Wizards of the Coast is in full reveal season forMagic: The Gathering’s Edge of Eternities set, coming on August 1, but one card from theAvatar: The Last AirbenderUniverses Beyond set has already been revealed. This card is Avatar Aang, which can be flipped to Aang, Master of Elements. No one really knows how Aang will be flipped becauseMagic: The Gathering’s elemental bending mechanics(waterbending, earthbending, firebending, and airbending) have yet to be revealed in full, but this is not stopping players from theorycrafting Aang Commander decks. For better or for worse, this has resulted in two cards heavily spiking in price based on the potential combos with Aang, Master of Elements.
What is currently known is what’s in the text for Avatar Aang and Aang, Master of Elements, which is not a lot, but enough to spark someMagic: The Gatheringcombo ideas. Avatar Aang costs 1 Red, 1 Green, 1 White, and 1 Blue, and it’s a 4/4 creature with flying and firebending 2. Then, it can be transformed into Aang, Master of Elements whenever players manage to waterbend, earthbend, firebend, and airbend all in one turn. This may not be easily done, depending on the requirements, but the payoff is huge because Aang, Master of Elements allows players to pay WUBRG (1 mana of each color) less to cast spells.
Why Avatar: The Last Airbender Fans Shouldn’t Sleep on This MTG Card for Aang Commander Decks
The first card to surge in value was Fist of Suns, which is originally from Fifth Dawn, an oldMagic: The Gatheringset. This card allows players to pay WUBRG instead of the mana cost of all spells they cast, meaning that with Aang, Master of Elements on the field, any spell can be played for free. This is incredibly powerful, and as soon as the interaction was thought of, Fist of Suns spiked in price from about $2.50 all the way to over $15 on TCGPlayer.
Fist of Suns is an artifact that costs three generic mana, so it’s quite easy to cast, and it explains why this specific card had a massive price surge, whereas Jodah, Archmage Eternal didn’t. Jodah, Archmage Eternal has the exact same effect as Fist of Suns, but it’s a creature, which is generally easier to remove than artifacts, and it costs 1 generic mana, 1 Blue, 1 Red, and 1 White. As such, it both costs more to play and requires three different colors of mana to be played. It can still be used inMTGCommander deckswith Aang and Fist of Suns to make the combo more reliable, but Fist of Suns is the more reliable choice, which is why it skyrocketed to almost six times its price.
How Searing Touch and Aang, Master of Elements Win an MTG Commander Game
Lately, another old card got a huge price increase tied to theAvatar: The Last AirbenderMTGspoiler, and this is Searing Touch. This card costs 1 Red mana and deals 1 damage to target creature or player, which is not too impressive on its own, but it also has the Buyback mechanic for an additional cost of 4 mana. What follows is that players can cast Searing Touch and then cast it an infinite number of times if Aang, Master of Elements is on the field, as it reduces its cost by 1 Red and then WUBG, which covers the 4-generic cost of Buyback.
This card alone means that Aang, Master of Elements players can immediately win the game for just one mana. Despite seeing occasional use inCommander decksin the past, Searing Touch was always around $0.30-0.50 on TCGPlayer, but now it’s over $6 in value, and it’s also hard to find.
Other Possible Aang Combos That Could Make MTG Cards Surge in Price
Jodah, Archmage Eternal would make sense for a price increase considering Fist of Suns' situation, but it hasn’t happened yet, and it’s currently sitting at less than $1 on TCGPlayer. Another possible combo is with Capsize, following the same Buyback logic as Searing Touch, but this costs 1 generic and 2 Blue with Buyback 3, so it can only return a handful of permanents to their owners' hands. Necrodominance is anotherMagic: The Gatheringcombo cardthat’s no stranger to Commander, and paired with Fist of Suns, it could allow players to cast almost their whole deck for free.
Capsize with “free” Buyback would be similar to Cyclonic Rift, but it has its limitations.
Edge of EternitiesMTGcardsare still being revealed, so players should keep an eye on those for potential combos with Aang. Still, more combos are sure to come, but for now, Searing Touch and Fist of Suns seem the more immediate and powerful.
One Magic: The Gathering Card is Theoretically Perfect For Aang Commander Decks, With an Asterisk Attached
Another combo that players shouldn’t sleep on is with Moonmist, an Innistrad common card that costs 1 generic and 1 Green, and it transforms all human creatures. This is mainly done for the many transform cards in its block, as well as someDaybound and NightboundMTGcards from Innistrad, which were cut from the Innistrad Remastered set. However, Avatar Aang is a human, so it will be interesting to see if Moonmist sees play in Aang decks. The problem is that, because it’s already been used successfully in various decks, it’s already sitting at around $5 on TCGPlayer.
