Top Trades: September 16-September 23

Welcome back, and happy Thursday everyone! The week's just about over, and that means its time for Top Trades - the weekly column where we check in to see which cards are being traded the most here at Cardsphere.

So, which cards have made out list this time, and what are traders most excited for? Let's take a look!

Honorable Mention - Mockingbird

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 7

Starting us off as this week's honorable mention is Mockingbird, one of Magic's most flexible clones to date.

For , Mockingbird is a 1/1 Bird Bard with flying and "You may have Mockingbird enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield with mana value less than or equal to the amount of mana spent to cast Mockingbird, except it's a Bird in addition to its other types and it has flying."

When it comes to creating ever-cheaper clones in recent years, Magic tends towards providing unrestricted targets in exchange for a pretty substantial downside. Phantasmal Image clones anything, but dies when it's targeted. Flesh Duplicate clones anything, but has vanishing 3. The list goes on. Mockingbird, meanwhile, can readily be cast for less than the standard rate for downsideless clones (usually four mana, going all the way back to the original Clone), all the while providing whatever it copied with the relevant flying ability. The counterbalance, however, is that Mockingbird is a bit more restrictive in what it targets. Sure, it can clone anything, but for the right price.

#5 - Split Up

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

Speaking of cost efficiency, the first card on our list today is Split Up - one of the most efficient boardwipes to have been printed in a Standard set in quite some time. Gone are the days of six-mana Farewell or four-mana Wrath of God, here to stick around for the next Standard season is three-mana Split Up.

For , Split Up is a sorcery that offers a choice: destroy all tapped creatures, or destroy all untapped creatures. Did your opponent tap out because they came in swinging full-force last turn? Clear the board with Split Up! Alternatively, is the board clogged by too many untapped blockers to make combat profitable? Well here's your reset button.

Situational boardwipes like these always have a home somewhere, the only question is where. Three mana is a sizable discount over past iterations of flexible boardwipes, so I expect more decks to be interested in this than just the typical control lists. With Duskmourn becoming Standard legal this weekend, it's on us to wait and see.

#4 - Enduring Innocence

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

Behold! Another Duskmourn card, hot off the release-week shelf.

Enduring Innocence is one of Duskmourn's hallmark Glimmer creatures from the Enduring cycle, a set of enchantment creatures with impressive abilities that each return to the battlefield as noncreature enchantments once they die, providing long-term value over the course of the game. So, what abilities does Enduring Innocence carry?

For , Enduring Innocence is a 2/1 Sheep Glimmer enchantment creature with lifelink, the triggered ability "Whenever one or more other creatures you control with power 2 or less enter, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn," and the hallmark "Enduring" trigger of "When Enduring Innocence dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control. It's an enchantment."

A 2/1 with lifelink for is nothing to write home about, but don't let that fool you - even if Enduring Innocence dies to a single point of damage early on, it'll most likely draw you plenty of cards as the game goes long. Noncreature enchantments are a difficult permanent type to directly interact with in most competitive metas, and the Enduring cycle seeks to put this difficulty to great use.

#3 - Ygra, Eater of All

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

Coming in at number three on this week's Top Trades is Ygra, Eater of All, a powerful creature that combines two of Magic's most popular qualities: being legendary, and being a combo piece. First, the card.

For , Ygra is a 6/6 legendary Elemental Cat creature with ward - sacrifice a food, the static ability "Other creatures are Food artifacts in addition to their other types and have ', Sacrifice this permanent: You gain 3 life,'" as well as the triggered ability "Whenever a Food is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put two +1/+1 counters on Ygra, Eater of All."

Overall powerlevel aside, the legendary status of Ygra has allowed it to become a pretty popular commander. Food-matters was already a burgeoning niche within the Golgari side of the color pie, a niche which Ygra has burst wide open. As for combo potential, however, we need to look to Pioneer.

In Pioneer, Ygra enables a loop whereby a player can win the game by controlling both Ygra and Cauldron Familiar, as well as having a Cauldron Familiar in the graveyard. Since the Cauldron Familiar in play can be sacrificed to reanimate the one in the graveyard (as the in-play Familiar is now a Food), you can infinitely swap two Cauldron Familiars between the graveyard and the battlefield, draining your opponent for infinite life in the process.

#2 - Wooded Foothills

Number of Trades: 6 --- Number of Cards Traded: 8

Our penultimate pick for the week is...a Fetchland? That's right, coming in at number two is none other than Wooded Foothills, one of the very first Fetchlands to make their Magic debut, all the way back in Onslaught.

Overall, there isn't terribly much to mention here as driving trader demand other than the price point of Wooded Foothills. This card - along with the rest of the Onslaught Fetchlands - had its price slashed significantly by the reprint in Modern Horizons 3, something which increased both the supply and demand for this card substantially. The supply side of this equation makes sense - any reprint, no matter how small, means more copies of a card out in the market - but the demand side is a bit murkier at first glance, so let's do a brief rundown.

Prices fall on (almost) any asset as one of two things happens: supply increases, or demand falls. However, a price fall is often a cause for a demand increase, provided that people still want the actual good in question (in this case, Fetchlands). So, while prices fell, this doesn't automatically mean that demand fell - all it means is that supply outstripped demand. As long as negative pressure (i.e. a supply increase) moves faster than positive pressure (i.e. demand increase), then the price falls. As such, it's entirely reasonable - if not expected - to see Fetchlands increase in popularity and fall in price at the same time, given a reprint.

#1 - Heartfire Hero

Number of Trades: 7 --- Number of Cards Traded: 11

We're finally here, folks; we've made it to this week's most traded card. So, what is everyone excited for? Well that's none other than Heartfire Hero, a card that - theoretically - can end a Standard game as early as turn two. How? Let's dive in.

In Duskmourn, we received Magic's newest cycle of Leylines - monocolored enchantments which players can reveal from their opening hand in order to begin the game with them in-play. One of those Leylines, Leyline of Resonance, copies each instant and sorcery spell you cast so long as that spell targets only a single creature, and only a creature you control. Heartfire Hero comes into play here because, by beginning the game with Leyline of Resonance on the battlefield, it becomes possible to rapidly churn together - and copy - combat tricks on turn two (assuming Heartfire Hero was cast on turn one), attack, and post-combat sacrifice it to the Callous Sell-Sword's Adventure spell Burn Together. This trigger's Heartfire Hero's ability of "When Heartfire Hero dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent," resulting in as much as 24 damage on turn two. (Full credit to the YouTube channel Tolarian Community College for making this a popular combo in recent days.)

Overall, Heartfire Hero doesn't seem to be a card with much staying power - the combo that is driving its hype is full of assumptions and interaction points and seems to be a textbook case of attention driven by Magic media. That being said, it is just an uncommon, so picking up a playset is a pretty affordable decision for players eager to experiment in the new Standard meta.

Wrap Up

Well everyone, that's our week in Top Trades. We had a mini economics lesson thanks to none other than Wooded Foothills, had our first run-in with Magic media influencing popular sentiment, and got to look at some cards from the newest set. Check back in next week for more Top Trades, and thanks for reading!