Magic: The Gathering’s long-awaited Avatar set is here, and already it’s proving its quality in Standard. We’ve seen a couple of new archetypes emerge already, and that’s with just two days of play time to work with. Among the early performers from the set, the Earthbending mechanic is a clear standout, power level-wise. Rather than being intimidated by this newcomer, however, players have found a solution to the problem in an unlikely place. Turns out that Ultima, a bizarre board wipe from Final Fantasy, is an ideal answer to Earthbending from MTG Avatar.
Ultima Is The Perfect Counter To MTG Avatar Earthbending
Ultima is a very strange card, in that many of its use cases aren’t immediately obvious in the slightest. Destroying all creatures and artifacts makes sense, of course, but ending the turn is something else entirely. Very few Magic: The Gathering cards have ever dabbled in this design space. In fact, there are only eight cards in total, Ultima included, that do so.
As a result, the rules implications of this ability are pretty unclear. If you dive into the rulings for Ultima on Scryfall, however, you’ll find a particularly juicy nugget of information:
“Ending the turn this way means the following things happen in order: (1) All spells and abilities on the stack are exiled. This includes any abilities that triggered as a result of destroying all artifacts and creatures.”
Ultima rulings, via Scryfall
Essentially, this means that, in addition to destroying all creatures and artifacts in play, Ultima also cancels out their dies/leaves the battlefield triggers as well. This is particularly relevant when dealing with Earthbending. The big upside of this mechanic compared to other land animation effects is that you get your land back into play if it’s removed as a creature. If you destroy an Earthbent land with Ultima, however, then its dies trigger is cancelled out and it’s gone for good.
As any long-time Magic player will tell you, there are few things more devastating than having your lands removed. Land destruction effects have a huge stigma attached to them for a reason, and not just in Commander. Using Ultima against Earthbent lands essentially gives you access to land destruction in Standard, which is pretty wild indeed.
Moving Mountains
As cool as it is that Ultima can totally shut down Earthbending from MTG Avatar, that doesn’t automatically make it meta-relevant. As many players pointed out on Reddit, Earthbending cards will need to see a certain threshold of Standard play before this becomes a big deal. Based on the first couple of days of Avatar gameplay, however, this seems fairly likely.
This is largely down to Badgermole Cub, which is a clear overperformer in the early days of Avatar. Not only is the card seeing plenty of play in Simic Aggro decks in Standard, but it’s also proven good enough for lists in Modern and Legacy, too. It’s early days, of course, but it’s pretty likely that a card this good becomes a four-of staple in multiple Standard lists. If that comes to pass, then it’ll be the kind of sticky two-for-one card that players struggle to fully deal with, much like Cori-Steel Cutter was. Even if it’s just dealing with Badgermole Cub alone, Ultima should prove invaluable.
There are a number of other promising Earthbending cards, too. Ba Sing Se is already seeing use in Gruul Delirium, and Earthbender Ascension seems like an ideal fit in the Mono-Green Landfall decks we saw around pre-bans. Heck, Beifong’s Bounty Hunters even has some players excited about its combo potential. If any of these cards are picked up, alone or alongside Badgermole Cub, then it’ll be easy for Ultima to reach its full, land-destroying potential in Standard.
A Powerful Multi-Tool
Even if this doesn’t come to pass, Ultima has plenty of other utility in the current Standard format. Its whole ‘removing triggered abilities from the stack’ shtick is applicable in plenty of other scenarios, against some of the best decks at the moment.
The big one here is Dimir Midrange. Now that Izzet Cauldron and Mono-Red are out of the picture after the bans, this deck has assumed its former spot on the throne. One of the most important cards in this deck is Enduring Curiosity, which serves as an incredibly resilient card draw engine. Since it comes back as an enchantment after death, most decks struggle to deal with it fully. Kill Curiosity with Ultima, however, and that return trigger never goes off. This makes it an ideal way to deny Dimir crucial card advantage. Handily, it even lands right after Curiosity on the curve.
Jeskai Artifacts is another deck that has gained a lot of ground since the bans. It’s also another one Ultima is uniquely positioned to handle. The deck typically plays well against Control since most of its threats are artifacts, not creatures. Ultima, however, destroys artifacts as well. You also get to deny your opponent card advantage from Cryogen Relic leaving, too, which is a nice bonus.
With these decks gaining stock and Earthbending coming into the meta, it may finally be time for Ultima to shine. It may not eclipse the stellar Sunfall from Standard past, but it still has the potential to punch far above its weight for a $0.50 bulk rare.
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