Top Trades: September 1 - September 8

Baleful Strix | Illustrated by Nils Hamm

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's moving this go around? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Giant's Boulder

Number of Trades: 12 --- Number of Cards Traded: 37

Our honorable mention this week is Giant's Boulder, a flexible little Pauper pickup that's been moving in serious volume.

For , Giant's Boulder enters and lets you scry 2. You can also pay and tap it to add one mana of any color, which makes it a nice bit of fixing for slower decks trying to hit their colors on time. Then, once the game goes long, you can pay , tap it, and sacrifice it to destroy target permanent.

That's a lot of utility on one common: card selection and mana fixing keeps sketchier hands functional and makes good hands great. Meanwhile, if you make it to seven mana and are facing something terrifying, your little bit of mana fixing is also your out.

#5 - Hydroblast

Number of Trades: 5 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Coming in at number five is Hydroblast, one of Pauper's classic sideboard cards.

For , Hydroblast counters target spell if it's red or destroys target permanent if it's red, making it one of the cleanest – and most effective – answers that blue decks have against Burn and other red shells.

Outside of Pauper, Hydroblast still sees play in Commander as an extra bit of marginally useful interaction for the most controlling of decks.

#4 - Baleful Strix

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

At number four we have Baleful Strix, which is a part of one of the biggest format shakeups in recent memory.

For , Baleful Strix is a 1/1 Bird artifact creature with flying and deathtouch that draws a card when it enters the battlefield. That's a pretty clean design: it replaces itself right away, blocks well, and gives Dimir decks an evasive value package that also synergizes with artifact strategies.

Most important, however, is that this Bird is newly Pauper-legal. Whether Strix sticks longterm is a separate question, but it certainly meets the criteria necessary for a card to explode in demand.

#3 - Ephemerate

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 13

Next up is Ephemerate, another Pauper playable making moves off the Zeta Legality announcement.

For , Ephemerate is an instant with rebound that exiles target creature you control only to immediately return it to play. In decks built around enters triggers, Ephemerate is actually one of the most value-generating cards in the format.

Looking to the Zeta news – the Secret Lair reprint which has brought, among other things, Baleful Strix to the format – Ephemerate is the kind of the card that is moving synergistically with the format shakeup, rather than as a direct combo with any one card. Blinking Baleful Strix is great, but expect Ephemerate to stick around with or without the Bird.

#2 - Mystic Remora

Number of Trades: 8 --- Number of Cards Traded: 17

Our runner-up this week is Mystic Remora, a staple of high-powered Commander.

For , this enchantment with cumulative upkeep lets you draw a card whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell unless they pay .

Cheep, painfully effective, and an auto-include in any blue deck running Game Changers, there's a reason “Feed the fish?” is an omnipresent question in cEDH tournaments. Only Rhystic Study stands alongside Mystic Remora in sheer card advantage generation.

#1 - Cut Down

Number of Trades: 9 --- Number of Cards Traded: 22

Taking the top spot this week is Cut Down, the other big Zeta-introduced Pauper card from the past week.

For , Cut Down destroys target creature with total power and toughness five or less. That catches a huge range of early threats and utility creatures, which makes it a very clean piece of cheap interaction for black decks looking to keep pace.

Like Baleful Strix, this card's story is entirely from the its introduction to Pauper, where Cut Down is about as efficient and versatile a piece of removal as the format could ask for.

Wrap Up

That does it for this week's Top Trades. Pauper did a lot of the heavy lifting here, with players grabbing new toys, old sideboard cards, and cheap standouts as the format kept shifting around them. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.