Top Trades: October 27 - November 3

Hall of Echoes | Illustrated by Leon Tukker

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Top Trades, the weekly series where we check in with the most popular cards here at Cardsphere from the previous week's trading. So, what's moving around this time? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Dark Matter Manipulator

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

Starting off as our honorable mention for the week is none other than last week's most traded card, and that's Dark Matter Manipulator. For , you get a 1/2 Human Warlock creature that causes you to mill three cards when it enters. Capping off the graveyard synergy, it also gets +2/+0 for each set of seven cards in your graveyard.

In the right decks, Dark Matter Manipulator is equal parts enabler and aggressive threat. Whether your digging for reanimator targets, simply filling the graveyard with value, a la dredge, or churning these out one after another to flood the board with aggressive creatures, Dark Matter Manipulator is a versatile and efficient option.

#5 - Tarmogoyf

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

Speaking of cards that love a good graveyard synergy, it's time to talk about the card that excited me the most out of Reality Fracture, and that's the Standard-legal reprint of Tarmogoyf.

For , Tarmogoyf is a Lhurgoyf creature with power equal to the number of card types among all graveyards, and its toughness is equal to one plus that number. Once the most fearsome creature in all of constructed Magic, nowadays this humble two-drop is essentially a bulk mythic... albeit still a deceptively powerful one capable of dominating a battlefield if left unchecked.

#4 - Vigorbloom Charm

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

At fourth place is Vigorbloom Charm, an instant for that presents you with three pretty handy options to choose from.

First off, Vigorbloom Charm can save a permanent you control, granting it hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. Your second option is to essentially cycle Vigorbloom Charm, as it has you draw a card and gain three life. Last but not least, you may choose option three, which puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control, then that creature fights target creature an opponent controls.

Taken all together, Vigorbloom Charm is either a rescue spell for you best permanent or a removal spell (provided that you have the right creature on the board), all wrapped in the flexibility provided by a cantrip. Not too bad for a two drop.

#3 - Hall of Echoes

Number of Trades: X --- Number of Cards Traded: X

Next up is this week's sole land, and that's Hall of Echoes. It has ": Add ," and, more importantly, the unique activated ability ": This land becomes a copy of target creature you control until end of turn. The 'legend rule' doesn't apply to permanents you control this turn."

First off, as with any nonbasic land, let's just take a second to appreciate that this enters without any restrictions: it isn't tapped, it doesn't ask you to return another land you control to your hand, etc. Sure, colorless mana isn't great, but for all the Commander players out there - in other words, this card's real audience - we can all be grateful that this doesn't have a color identity.

On to the actual appeal of this thing, though, and that all rests in the activated ability. Turning a land into a creature has always been the hallmark of a potential powerhouse - just ask Celestial Colonnade and Mutavault - but turning a land into a copy of something is a whole other level of powerful, whether that's a second Krark, the Thumbless, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, or any of the other million-and-one commanders that love to double up on their own effects.

#2 - Samut, Hazoret's Champion

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

Moving on to our penultimate pick for the week, it's time to take a look at the underappreciated - though no doubt powerful - main-multiverse Samut from Reality Fracture.

Samut, Hazoret's Champion is a 2/2 legendary Human Warrior Cleric creature with the sole line of text "Creatures you control have haste." Never has this effect been so efficiently printed (at least, on a one-sided effect) before, and the impact is already being felt across formats. Whether that's speeding up mana production in high-power Commander games by accelerating mana dorks or simply letting creatures attack a turn earlier in Standard, Samut is a great reminder of how powerful classic keywords can be.

#1 - Geist of Saint Thalia

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

Here we are folks, the most traded card of the week - Geist of Saint Thalia.

For , Geist of Saint Thalia is a 1/2 legendary Spirit Cleric creature with flying that discounts all of your noncreature spells by .

Never underestimate a cost-reducer. Two mana is right along side Magic's best (legal) mana rocks, and Geist of Saint Thalia slots into that curve perfectly, providing a potentially explosive amount of mana over the course of a game. Simply put, never underestimate a cheap way to make the rest of your deck more efficient.

Wrap Up

That's a wrap on November's first Top Trades, folks. Reality Fracture continues to dominate the headlines, and with good reason: the set was packed with absolutely bonkers cards. Check back in next week for another installment, and thanks for reading!