Hello and welcome back. Spoilers for the most recent set, Avatar the Last Airbender are nearly done, so that means I have to weed out what are my top ten (and five) nonlegendary creature picks for commander decks. As always, the rules are these picks are going to be more generally good for decks across the four nations instead of something more specific for a specific strategy, and no legendary creatures are going to make the list. Those I leave to the players who love them to pick and choose instead of my opinion souring the cabbages.
Presented in no particular order:
HONORABLE MENTIONS: THE ASCENSIONS
Each of these enchantments allows you a powerful effect for a trade off in accumulating counters by doing certain game actions, like attacking for Firebender Ascension. While there is a cost to get the enchantment fully online, the cost isn’t hard to pay and I can see a lot of these going into decks. Some effects are better than others in a vacuum, but each it a powerful addition to most decks.
HONORABLE FEELS: LEAVES FROM THE VINE
If you know, you know. If you don’t know, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it was probably the best filler episode that gave actual backstory for the character Iroh.
As for the card itself, I’m not sure it tells the story well, but it is about growth from death.
GREAT DIVIDE GUIDE
This creature turns mana fixing into an easy job in any deck that needs it. While it is a Green creature and therefore you need a Green and color(s) deck to cast him, fixing three, four and five color mana bases got another new toy to help out. While it isn’t as resilient as Prismatic Omen or Chromatic Lantern, being a creature has it’s own benefits, like being more easily recurred and a blocker or attacker.
WHITE LOTUS TILE
While a bit more specific than the above card, this card can generate some easy mana in kindred decks where you field a lot of creatures. Even paying for itself if you only have say four birds or lizards in play can help pay for itself the turn after it comes down.
It does enter tapped so it doesn’t immediately refund itself but that’s fine. Dropping more creatures next turn to even having mana for abilities and other spells, since it doesn’t specify what to spend the mana on, is worth the wait. Besides, there are ways to untap things in certain kindred decks anyway.
FOGGY SWAMP VISIONS
Need a quick infusion of enters, leaves or dies effects? Look no further and this three mana temporary recursion spell. While it gets nothing back without a little Waterbending, I don’t think that’s actually anything holding this card back. Black alone will probably have at least a zombie or thrull lying around.
It gets even better when you realize this lets you target ANY graveyard at this cost, not just your own. So, you can exile a bunch of cards from someone else’s graveyard and get some use from their creatures as well as your own. The only real downside to this card is it doesn’t give haste, but I don’t think winning with combat is how this will end for your opponents.
PLANETARIUM OF WAN SHI TONG
Honestly, up front this doesn’t seem to do much, and perhaps it won't for decks in general. However, there will be some decks that will love this card. Anything already abusing Sensei’s Diving Top might like this. At the very least, it lets you move some cards out of the way you don’t need, and will often get you some extra gas along the way for one mana and a tap. If nothing else, this might be a good pickup you’re glad to have lying around later on. Magic is only going to add cards after all, and I’ve always been happy to see something useful in my boxes I’ve forgotten I own.
AVATAR’S WRATH
I really like Airbending as an ability. It has a lot of uses and synergies, like casting from exile, reusing enters and leaves effects, acting as a king od protection, and decision making that can make an opponent question themselves while you’re more ready to handle those decision points. This mass removal in particular keeps that decision point at length for your opponents but not for you, and there are a few ways to make it even better. Oketra’s Monument can lessen the cost of you returning your creatures to the battlefield, for instance.
It also acts as a timed tax piece, and it covers not only the creatures exiled, but spells with flashback or unearth, spells from the command zone, casting from the top of the deck with cards like Pantlaza or Ureni. Just watch out for those Tannuk players.
ORIGIN OF METALBENDING
I’m always down for interesting flexible removal, and this take on Naturize is probably as good as it gets for utility outside of blasting a flyer. It’s simple, break the cage or become the metal, saving you from a lot during a game of commander.
DAI LI AGENTS
Besides the upside of being able to Earthbend twice off this creature, which is significant to many strategies like Black and Green land centric decks, this card comes with the ability to synergize with the ever popular +1/+1 counters strategies. In fact, I think it scales so well even at turn six when it can attack that it can quickly finish a game on its own as long as it survives to do so. I wouldn’t underestimate this card if you see it, as this is quite a powerful uncommon.
REDIRECT LIGHTNING
Redirect spells have a mixed use experience with me. Often I find that when I need them or they’d be useful I don’t have them, and when I have them I’ve nothing to use them on. It got me thinking about this one here and I think I figured out why; the thing I want to change often has to be something I control.
This card allows you to change any spell or ability targeting something to something else, not just your own cards or face. Someone wants to project their creature or use removal on something that is helping you, just change it around on them. It also can do it cheaply for only R mana. Well, and five life, but otherwise it’s at cost for this effect a two and Red mana. While not every meta or deck will want this, it might be more useful than the first look might seem.
BITTER WORK
I’m not sure Red and Green decks have any real trouble with drawing cards these days, but having a backup is always nice. This card can draw you up to three cards if you’re willing to attack everyone at the table, so the rewards are there if you’re already running into opponents with 4 and up powered creatures anyway.
SPIRIT WATER REVIVAL
At worst this lets you draw two cards, though it’s not as splashable as Divination. A low bar, to be sure. However, I think most of the time when this comes up later in a game it could be better to dump your hand and then refill it and put your graveyard back into your deck. At that point, three mana is a low cost if you played onto the board only to gas up again for you next turn or to continue the large plays you might be making the turn you cast this card.
NOW, THIS ARTICLE IS OVER
Those are my picks from the set overall. Some more specific cards, like always, might be better in a smattering of decks like Sozen’s Comet, but I try to find the cards that can go in most decks.
Honestly, I did want to cheat a little with this set since some of the legendary creatures are awesome. The list would probably be half legends if I did that.
Until next time, don’t drink the cactus juice.
