As of yesterday, Magic’s Avatar: The Last Airbender set is finally available to play on digital platforms. Now we get to watch as months of preview and brewing season hype meet the cold, hard reality of constructed Magic. It’s early days so far, but things are looking good for the set, with several brews using the new cards in interesting ways. This is especially true for Neb12r’s 5-Color Allies deck, which uses 41 MTG Avatar cards.
5-Color Allies In MTG Avatar Standard
Neb12r’s newfangled 5-Color Allies list is essentially a deck of two halves. On the one hand, you have an Ally Typal Aggro deck that aims to pile on value through powerful lords and synergistic abilities. On the other hand, however, this deck has a unique combo that’s capable of setting up turn four kills.
While this sounds explosively powerful, unfortunately, this combo is far from reliable. Requiring six cards, not including lands, this combo takes a great deal of setup, so it’s not the primary game plan. Instead, it’s simply an extra sharp edge on top of an already robust list.
Allies as a type are naturally quite aggressive, so it’s very possible to curve out and beat down with this deck. Earthen Ally is an easy 2/2 or 3/2 for one, for example, and you can go straight from that into Earth King’s Lieutenant, which itself applies a ton of on-board pressure. South Pole Voyager is also an essential part of the deck’s early curve, offering crucial card advantage potential in a list otherwise sorely lacking in it. All of these cards work wonderfully with Invasion Reinforcements, which brings in two 1/1 Ally bodies for just two mana.
Allies also get one of their best-ever support pieces in Avatar with Great Divide Guide. Not only does this perfectly fix your mana through your lands, but it also lets your Allies tap for mana too. This opens up insane potential for early swarm plays. It pairs particularly well with Wartime Protestors, since that gives your Allies Haste on entry, letting them tap for mana immediately. It’s also just a great way to apply more pressure in the mid to late game.
There’s a good bit of utility in this list, too. Aang, at the Crossroads tops out the deck’s curve, offering a nice tempo play. It also unlocks the possibility for grindy value when paired with the Airbending effects from Aang, Swift Savior and Appa, Steadfast Guardian. You can also use Earth Kingdom Protectors to save your key Allies from removal, so you can keep the pain train chugging steadily along.
A Convoluted Combo
On its own, the aggro game plan of Neb12r’s deck can definitely get the job done. The real spice, however, comes from the combo potential that integrates remarkably well into the deck’s aggressive core. While this combo does require decent setup with a fair few cards, you’ll be playing most of them anyway, so it can come out of nowhere.
The real trick to making this combo work is Great Divide Guide and Wartime Protestors. With these two cards in play, any Ally you have, or Ally token you create, can instantly tap for mana. This, in turn, opens up a rather complex Airbending combo with Appa and Aang, which can instantly kill opponents.
- Step 0: Start with Great Divide Guide, Wartime Protestors, and four lands in play.
- Step 1: Cast two copies of Invasion Reinforcements. Each will create a 1/1 Ally token on entry.
- Step 2: Tap both Reinforcements and both tokens for four mana and cast Appa, Steadfast Guardian, Airbending both Reinforcements.
- Step 3: Cast a Reinforcements from exile. This will create an extra 1/1 Ally token thanks to Appa’s ability.
- Step 4: Tap Appa and Reinforcements for two mana, and cast the second Reinforcements from exile. At this point, you’ll have four 1/1 tokens and Reinforcements untapped.
- Step 5:Tap three tokens for mana and cast Aang, Swift Savior, Airbending Appa.
- Step 6: Tap Aang and the untapped Reinforcements for two mana and cast Appa from exile, Airbending Aang and both Reinforcements. At this point, you should still have one untapped token.
- Step 7: Tap Appa and the token to cast Reinforcements from exile.
- Step 8: Tap the two tokens that Reinforcements creates to cast the other Reinforcements from exile.
- Step 9: Tap the two tokens that Reinforcements creates to cast Aang from exile, Airbending Appa. Aang will also create a token on cast this time, leaving you with a token, Aang, and two Reinforcements untapped.
- Step 10: Tap Aang and both Reinforcements to gain three mana. Cast Appa from exile, Airbending Aang and both Reinforcements.
- Step 11: Tap Appa and use the floating mana to recast Reinforcements.
- Step 12: Repeat steps 8 to 11.
Once this is complete, you’ll have a self-sustaining loop that generates one excess 2/2 Ally token with Haste each time. Simply repeat this infinite times, and you can win the game on the spot. While it’s technically possible on turn four with ideal draws, this combo is more of a fun extra than the main focus of the deck.
An Unexpected Contender?
This 5-Color Allies deck doing well right out of the gate is genuinely exciting for MTG Standard. We rarely see this many new cards from a set tried out in constructed, never mind in the same deck. That said, it’s important to temper expectations at this early stage of the new metagame.
The biggest concern with this deck is its complete lack of interaction. The decks that have consistently dominated Standard over the past few years have all packed a solid interaction suite. This is true from Dimir Midrange to Izzet Cauldron. While there are theoretically plenty of interaction options available to a five-color list, most of the deck’s fixing is creature-specific lands, like Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop and Cavern of Souls, so adding some in could be tricky.
There’s also the issue of what the Standard metagame looks like in general right now. After the huge bans earlier this month, we’ve shifted into a format dominated by Midrange and Control decks. Both are tough matchups for this list in particular. While the combo theoretically gives it an edge over Dimir Midrange, it’s likely not consistent enough, especially since it needs to stick creatures to function. Jeskai and 4-Color Control should have little issue dealing with either of the deck’s game plans, either.
Overall, it’s hard to say where 5-Color Allies will end up as the format develops. We could see a more refined version of the deck slip into a legitimate meta position, or it could just be a fun week one gimmick deck that vanishes before long.
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