It’s hard to deny the primal appeal of Magic: The Gathering cards with big numbers on them. As complex as the game has gotten, big stompy creatures still win the day a good portion of the time. Over the decades, we’ve seen Wizards slowly push things further in the creature stats department, but few have made it past the 15-20 range. In MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender, however, we’re getting The Walls of Ba Sing Se: a card that breaks those records in a big way.
The Walls Of Ba Sing Se MTG
The first thing you’ll notice about The Walls of Ba Sing Se is that whopping 30 toughness. Even including tokens like Marit Lage, this is the highest single stat value on any non-Un set card in MTG history. Right out of the gate, this makes the card a great addition to toughness-matters decks in Commander.
Whether you’re tapping this card to mill an opponent for 30 with Phenax, God of Deception, or swinging in for 30 thanks to Felothar the Steadfast, you won’t find a bigger creature for these strategies anywhere. Felothar is a particularly good example, since you can use its activated ability to trade Walls of Ba Sing Se in for 30 cards.
You can also leverage Walls of Ba Sing Se as an offensive piece. With Jaws of Defeat in play, it deals 30 damage to an opponent on entry. Throw in some blink or copy effects, and you have a swift combo win. It can even almost turn on Betor, Kin to All’s life-halving ability single-handedly. Eight mana is certainly steep, but a lot of toughness-matters Commanders run green, so you can always ramp it out.
Applications for The Walls of Ba Sing Se outside of toughness-matters are limited, but they do exist. Its passive ability is identical to that of Avacyn, Angel of Hope, which means you can pull off some nasty tricks with board wipes. Turning cards like Day of Judgment or Armageddon into asymmetrical effects is brutal stuff. The card sadly doesn’t protect itself like Avacyn does, but this is still a very potent effect in multiplayer.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!