Avatar - Second Looks
- Mike Sigrist
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
This week, I got to play a few drafts with the Avatar cards from last week's post. While the Limited set is fun, I'll dive deeper into that next time. Now, let's look at a few more Avatar cards that have a shot in 60-card formats.
Raven Eagle is an interesting, aggressive three-drop that does just enough to see play in Standard and potentially beyond. Raven Eagle can nibble graveyards, making it difficult for opponents to utilize their graveyard as a resource, but also, if you happen to pick up creatures this way, you'll gain value. We also have a static ability that drains the opponent for a life if you're drawing multiple cards per turn. This resembles Graveyard Trespasser, which saw a lot of play in the past.
Raven Eagle, however, is much worse than Trespasser because it lacks two key elements: the ability to flip into a larger threat and, most importantly, no ward. While I believe the eagle is still a potentially competitive card, I'd prefer the ward to the ability to make clues.
It will be interesting to see if the Eagle has enough juice to push into playability. It's almost there, but in a much larger Standard, it may fall short.
At first glance, Firebending Student looked like a mediocre two-drop. That is, until I played it in Limited. While I still think there's a good chance Firebending Student doesn't see much play because it requires you to build around it, it's still extremely powerful when left unchecked.
The firebending mechanic can cast an entire handful of spells once you enter combat, such as unloading all the burn in your hand in a single turn or a bunch of red cantrips and draw spells. In turn, Firebending Student will hit for huge chunks of damage in the process.
Firebending Student, along with various pump spells like Monstrous Rage (if it were still legal) and cards that can give it double strike, can end the game as early as turn three in Standard. This is a must-answer two-drop and can single-handedly punish any slow draw from the opponent.
While Firebending Student is explosive, this deck-build type is also glass cannon in nature.
Firebending Student has the opportunity to be one of the set's better cards if there's a solid enough shell to build around it, but also the deck will need to be resilient for when we don't draw the student or the opponent is able to interact with it.
This is an extremely strong card that I expect many people to work on in the near future.
Spirit Water Revival is the best divination we've seen. A three-mana-draw-two with an unbelievable upside to draw seven. This is not a card we're going to see in a deck like Prowess, Phoenix, or even a control deck. Spirit Water Revival will likely see no play at all, but the decks it would potentially see play in are decks that put a ton of tokens into play and can pay the waterbend cost, essentially, for free. A card like Chromehost that leaves these trinket artifact tokens in play can fuel Spirit Water Revival and turn it into a three-mana-draw-seven, and then perhaps continue to chain off and potentially cast another.
While I think it's unlikely we see much of Spirit Water Revival, it has some high upsides and is powerful enough to keep an eye on.
I read this card for the first time while drafting, took it, put it in my deck, and realized afterwards that it's playable in Constructed. At instant speed, Aang can interact with spells on the stack or clear creatures. It also leaves you with a 2/3 flying body to use for attack.
Additionally, Aang can transform into Aang and La, Ocean's Fury to close the game even faster.
This is a cheap, disruptive tempo creature with the ability to turn itself into a giant creature to close the game. There's almost no chance this card doesn't see play, as it's too efficient and versatile. While the backside isn't overly powerful, it's still strong enough to make a small battlefield of creatures into a lethal attack.
I love this card, and it's the first card I'd find a home for in Standard.
Tiger Seal is another cheap, efficient threat that requires you to build around it. However, it asks you to build around it in a similar way to Firebending Student. As long as we're drawing extra cards every turn, we get a one-mana 3/3 vigilance. Filling our decks with cards like Opt, we can trigger the seal every turn. You won't need many turns before the opponent has either lost or completely taken over the game.
While Tiger Seal's downside can be painful, that is, wasting a card and never getting to attack with it, decks filled with cantrips like this can play low-land counts, so this happens less frequently.
It remains to be seen if Tiger Seal has what it takes, but with all the low-curve, aggressive threats I'm seeing in this set, and a huge Standard format, Standard might be turning into a lean format where four- and five-mana spells may not have a significant place.
So far, Avatar has been a lot of fun to play with in Limited. By playing Limited, I gained a much better understanding of how certain cards will play out in Constructed. I originally thought this set was weak for Constructed, but I now see there are a few extremely powerful cards just waiting to find a home.
As for me, I'll be focusing on playing Limited for the time being, but seeing the cards, I may get the itch to play Standard too. We'll have to see, but I'll be back next week to talk about all things Avatar Limited. See you then.