Standard: Avatar: The Last Airbender's First Week

After a busy weekend, amidst a brief interval between the Banned & Restricted update and the release of Avatar, Standard is showing the first signs of the Metagame's behavior after these changes—and they bring new things.

Besides the clear prominence of Badgermole Cub—by far the most played new card in the format—Avatar also brought new archetype variants like Azorius Tempo, new decks like Allies, and the return of Dimir Bounce as a viable strategy with Boomerang Basics.

Between the weekend's Challenges and the Japan Standard Cup, we have enough results to assess the initial impact of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Standard, and in this article, we break down the main new features for the format!

A Staple Called Badgermole Cub

Badgermole Cub was the highlight of the new set, and far beyond just Standard: the card reached the point of having four copies in a list that finished a Legacy Challenge with a 10-0 result.

It turns out that, as mentioned in other cases, the ability to easily generate free mana can be abused in some way by any archetype willing to make the necessary deckbuilding concessions, and for Badgermole, this is basically done by having around eight mana dorks.

The first list to achieve results with the card was a Simic deck aiming to maximize mana dorks to play Wan Shi Tong, Librarian and other bombs early, but it didn't take long for players to discover that it wasn't necessary to go for a full Ramp route to take advantage of the new card—simply making the most of the extra mana.

Simic Counters is the list with the most results in the first week of Avatar and proves the potential of Badgermole Cub in a fair archetype geared towards a game plan that doesn't revolve solely around accelerating mana. The new card, in addition to providing two bodies on the board, interacts with Gene Pollinator and Llanowar Elves to enable more explosive turns with the combination of Nature's Rhythm and Ouroboroid.

Players have also combined the card with effective payoffs. In this case, Lively Dirge is used as a pseudo-tutor for Ouroboroid, not unlike Nature’s Rhythm, but the splash of allows Overlord of the Balemurk to be used as a consistent source of recursion for attrition games. Bonus for Overlord's interaction with Spider Manifestation and Badgermole Cub to cast it almost for free at the Impending cost, or for only at the original cost.

In this version, the payoff becomes Virtue of Loyalty as copies 5 to 8 of Ouroboroid, making it much harder to remove. The white splash also adds to the card advantage package through Enduring Innocence, which interacts with all creatures in the list to guarantee extra draws each turn.

Badgermole Cub also appeared in Landfall lists alongside the new Earthbender Ascension, where the game plan doesn't involve resolving an Ouroboroid, but using the extra mana to get Icetill Explorer onto the battlefield early and start replaying the "Fetch Lands" to stack multiple instances of Landfall.

Airbending: A New Combo on the Radar

A new "infinite" combo has arrived in Standard with Avatar: Airbend allows you to cast the exiled card by paying , which means that Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius's ability makes these spell cost .

Enter Aang, Swift Savior and Appa, Steadfast Guardian: both have an ability that Airbends creatures, with Appa having the bonus of creating a 1/1 token whenever you cast an spell from exile — it's possible to use one to Airbend the other, play it for free with Doc Aurlock, to Airbend the other, repeating a loop that creates an army of Allies in play.

The combo is quite cumbersome to play in Magic Arena since it's time-consuming, but it has shown significant results.

Basically, they all use the Badgermole Cub base with Gene Pollinator and Llanowar Elves to accelerate the combo while maintaining a consistent game plan by mixing Aang, at the Crossroads with Ouroboroid and/or Quantum Riddler, allowing it to play a fair and efficient value plan while setting up for the combo, even being able to remove Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius in games where the archetype needs more attrition.

Allies, the new Aggro deck in Standard

The Allies deck functions almost like an archetype built solely with Avatar cards in the main deck, attesting to the power level of each card in the set individually, while taking advantage of synergies with Earthen Ally and Katara, the Fearless and the improved mana base with Cavern of Souls.

The Return of Dimir/Esper Bounce

Boomerang Basics may not be This Town Ain’t Big Enough, but it generates value with any ETB effect, allowing the return of the traditional Dimir Bounce with Fear of Isolation and Stormchaser’s Talent, now accompanied by The Legend of Kuruk as a win condition.

Other versions add Quantum Riddler and Thundertrap Trainer to the mix instead of The Legend of Kuruk and Entity Tracker, which are individually more reliable and less conditional cards within the overall scope of the list, but at the cost of generating less value with enchantment synergies and other ETB effects.

The new card was also an excellent motivator for Esper Bounce lists, where it offers an extra draw while allowing Tempo plays against the opponent, as well as guaranteeing an easy trigger for Cosmogrand Zenith.

The Post-Ban and Post-Avatar Izzet

Izzet decks remains great in the current Metagame.

The Izzet Looters version, which lost Vivi Ornitier and Proft’s Eidetic Memory, remains an efficient fair deck and now has a more explosive clock with Tiger Seal to complement Marauding Mako as one-drops, while also taking advantage of the extra draw provided by Boomerang Basics to strengthen Duelist of the Mind.

The new card was also present in Prowess' lists, which, since last week, have been betting on a less aggressive variant taking advantage of a Midrange core with effective finishers like Quantum Riddler and its combo with Splash Portal.

The Others

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian has appeared in some Jeskai Control / Four Color Control lists. A four-color variant with green has also shown up running Shared Roots and also Aang's Iceberg as an effective instant-speed removal.

Aang's Iceberg was also featured in one of the top 8 lists of the Japan Standard Cup, Azorius Tempo, using several creatures with efficient ETB and Enduring Curiosity to pressure the opponent. This is also one of the best archetypes to play with Avatar's Wrath, as it allows reusing Aang, Swift Savior, Tishana's Tidebinder, and Aven Interrupter for a lower cost.

Firebender Ascension and Delney, Streetwise Lookout are a powerful duo alongside low-power creatures with relevant attack triggers, thus establishing a new Boros Aggro variant focused on pressuring the opponent during combat.

The enchantment was also the highlight of a Mono Red Aggro list aiming to maximize the Firebending ability with several instant spells to extract value from the extra mana, including Great Train Heist to gain an extra combat phase.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!