The spoiler season for the Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG set officially started yesterday, and Wizards didn’t disappoint. After a couple of spicy early spoilers, Wizards revealed tons of soon-to-be staples during the Debut livestream. Since then, the hits have just kept on coming, with stellar bombs being dropped one after another.
Bumi, Unleashed
Due to costing five mana, there’s a strong chance that Bumi, Unleashed will never see competitive play. In Limited, at least, getting 9/8’s worth of stats for five mana should do work if nothing else. Thankfully, decent stats across two bodies are just the tip of the iceberg, as Bumi goes insane after dealing combat damage.
For starters, getting a hit in with Bumi will untap all of your lands. While it’s a bit buried within his wall of text and largely applies to attacking again, this ability shouldn’t be dismissed. Getting to cast a sizable threat and then get all of your mana back is good, no matter the color.
On top of just untapping your mana, dealing combat damage with Bumi unlocks an additional combat step. Sadly, this extra step does come with the caveat of only being able to attack with land creatures. While this is a pretty serious downside, all the Earthbending in the set should still give you a sizable swing.
In Limited, there’s a very strong chance that Bumi, Unleashed will close out a game after dealing damage. Thanks to Trample, this shouldn’t be too hard to manage, in all honesty. That said, you would have to draft this card, which is hardly a sure thing, since Bumi is a mythic.
Thankfully, in Commander, you don’t have to worry about rarity, and Bumi is a real powerhouse there. Each of his abilities becomes significantly more relevant, as ramp is more useful and land creatures are more plentiful. In fact, in Commander, it’s remarkably easy to break Bumi, Unleashed and create a deadly infinite combo.
We Did It, We Broke Ashaya
As soon as Bumi, Unleashed was revealed, MTG players immediately identified the infinite combo with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Thanks to Ashaya’s ability, which makes nontoken creatures also lands, Bumi can untap himself after dealing damage. This allows you to attack with him again in the extra combat step, presumably dealing damage again, and creating an infinite loop.
Even without any other creatures or Earthbended lands, outside of the one Bumi provides, this combo is technically a wincon. Sadly, unless the board is completely clear, actually clearing a Commander table feels somewhat unlikely. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to get in a lot of damage, potentially taking out one opponent, but outright winning isn’t guaranteed.
Thanks to other opponents likely having creatures capable of blocking, it may be better to slow Bumi’s roll. Rather than attacking all out in each extra combat step, you could simply tap all your lands before attacking with Bumi. Should you get even a couple of extra combats in, this should leave you with a ton of mana to burn, so long as you can actually use it.
Unfortunately, Ashaya is the only option for a two-card combo with Bumi that has been discovered so far. Thankfully, three-card combos are still an option to add some extra consistency. Using Life and Limb, as well as something like Maskwood Nexus, allows you to set up a similar infinite loop.
Thankfully, it’s more than possible to jam all of these cards into a Bumi, Unleashed deck, alongside plenty of other Earthbending cards. Right now, it looks like Bumi might be the go-to choice for Eathbending aggro, in fact. For better or worse, this could easily change in the coming week as more Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG cards are revealed.
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