Entering the Avatar State

Vivi. Mono-Red. Dimir. Omniscience.

The four nations were in harmony, completely dominating the Standard format, until the banned list update attacked.

Seriously, these were effectively the only decks “allowed” to be played in Standard for months… and players absolutely hated it.

It got to the point where the Magic: the Gathering tournament scene at large suffered. Regional Championship Qualifiers would fail to get even a minimum of 8 players to fire, Friday Night Magic scenes at local hobby shops have all but died where I live in Upstate New York, and even big-ticket events like the Spotlight Series at Baltimore, that would normally pull thousands of players, only saw about 520 players. The Sunday Standard event at the same venue, that would normally see something like 400 or 500 players on its own, only had 24 players willing to play Standard. It was bad.

So imagine everyone’s delight at the Avatar: the Last Airbender set having multiple cards that are legitimately worth building a deck or two around!

Badgermole Cub is probably the card that will directly lead to the most successful decks in multiple formats. Generating extra mana is already a powerful effect, but when you have cards in standard like Llanowar Elves or even older formats like Delighted Halfling, this card is all but guaranteed to be an instant hit.

So far, the most popular decks with Badgermole Cub in Standard has been the Simic Aggro deck that is built around maximizing Ouroboroid, but there have been a few players in Modern playing the Cub in the Yawgmoth, Thran Physician deck.

My favorite card to try building around in Standard right now is Accumulate Wisdom. The Lesson card type is back from Strixhaven, and a card like this is worth building around even if there isn’t a single card with the Learn keyword in the Avatar set!

I’ve seen a few decks built around using this deck already: Izzet cards with cards like Stormchaser’s Talent and Combustion Technique have been the most popular, but I’ve also seen some oddball stuff like Azorius Control with cards like Airbender’s Reversal and Quantum Riddler. So there’s a ton of deck building space and I’m here for it!

Even if I know I’ll end up playing with Accumulate Wisdom the most of any card in Avatar, my actual favorite card from this set is Katara, Waterbending Master. She’s not from the regular set, so you can only play her in Legacy, Vintage, or Commander. Even so, I absolutely plan on playing with Katara in Legacy at some point! Cards like Force of Will, Daze, Brainstorm, and Fatal Push/Lightning Bolt/Swords to Plowshares have all been key in Legacy for years, so she has the potential to slot right into an existing deck!

There’s already Dimir tempo decks in Legacy with cards like Orcish Bowmasters and Brazen Borrower, and I’ve seen a couple of deck lists in Vintage that feature cards like Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian. Plenty of exciting new decks to explore and play with for a card that rewards you for playing the annoying kind of Magic I already love!

This is, sadly, the first time I’ve seen players excited about formats that aren’t Modern (Modern’s great right now) in a long time, so if you’ve been holding onto Standard cards waiting for a chance to play: that’s now! Everyone in Canada, get your Standard cards from FusionGamingOnline.com now before everyone else realizes how fun this new format is, and for everyone else: I’ll see y’all on the next one!