Ever since it was unveiled as one of the first MTG Avatar cards, players were understandably excited about Avatar Aang. Offering a ridiculous ability once flipped, this card had immediate combo potential that players couldn’t wait to get their hands on. Upon release, however, many found this combo to be too clunky and ultimately not worth building around. That said, if you could ever pull it off, the combo was undeniably powerful.
Recently, it seems that some MTG players have been determined to prove this combo’s worth, once and for all. This past weekend, this combo made a surprise splash in cEDH, finishing second in a 68-player event.
Abusing Avatar Aang and Moonmist
The issue with Avatar Aang, from a competitive standpoint, is that most cards that feature the “Bending” mechanics aren’t strong enough individually to warrant inclusion. While this deck does make use of Toph, Hardheaded Teacher and Fire Nation Occupation, Bending isn’t a core theme at all. Instead, this deck uses Moonmist to flip Aang early, while not worrying about his cumbersome cost.
Thankfully, while the deck does rely on this one card, multiple tutors like Demonic Tutor to Mystical Tutor make this deck surprisingly consistent. From here, Aang’s cost reduction enables no end of win conditions. Between a big Ad Nauseum or huge attacks with Toph, Hardheaded Teacher and Valley Floodcaller, anything is on the table.
Notably, since Aang’s cost reduction hits all spells you cast, it works wonders alongside cards like Mnemonic Betrayal. With an Underworld Breach and Brain Freeze wincon on top of all this, it’s no wonder the deck put up such a good result.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As a whole, Avatar Aang may not be a tier one cEDH option at the moment, but there are plenty of things going in his favor. First of all, this deck is fairly consistent and has access to a wealth of free counterspells to help force Moonmist through. It’s also built to cast Avatar Aang ahead of schedule via its wide range of mana dorks like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch.
Despite these strong points, cEDH is a cutthroat format, and Partner Commanders, in particular, are tough to beat. This Avatar Aang deck seems to know this, in fact, as it’s very similar to Kraum and Tymna combo builds. While this worked here, the weaker general utility makes Avatar Aang’s future in the format seem somewhat suspect.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!