, Plains and Swamp), put that land into play untapped, then shuffle. What you may not know, however, is just how broken these cards become with the likes of Ponder and Brainstorm.

Top deck manipulation is an incredibly strong effect in Magic. Sure, there are obvious synergies, like Counterbalance, or any card with miracle, but the real strength of top deck manipulation is the consistent ability to draw useful and important cards as the game goes on. Fetch lands make this top deck manipulation all the more reliable while simultaneously providing consistent access to just about any color of mana under the sun. All for one life.

Wrap Up

This week featured some of Magic's most notorious spells, the cards that have defined sixty-card formats for decades. Fetch lands, cantrips, discard spells, all of them came up this week. Check back in next week for another edition of Top Trades, and thanks for reading!