Commander Deck Tech: Monk Gyatso

Monk Gyatso, Avatar Roku's friend and Avatar Aang's mentor, is the star of today's Commander deck tech!

This powerful sage will create a lot of value with blink cards and even powerful and fearsome Eldrazi in Monowhite airbending decks.

In this article, you'll find two lists with Gyatso. The main one combines several ETBs, and the second focuses more on Allies, so it's a good option if you want to build a list around this character but also play the Avatar: The Last Airbender set.

Before we move on to our lists, let's meet our commander!

Gyatso is a very knowledgeable airbender with an incredible sense of humor. He shows up in the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender show in flashbacks, either as Aang's father figure or one of Avatar Roku's closest friends.

Gyatso was sadly murdered during the Air Nomad genocide promoted by Fire Lord Sozin, but his teachings are a big part of the entire show.

In Magic: The Gathering, he was represented as Monk Gyatso, a Monowhite four-mana 3/3 creature without any keywords or evasion.

Monk Gyatso's ability triggers when another creature you control is targeted by a spell or ability. If so, you can airbend that creature.

So far, airbending is an exclusive ability from this set. When it triggers, you'll exile a creature from play and let that permanent's controller cast it from exile for two generic mana. Airbending doesn't change the card's casting speed, however.

Our main list plays a few blink staples, airbending interactions, such as Appa, Steadfast Guardian, and powerful ETBs, like Ulamog, the Defiler.

Just like the Air Nomads, this list is a bit of a "pacifist" and focuses less on combats. Instead, it has you airbend your creatures whenever possible to control the board, all while you build your side with 1/1 Ally tokens or look for big creatures in your deck.

Ramp and Mana Rocks

To cast airbending spells from exile constantly, we need a solid mana base with lots of lands. The idea is to fill your board with them all at once on a single turn.

Out of the cards above, we must highlight Solemn Simulacrum, an artifact creature that shows up often in Commander decks and is extremely valuable. It can give you an extra card and a land in the same turn you cast it.

Besides the permanents that create mana and look for lands, this list also plays a few cards that discount costs.

Please note that these cards are supposed to help us cast exiled white creatures through airbending.

Airbending

To make Monk Gyatso work well and consistently, we need cards that target other cards, particularly creatures or permanents.

The idea is to take advantage of equipment cards we can attach for free to airbend as many creatures with interesting ETBs as possible.

For instance: if you're behind in mana, you can airbend Solemn Simulacrum to look for another land. If you need creatures to protect yourself, you can airbend Recruiter of the Guard and look for cards like Skyclave Apparition, Grand Abolisher, or Mother of Runes.

You can use these equipment cards to complete dungeons faster and airbend creatures like White Plume Adventurer and Nadaar, Selfless Paladin with Monk Gyatso.

Big Creatures

Overall, this deck plays small creatures with various effects. However, we want to win, so we added a few "big" creatures that have abilities any player is wise to fear.

As airbending lets you cast a creature for two mana, we can use effects on big Eldrazi, like Emrakul, the Promised End, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and Ulamog, the Defiler more than once per match.

Even though we'll need 10 mana to cast those creatures, reusing their abilities for just two generic mana is just too valuable.

Card Draw

Monowhite can't draw as much as green or blue, but it has cool options that will continuously draw cards while they're in play with the help of Monk Gyatso.

As your creatures will become a lot cheaper because you'll airbend them, you'll be able to cast more than one spell per turn. Then, Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield will draw cards for you and give you 0/3 Wall tokens.

Creatures like Inspiring Overseer, Spirited Companion, and Welcoming Vampire, which draw through ETBs, are also critical and create more value from cards like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines and Panharmonicon.

Trouble in Pairs, Tocasia's Welcome, and Smuggler's Share were also a must.

Our alternative list is centered around Allies. It plays lots of cards from Avatar: The Last Airbender and some classic Allies from planes like Zendikar.

This list is more casual. It also plays many Appas and Aangs.

Besides these two characters, this list plays a few cards for flavor:

Just like our main list, this one targets creatures to take advantage of their ETBs. The difference is that this one plays more Allies and more airbending cards, while our main list leans on Monk Gyatso to do that.

In the show, we saw how Monk Gyatso was a critical part of Aang's upbringing before the Fire Nation attacked. He taught him airbending and inspired him with his sense of humor.

As a legendary MTG creature, this airbending sage promises to lead you through very fun matches. You'll explore a unique mechanic and get even more value out of each card, including a few very well-known staples.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!