With Avatar Prerelease events underway this weekend, Magic players everywhere are now getting a hands-on look at just how good the new cards are. Many are reporting strong early performances from the set’s new toys, with Appa, Steadfast Guardian in particular getting a lot of love.
This was one of the earliest cards revealed for the set, so it may have slipped your mind over the past few months. You’d be wise not to neglect this iconic sky bison, mind you. As players like d00mwake have already discovered, the card can pull off a range of infinite combos, including one in Standard. On top of that, it’s a hugely flexible tool for a wide range of Commander decks. Just as he was in the show, Appa is looking like an indispensable companion for all manner of Magic players.
Appa, Steadfast Guardian MTG
The biggest strength of Appa, Steadfast Guardian as an MTG card is definitely its flexibility. Coming in for four mana, at instant speed no less, this creature lets you Airbend as many of your nonland permanents as you’d like. As a protection effect, this is very solid indeed. It lets you keep your creatures safe from board wipes, but it also saves your mana rocks and utility enchantments, too. Commander players love to bust out cards like Culling Ritual and Farewell. Appa is the rare card that can actually get around them.
Appa also has strong applications in combat. Blocking with creatures then Airbending them out of harm’s way is a great way to soak up some damage. Bonus points if your creatures have useful enters abilities they can reprise on the way back in later. Since it also generates tokens when you replay your Airbent creatures, Appa is a great way to break parity in crowded board states.
The token production here is honestly worth highlighting in its own right. While it obviously synergizes with Appa’s first effect, it also plays nicely with all sorts of other recent MTG design. Red is all about Impulse-style draw these days, and every card cast that way gets you extra value with Appa. There’s plenty of support for whole Commander decks built around this idea, in fact, with new legends like Gwen Stacy//Ghost Spider leading the way.
Factor in a surprisingly good-for-the-cost 3/4 Flying body, and Appa is a card with a ton of potential in fair Magic. Such ‘fair’ applications aren’t what have everyone talking in these early days of Avatar, mind you.
Standard Shenanigans
The reason Appa, Steadfast Guardian is flying high on the collective MTG radar right now is largely down to its combo potential. As d00mwake, and others online, have noted, the card is actually capable of pulling off an infinite combo in Standard.
The combo in question is a relatively simple one. First, you need to get Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius into play. This brilliant Bear brings down the cost of casting from exile by two. This makes re-casting your Airbent creatures completely free. Next, you’ll need to get either Aang, Swift Savior or Appa out, then cast the other one afterwards, Airbending the first with the enters trigger.
After this, the loop can begin. You can re-cast the Airbent Aang or Appa for free, then use their respective enters abilities to Airbend oneanother. Because the cards are free to cast from exile, you can repeat this any number of times. Thanks to Appa’s ability, every time Aang re-enters you’ll get a 1/1 token, meaning this combo can generate an infinitely wide board.
As a combo, this has a couple of big advantages. First of all, you can pull it off as early as turn four. Curving Doc Aurlock into Aang into Appa is tricky mana-wise, but if you can do it, you’re looking at a very quick win. Second, you can execute the entire combo at instant speed. This means you can wait until your opponent’s end step to build your board, giving them no opportunity to bust out a sorcery-speed board wipe.
The awkward mana base is honestly the biggest obstacle to this combo seeing real play in Standard. Even then, between Breeding Pool, the on-color Verges, Multiversal Passage and Starting Town, it’s totally doable. None of the pieces are bad cards to play by themselves, either, with even Doc Aurlock offering a solid blocker.
Sweet New Commander Tech
Standard aside, Appa, Steadfast Guardian is also looking like a slam-dunk in MTG Commander. Decks in that format are hungry for multi-tools, and Appa does an awful lot for just one slot.
For starters, Appa is more than capable of pulling off similar infinite combos to the one above in Commander as well. The wider card pool gives access to more options, like Sage of the Beyond as redundancy for Doc Aurlock. Heck, you can even pull off some combos in Mono-White, with Appa as your Commander. Stack up Pearl Medallion and The Wind Crystal, or just use Semblance Anvil, and you can bounce Appa and Aang, Airbending Master back and forth all day long. This will give you the usual infinite tokens from Appa, but also infinite experience counters, which can pave the way for more shenanigans later.
If you’d rather play fair, then Appa is a great addition to the 99 of many established Commander archetypes. Blink decks, for example, will very much appreciate the ability to mass-blink their permanents, even if it is slow. Decks like Brago, King Eternal will also get a ton of mileage out of blinking Appa itself.
Appa is also the ideal addition to any Ally Typal deck. Not only is it an Ally itself, but it also plays perfectly into the deck’s core theme of putting as many Allies into play as possible. Re-casting Airbent Allies will get you double triggers on the likes of Tuktuk Scrapper, and allow for huge mana turns with Harabaz Druid, since the tokens Appa makes are Allies too.
Overall, Appa, Steadfast Guardian is a card with a ton of potential in all manner of decks. Avatar fans really couldn’t ask for a better representation of this beloved furry monster.
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