Commander Deck Tech: Aang, Swift Savior (Aang and La, Ocean's Fury)

Avatar Roku's successor, Aang, is more than just the protagonist in the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated show. He is the last Air Nomad in the world and the first Avatar to master energy bending, which he used at the time to remove Firelord Ozai's firebending.

In this article, we'll show you two lists with Aang, Swift Savior, the Azorius version of him. The first one is a blink list that lets you reuse Aang's airbending constantly, and the second is a control strategy.

Let's meet our commander!

Aang traveled around the world in the series, but he was originally from the Southern Air Temple, where he lived with his mentor, Monk Gyatso (if you'd like to see more about this character, check out our Monk Gyatso deck tech!). There, he was free to master airbending and play with other children.

At 12, because of the war, Aang's elders decided to send him to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training. He was so afraid to be away from his friends that he tried to escape, but he was caught in a storm and spent 100 years frozen in an iceberg as a result.

The Avatar: The Last Airbender set gave us 8 Aangs, and they're all legendary creatures:

In this article, we'll explore Aang, Swift Savior.

This Aang comes in with flash, has flying, doesn't cost a lot of mana, and has an ETB ability. This ability lets us airbend a target creature or spell, quite similar to Unsubstantiate.

We can also waterbend 8 and turn him into Aang and La, Ocean's Fury. Like so, he has reach, trample, and, when he attacks, we may put +1/+1 counters on our tapped creatures.

Aang is in the right colors and has the perfect abilities for blink/control decks. That's why we'll focus on these strategies in these two lists.

Once in play, the cards in this list will make sure Aang can come in and out of the board several times. Like so, we'll be able to get 100% out of this commander's ETB effect without having to cast him again.

The blink spells in this list and our alternative list are critical. Nonetheless, let's start with the other airbending interactions.

Airbending

What's interesting about Aang, Swift Savior's airbending is that we can use it on any creature or spell, including ours. For instance, we can use this effect to exile a Ghostly Flicker that we just cast, or return an attacker under our opponent's control.

Airbending has, so far, only appeared in the Avatar set. This means we only have a few options if we want to use this ability, but they're actually quite diverse.

With Airbending Lesson, besides airbending, we'll also draw. As for Avatar's Wrath, it will clear the board and buy us some time so that we can get ahead of our opponents.

Appa, Steadfast Guardian and Aang, Airbending Master will fill our board with 1/1 Ally creature tokens. By the way, we'll also get more experience counters with Airbending Master when we blink something.

Blink

Let's see this list's blink cards.

Yorion, Sky Nomad and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are essential in blink strategies.

Meanwhile, Waterbender's Restoration, Morningtide's Light, and Airbender Ascension are new additions, but just as welcome.

Soulherder is usually the first card opponents want to remove because it blinks something at our end step and still grows as our creatures leave play.

Besides these cards, we also added a few fun bounce cards (cards that return creatures and spells to their owner's hand) that can protect us or our creatures:

Win Scenarios

Blink decks might take advantage of infinite effects when creatures leave and enter play, but they often struggle to finish the game with only these loops.

We added Altar of the Brood precisely for that reason.

Besides this artifact, we also added Approach of the Second Sun, which can return to our hand with the help of Venser, Shaper Savant. As this interaction needs a lot of mana to work, it is a lot more complicated.

Let's see a few combos that make it easier for us to use the spells above and win. Notice that these cards are useful even outside these combos. You can use them with several other cards as well.

Felidar Guardian and Restoration Angel

This is one of the most popular combos for blink decks.

1. With Restoration Angel in play, cast Felidar Guardian.

2. Target Restoration Angel with Felidar Guardian's ability.

3. When Restoration Angel comes into play, target Felidar Guardian with its ability.

4. Repeat this process as much as you'd like.

It's that simple. This loop is easy to control (so we can stop it whenever we want) and can finish the game with the help of Altar of the Brood.

Venser, Shaper Savant, Peregrine Drake, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines or Panharmonicon

For this combo, we'll need something to double ETB effects, like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines or Panharmonicon, on our board.

We'll use Panharmonicon in our example, but keep in mind that anything that doubles ETB triggers can work (if you'd like to see more options, click here).

1. First, you must have Venser and Peregrine Drake in your hand and Panharmonicon in play.

2. Tap the lands to cast Peregrine Drake.

3. When Peregrine Drake enters play, Panharmonicon will make Peregrine Drake's ability trigger an extra time. Resolve the first trigger and untap the five lands.

4. Keep priority and tap them again to get more mana.

5. Resolve Peregrine Drake's second effect and cast Venser, Shaper Savant.

6. Venser, Shaper Savant's ability will also double. Use it to return Peregrine Drake and Venser itself to your hand.

7. Repeat this process as much as you'd like.

With this loop, you'll create infinite mana and will also be able to end the game with the Altar.

Aang, Swift Savior is in the perfect colors for a good, old control Commander list.

This list plays many of the same cards as our blink list above, but we added some mischievous pieces like:

Drannith Magistrate has been scary to Commander players for a while. With it, the enemy cards we target with Aang's airbending will be locked in exile until they can remove him from play.

Another highlight is Blind Obedience, which also prevents our opponents from developing their plans. It has extort as well, so it drains life when we cast spells.

Aang, Swift Savior is a pacifist, just like Aang is in the show. That doesn't mean he is weak, though.

Alongside the best blink and control spells, Aang, Swift Savior demands respect and will lock down your opponents.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!