The Gathering’s Most Hyped Avatar Commander May Do a 180

With only about 90 cards revealed so far for the main Avatar: The Last Airbender set, and with the Spider-Man set being released in less than two weeks, it’s likely going to be a bit before Magic: The Gathering spoilers resume. Still, Spider-Man has already had its fair share of controversies so far, even before its release. In contrast, the sentiment surrounding the Avatar set and its Eternal counterpart has been more positive, and players have been theorycrafting new Avatar Commander decks in MTG since the reveal. Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements was the first card revealed for the set and a popular commander, but another has taken its place, even if things may change yet again.

Avatar‘s Eternal counterpart arguably produced one of the best commanders in Magic: The Gathering in the form of Katara, Waterbending Master, which can be equally strong in the 99 (or 98) of many good commanders. Yet, the main set will introduce another card that has captured the attention of fans due to its strong abilities, and that is Top, the First Metalbender. While Toph is fantastic and could be amazing in various formats, its popularity in Commander may backfire for multiple reasons.

Magic: The Gathering’s Most Popular Avatar Commander May Have Skeletons in Its Closet

Top, the First Metalbender is a 4-CMC creature (1 generic, 1 Red, 1 Green, and 1 White) with 3 power and toughness. It has two abilities, the first of which makes nontoken artifacts under the player’s control lands in addition to their other types, whereas the second is earthbend 2 at the beginning of the user’s end step. Earthbend allows players to place +1/+1 counters on lands, which become creatures with haste, and when they die or are exiled, they come back into play tapped. These mechanics can be difficult to master, but they could turn Toph from the most hyped and beloved commander in the set into a nightmare for three reasons:

• Since Toph turns nontoken artifacts into lands and any land can become a creature via earthbend, it can be hard to keep track of everything that’s going on in a given game, especially in a 4-player format like Commander.
• MTG‘s Blossoming Tortoise and Basalt Monolith already make for a powerful infinite mana combo with Toph, and it can have many other very strong combos that disrupt the game state, like with Felidar Retreat to make each land or artifact affected by earthbend get +1/+1 counters every time a land comes into play.
• Toph’s existence and possible meta share in Commander may mean that Magic: The Gathering‘s most hated strategy will see more play, that being mass land destruction.

For these reasons, even if Toph is now the most popular Commander from Avatar or even the most hyped new Avatar card in MTG as a whole, it may get post-launch hate when it starts disrupting tables in Commander. Its Naya color identity also makes stax cards like MTG‘s Smothering Tithes playable in the deck, and while it lacks the colors to run the usual win-con of Thassa’s Oracle and Demonic Consultation, it has a lot of great tools.

MTG’s Toph May Not Be So Hated if Decks Are Built Right

Still, there is a silver lining. Toph, the First Metalbender, doesn’t seem to be the single best commander out there, and this will hardly change with the other Avatar cards in Magic: The Gathering. It could very well play into Mycosynth Lattice for its artifact synergy, and Vandalblast is a staple in the format. Likewise, mass removal like the newly revealed Villainous Wrath from Spider-Man may put a big dent into Toph’s strategy, if the deck does not straight up lose to it. As such, there are counters to use, some of which are already in most Commander decks, and others may be slight adjustments. If this is the case, Toph’s popularity may not dwindle, but it remains to be seen.

Original Release Date

August 5, 1993

Designer

Richard Garfield

Player Count

2+

Age Recommendation

13+