Let me start by saying that I’m 100% unfamiliar with the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise and because of that I assumedMTG AVATAR was going to be another Universes Beyond “Not for me” set (especially coming on the heels of the MTG Spider Man set which I found to be flavorfully unappealing and quite frankly a weak collection of cards). So, going into this spoiler season, my expectation was that I would not like this set because of my unfamiliarity with the non-mtg source material and recent trends.
With that said, I actually think AVATAR turned out to be an EXTREMELY sweet set!
- While I prefer in-universe Magic sets to Universes Beyond, (and with little knowledge of Avatar other than it was on Nickelodeon in the early 2000s and I didn’t watch it), it is my opinion the art and flavor is Magic adjacent (fantasy) that the cards look pretty good.
- Many of the cards I’m interested in from the set are going to be really, really strong multiplayer staples in Commander for years to come because they are just straight up powerful cards.
Powerful cards that look good too = I’m in!
The way that I play Commander is kind of all over the place. I enjoy all the different brackets and have a couple of Workhorse decks that I keep together all the time (B2 Rin & Seri and B5 Tournament Glarb) and a rotating cast of about 15-20 other commanders that I routinely switch up and can build to play in various brackets.
I like to play a lot of different decks across the spectrum of brackets and so I’m generally interested in adding new cards to my collection that are both powerful and useful in a wide range of deckbuilding contexts.
What impresses me most about #MTGAVATAR is that there are quite a few evergreen “good cards” (even some GREAT cards!) that are useful to include in a variety of archetypes.
Some cards that I think other players will appreciate more than I do… I’m going to start with some really strong “build around” cards and strategies that get a big boost in Avatar, specifically Shrines and Allies.
Shrines are back and are sort of a very specific type of build around strategy. With that said, the Shrines in this set look a lot more powerful than ones of yore. Maybe there’s enough Shrines floating around now to serve as the core of a neat theme deck…
The shrine-themed archetype also gets a tailor-made, 5-color, build-around Commander that is also an adorable Panda.
Creature type – Ally, a type that doesn’t typically see regular new designs (but is a fan favorite) is also on full display in MTG Avatar. I’ve never really toyed around with Shrines or Allies in Commander but I imagine a set that features them as forefront mechanics creates some new space to brew in.
I’m pretty sure this is probably the best utility Ally ever printed… (not including Changlelings, lol).
When I originally started reading the spoiler and working on this article a few weeks ago my plan was to do a “Top 8 EDH cards from Avatar” article – fortunately / unfortunately, as the full spoiler continued to trickle in… the HITS KEPT COMING and there are legitimately more than eight cars in this set that I plan to buy to personally own and play with.
11. THE ORIGIN OF METALBENDING
Power creep…? Disenchant and Naturalize have always been solid workhorses in EDH and adding an incredibly useful second mode for free – is… well, free!
The secondary mode of Indestructible and a +1/+1 Counter is particularly useful in a deck that wants to protect its Commander and can take advantage of the bonus counter. I may be a little biased on this card because I frequently play Finneas, Ace Archer in lower bracket games and that deck already has a lot of +1/+1 synergy enhancements AND wants to protect Finneas (especially when it’s ideal to attack with him on a board where opponents can block profitably).
The option to have two useful, sneaky and different ways to efficiently interact on one card is the recipe for a useful spell.
I literally just mentioned that I play a Finneas +1/+1 Counters deck (with 33 Hare Apparent) and Abandoned Air Temple is a perfect include.
Having a second copy of an already powerful +1/+1 enabler effect on a land is a great addition. It’s also worth noting that unlike Gavoy Township, Abandoned Air Temple can be played in decks other than GW color Identity.
MORE OF THIS!!! I love the design on Mai, Scornful Striker. One thing I’ve noticed about Commander is that attacking other player’s life totals via damage dealing is quite difficult (since there are 3 other players each with 40 HP per) and it’s cool to see efficient cards like Mai that can actually deal scaling damage in a multiplayer situation, by triggering whenever any opponent casts a noncreature spell.
True, it also triggers whenever we play a spell… but I would put this card into a deck that had a higher distribution of creatures than noncreature spells. It’s also worth noting that Mai, Scornful Striker is Legendary and can be taken in the Command Zone and might be a cool Commander for higher bracket play.
I think this card will play even better than it looks. Instant speed removal that is also a potentially large Ritual effect? Sounds good.
One of my favorite decks to jam in cEDH is Etali, Primal Conqueror which seems like a great Commander to take advantage of all the upside Last Agni Kai has to offer. If a card has possible niche cEDH applications that’s typically a good sign the card will play well elsewhere, especially in the lower brackets. My expectation is this card will typically play like a ritual removal spell in decks that play big creatures and will lead to explosive and swingy sequences.
Tokens are a strong and steady strategy in the non-combo tiers of the bracket system and United Front is a topshelf card for various white based token decks.
The cool thing about United Front is that it’s an X spell for Tokens that doubles as an anthem for your team! In addition, it adds +1/+1 counters across your entire squad which allows the card to be useful for decks that utilize +1/+1 counter shenanigans.
2 (WW) + X is a competitive rate for generating a swarm of 1/1s (and we functionally receive 2/2s here) and in the case of United Front the bonus +1/+1 counters to all of your creatures makes this spell a top notch way to use one card to put A TON of power and toughness on to the board.
6. PLANETARIUM OF WAN SHI TONG
I don’t know who this Wan Shi Tong individual is… but this won’t be the last time you see the name on the list… Must be an excellent character on the TV show because his cards are extremely good!
Basically, this is a sweet card in a big mana deck that can ramp to 7 and activate in the same turn (and again every turn thereafter) to cast a free spell from among the best cards floating on top of one’s library. It does limit the user to only one free-cast spell per turn, but it’s worth noting that if you can Scry or Surveil during an opponent’s turn that you get another free spell. It’s also a great way to cheat expensive spells onto the stack.
Planetarium + Seedborn Muse or Manifold Key are pretty nifty ways to double dip triggers during an opponent’s turn.
The Cabbage Merchant looks like a strong card with the ability to create a lot of Food Tokens that can in turn be used to produce (clean up on aisle five, produce…) additional mana. The card’s ability to create a lot of additional material (artifact Food Tokens) that it also converts to mana production makes Cabbage Man a useful include in a lot of different styles of decks; not to mention its a straight up linch pin in any sort of a Food / Token generating strategy.
Like other powerful farm staples in CeDH, cards that trigger repeatedly whenever any of one’s opponents take actions during the game tend to play extremely well in multiplayer because they generate multiple triggers per turn cycle and especially during the opponents’ turns.
Now we are really getting into the cream of the crop from Avatar…
Koh, the Face Stealer is an impressive creature. It reminds me a lot of another card I have played in Commander many times, Noxious Gearhulk, except that this new design is significantly better in a variety of ways.
The first is that Koh 187 exiles a creature as an ETB ability (and then can gain all activated AND triggered abilities of exiled creatures). Solid. It’s neat that Koh can exile powerful staple cards like Bowmasters, Consecrated Sphinx and/or Seedborn Muse (with powerful triggered abilities) and then access those abilities via paying 1 life.
What really excites me about this card, and the reason that I think it is actively fantastic, is its secondary static ability that says whenever an opposing nontoken creature dies, exile it instead. So, Koh also functions as a pseudo Leyline of the Void against opposing creatures which shuts down graveyard based creature loop combos while Koh is in play.
The ability to Misdirect a spell or ability for a single R and some HP? Yes, please!
Also, keep in mind that Redirect Lightning can be used defensively to stop opposing counterspells.
If an opponent plays a Counterspell targeting something – you can respond by playing Redirect Lighting targeting Counterspell and changing Counterspell’s target to Redirect Lightning. Redirect will resolve, the Counterspell’s target will change to the Redirect Lightning (that is no longer a viable target) and Counterspell will fizzle allowing your initial spell to resolve untouched.
I think this card is so efficiently-costed, and the effect so useful, that it’s a “snap include” in most red decks all the way across the spectrum up into CeDH.
1-mana interaction spells are always extremely good and this is one of the strongest pieces of 1 mana interaction I’ve seen!
Badgermole Cub is perhaps one of the strongest two-drop mana dorks of all time! It does multiple things that synergize with each other to create some really explosive play patterns and mana production.
The cool thing about Badgermole Cub is that its ability to ramp mana is pseudo-hasted. Meaning we are able to utilize elements of Cub’s mana boons immediately the turn it is deployed. The card is particularly strong when drawn in the opening hand with another one drop mana accelerating creature… for instance:
T1: Land + Llanowar Elf.
T2: 2nd Land + BadgerCub (earthcraft the untapped land and play another 2-drop).
T3: 3rd Land (and we have a mana boosted Land AND ELF) and are looking at SIX mana to play with on Turn 3!
Decks that play a lot of mana dorks will greatly benefit from Badgermole Cub’s ability to boost production for such a low cost to deploy. I fully expect the card to be a staple in multiple top tier CeDH archetypes: for instance Kinnan and Rog-Thrass.
It’s also worth noting that ANOTHER powerful thing the Cub does is generate two bodies (itself and the Earthcrafted land) for only two mana – which is insanely synergistic with cards that check for the number of bodies in play, such as Gaea’s Cradle.
Great cards have a way of finding synergy with other Great Cards and make no mistake Badgermole Cub is a certifiable banger.
The top 3 cards in this set are all so abstractly fantastic that without having a chance to actually shuffle up and play it was hard to rank them. However, from experience I can tell you that all three of these cards are the Truth. I’d give all three of these top cards Gold Medals in terms of being cards that will frequently be included in the decks I build and play.
However, the card I am most excited to play with from the set is Wan Shi Tong because it seems absolutely incredible.
As discussed earlier, “Farm cards,” that trigger whenever an opponent takes action tend to be top tier cards in multiplayer because having three opponents creates tons of opportunity to generate additional triggers and thus resources. Tutoring (and especially the ubiquity of Fetch Lands to fix mana) is pretty embedded in play patterns of a 99 card highlander deck. So, the card is poised to draw multiple cards per turn cycle while also growing in size while the opponents take their turns.
The card can be flashed down for 2 mana in response to an opponent searching their library to replace itself with a draw and the card also scales up with an additional X cost to net resources as the game goes on. It’s also cool that this card functions as a resource farming piece when drawn in the opening hand and deployed quickly, but is also a late game bomb. In CeDH, for instance, a deck like Kinnan that has lots of ways to make infinite mana can use this early game Farm piece to literally draw their entire deck! So, it’s kind of like a split card that has two extremely useful modes.
Overall, Avatar looks like a really nice set. Since I just stick to the various EDH formats now, how the new cards impact the decks I’m likely to play with and against is sort of my primary interest in the multiverse these days – and, I’m really impressed with how good some of the powerful cards in this set are!
From a long-time player and primarily Commander focused perspective – I don’t even think I’m being particularly hyperbolic in saying that MTG Avatar is one of the best and strongest multiplayer sets ever to see print! The sheer depth of great Commander cards in the set is mindblowing!
