It’s pretty clear at this point that the MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender set has absolutely knocked it out of the park. Not only is the set incredibly flavorful to its source material, but it’s also created multiple Commander and competitive staples alike. Fire Lord Azula and Toph, the First Metalbender have Commander players scrambling to build intricate new decks, while Badgermole Cub is creating new archetypes in formats from Standard to Legacy.
Earthbending, in particular, has undeniably been a highlight from the set. The mechanic acts as a fix for the high-risk action of turning lands into creatures and, in doing so, can create some surprising infinite combos. Despite it being the focus of the MTG community since Avatar’s release, players have just discovered an extremely scary Earthbending interaction that could make the mechanic’s infinite combos even more efficient.
MTG Earthbend 0
Earthbending’s scary combo potential comes from its ability to recur lands that die after being animated. While intended to fix the downside of losing both a creature and a mana source when an animated land dies, this MTG Earthbending quirk also leads to Landfall-based loops. There’s already Standard decks that maximize the mechanic’s combo potential, creating infinite bodies using Beifong’s Bounty Hunters, a sacrifice outlet, and Bloodghast.
This is already extremely powerful, but MTG Earthbending can be pushed even further. While most Earthbending cards assign a certain number of counters to creatures, there are a few cards that have Earthbending X, assigning a different number of counters to an Earthbent creature based on additional criteria. In these cases, with some setup, it is possible to intentionally Earthbend 0. This would, essentially, turn your land into a 0/0 creature with zero counters on it. State-based actions would immediately cause the creature to die, which would then return the card to play.
At the time of writing, there are only seven cards in MTG that are even capable of pulling off Earthbend 0, and for four of them, it’s rather disadvantageous. Cards that offer one-time effects like The Legend of Kyoshi, Rockalanche, and Bumi’s Feast Lecture aren’t able to easily take advantage of Earthbend 0’s unique qualities. Similarly, The Boulder, Ready to Rumble has to really go out of the way to Earthbend 0, and you’ll generally only be able to do it once per turn. The other three cards, however, can unlock some of the interesting qualities that Earthbend 0 offers.
Of the three cards, Earthbend 0 has the least exciting implications for Avatar Jumpstart’s Toph, Earthbending Master. Toph notably doesn’t need to attack herself to trigger her Earthbending ability, meaning you can play Toph and attack with another creature in the same turn. In the likely instance that you have zero experience counters, you can Earthbend 0, recycle a land, and jumpstart Toph’s Experience Counter triggers. This also gives you a free refresh on any other Landfall abilities you control, and can recur any enters abilities to unique lands you control.
The other two cards, however, unlock some interesting combos with Earthbend 0 that could be quite interesting in Commander.
MTG Eartbend 0 Combos
The card with the best potential to unlock Earthbend 0 is Beifong’s Bounty Hunters. Considering that this card already has a bunch of infinite combos attached to it, this probably isn’t too shocking. That said, Earthbend 0 can make these combos even easier to assemble.
Earthbend 0 means that Beifong’s Bounty Hunters is particularly powerful alongside Khalni Garden. Creating a 0/1 Plant on entry, Khalni Garden and Beifong’s Bounty Hunters go infinite with a sacrifice outlet. Just sacrifice the Plant with zero power and Earthbend 0 the Khalni Garden. The card will die immediately, reentering play thanks to Earthbending. This will cause Khalni Garden to create another Plant, restarting the entire process.
This creates infinite enters and dies triggers, which is extremely easy to win with. Aristocrat cards like Blood Artist, for example, will allow you to drain the table on the spot. If you’re using a sacrifice outlet like Phyrexian Altar, you’ll also gain access to infinite mana, which should make winning even easier. Notably, if you don’t have access to Khalni Garden, you can also use The Necrobloom to create 0/1 Plants as a landfall trigger, accomplishing a similar thing.
The other card that can unlock the potential of Earthbend 0 is Toph, Greatest Earthbender, but it’s a bit more difficult to pull off. This card’s ability to scale its Earthbending equal to the amount of mana spent on it gives Toph, Earthbending Master some really interesting applications as a Commander, but it also means that the card will Earthbend 0 if it enters play without being cast.
This opens up some Flicker infinite combos that Toph can take advantage of. Assembling Lotus Field, Toph, Earthbending Master, Deadeye Navigator, and Amulet of Vigor, for example, creates infinite mana, as well as infinite enters and dies triggers. Here’s how it works:
- Start with all the combo pieces in play. Deadeye Navigator needs to be Soulbonded to Toph. If not, you can flicker Navigator with its own ability to change its Soulbond target. You need two available mana to start the combo.
- Tap Lotus Field for three blue and use two of it to Flicker Toph. Toph will enter, triggering Earthbend 0. Earthbend Lotus Field, causing it to die and reenter.
- Amulet of Vigor will trigger, untapping Lotus Field on entry. Before Lotus Field causes two lands to be sacrificed, tap it for three more mana and repeat step two.
- You’ll be gaining one mana per cycle, which unlocks infinite mana. Repeat the cycle as many times as you want before sacrificing all of your lands. Winning should be trivial from here.
Notably, outside of Toph, there are multiple different cards that can be used for each part of the combo. Lotus Field can be replaced by Gaea’s Cradle, or a mana tripling ability like Nyxbloom Ancient. Even a mana-doubling ability can get infinite enters and dies triggers going. Deadeye Navigator can similarly be replaced with cards like Emiel, the Blessed, and Amulet of Vigor with Spelunking.
The only downside of this combo is that you cannot pull it off with Toph, Earthbending Master as the Commander. Sadly, all of the effects that can Flicker this card repetitively are not in Gruul colors, meaning that this would instead be an interesting combo within the 99 of another Landfall Commander deck. Omnath, Locus of Creation would be an ideal home for this since Flickering that Commander can lead to absurd sequences.
A Weird, But Powerful Interaction
It’s interesting when an unintuitive corner case for a mechanic turns out to have powerful implications. Despite Earthbend 0 not being the intended way to use one of Magic’s newest and flashiest mechanics, it is quite powerful in the right circumstances. As an interesting final note, Solemnity essentially makes all of your Earthbending triggers into Earthbend 0, which could both create powerful combos and hinder opposing Earthbending decks.
Both giving a slight buff to existing Commander options and creating new infinite combos, if you’re going to use Earthbending in your MTG Commander games, keep this bizarre interaction in your back pocket.
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