In most modern-day MTG sets, it’s common for there to be at least one utility land cycle. Unfortunately, many recent cycles, including the mythic rare Planets from Edge of Eternities, haven’t exactly lived up to expectations. By contrast, the rare land cycle from MTG Avatar actually delivered, with most of the options seeing some Standard play at the very least. In particular, Abandoned Air Temple has stood out as a multi-format powerhouse.
Abandoned Air Temple in Constructed
Like the other four lands in the cycle, part of what makes Abandoned Air Temple so appealing is that it has a very low opportunity cost to play. As long as you’re playing a handful of basic lands, there’s a good chance this land will enter untapped when you need it to. From there, having access to a simple mana sink goes a long way in helping creature decks win longer games. Anytime the board gets stalled, Temple will run away with things in short order.
With all this in mind, Temple easily slots into Mono-White Aggro shells in Standard that naturally utilize lots of basic lands. Suki, Courageous Rescuer and Voice of Victory make it easy to create a wide board state upon attacks, and this land threatens tons of extra damage. Similarly, Azorius Tempo shells make good use of Temple as a way to help their wave of fliers race other aggro strategies.
Beyond its Standard applications, Temple is a major upgrade for Selesnya Company decks in Pioneer. Selesnya Company does a great job using mana acceleration to relish card advantage from Enduring Innocence and Collected Company. Unfortunately, with such a high density of small creatures in the deck, actually crossing the finish line isn’t always easy. Temple solves this problem, turning all of your mana dorks into legitimate threats over time. Given the deck’s lack of removal, especially in game one, being able to overwhelm bigger creatures from the opposition is a huge boon.
Abandoned Air Temple in Commander
In addition to its Constructed impact, there are plenty of Commander archetypes that put Abandoned Air Temple to good use. While any white token deck should automatically include Temple, decks focused around a +1/+1 counter theme maximize Temple even further. With a wide board state, the land becomes a huge problem in conjunction with Shalai and Hallar, for instance.
In a similar vein, a single activation instantly Modifies all of your creatures, making Arana, Heart of the Spider a more reliable card advantage machine. Throw in effects like Hardened Scales or Dusk Legion Duelist to get extra value out of each activation, and Temple becomes an elite engine.
Strong Proliferate Commanders like Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice and Kilo, Apogee Mind can easily take advantage of Temple, too, even without many other +1/+1 counter synergies present. Ultimately, it doesn’t take much to make the land worth playing, and its flexibility makes it a top-tier utility land.
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