Avatar: The Last Airbender key art | Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

Hello, everyone! I’m Levi from The Thought Vessel, and today we’re looking at a brand new commander appearing in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’ve always been a fan of the series, and when I saw an Aang Magic card that deals with experience counters, I was thrilled. This type of commander is right in my wheelhouse, so naturally I just had to brew around it. But what exactly is the card that got me so excited?

The Commander

Aang, Airbending MasterAang, Airbending Master is a five-mana 4/4 Human Avatar Ally that airbends another target creature when it enters the battlefield. Airbending means that the chosen target is exiled and can then be recast for two generic mana rather than its original cost. What’s interesting is that this alternate cost doesn’t require any colored mana, so with the right reducers it can drop all the way to zero.

Additionally, whenever one or more creatures leave the battlefield, we gain an experience counter. Then, at the beginning of each of our upkeeps, Aang creates a 1/1 Soldier token for every experience counter we have.

Aang arrives with a way to trigger his own ability, a way to scale up throughout the game, and a clear plan to build up our board. All the pieces are here for him to “do the thing.” What we need to do is surround him with the right support to keep the deck moving in the right direction.

The Game Plan

So what does Aang actually want to do? His abilities point us in a clear direction. He rewards us when creatures leave the battlefield, which earns us experience counters, and those counters fuel his token-making ability. That means we want to lean into blink and flicker effects that exile creatures and bring them back, or at least exile them temporarily. Because of this, creatures like FlickerwispFlickerwisp are going to be our bread and butter. There’s no shortage of creatures that blink other creatures when they enter the battlefield, and those kinds of chains are exactly what Aang wants to see. We’ll build up experience quickly if we can blink creatures repeatedly each turn so when we get to our upkeep Aang can make as many tokens as possible. 

We’ll also want to pair that with some strong blink payoffs. Creatures like Solemn SimulacrumSolemn Simulacrum or Thalia's LancersThalia's Lancers give us repeatable value every time we reset them. Over time, they’ll pile up a huge advantage. On top of that, we need to maximize the tokens Aang creates. With a board full of Soldiers, even the smallest synergies can snowball into a win.

The strength of this strategy is its adaptability. Blink decks are famous for pivoting depending on the situation. If the board gets messy, we can pull back and generate card advantage. If the coast is clear, we can flood the board with tokens and pressure life totals. The flexibility is what makes this commander so much fun.

Key Cards

The best card in the deck is Aang’s faithful companion, Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian, another Avatar: The Last Airbender addition. Appa has flash, and when it enters it can airbend any number of nonland permanents we control. That ability is huge. It can save our board from a wipe, reset our value creatures, or set up multiple blink payoffs in one swoop.

The real spice, though, is when we combine Appa with cost-reducers. Since Aang can airbend Appa and Appa can airbend Aang, they can take turns airbending one another. With their costs reduced, this becomes an infinite loop that piles on experience counters, tokens, or whatever payoff we need. The dynamic duo really can take over the table when left unchecked.

Felidar GuardianFelidar Guardian is another staple of blink decks, and for good reason. It can target any permanent, not just creatures, which gives us all kinds of flexibility. It provides those extra blink triggers that quickly stack experience counters. It also combos with cards like Restoration AngelRestoration Angel or Preston, the VanisherPreston, the Vanisher for infinite loops. If you’d rather avoid infinite combos, you can simply exclude those interactions, but they’re here if you want the option.

Aerial ExtortionistAerial Extortionist adds another layer to the deck. It’s important to remember that Aang’s airbending doesn’t have to target our creatures, it can target any creature. That means we can exile opponents’ creatures and force them to recast them, while Aerial Extortionist draws us cards. It turns what could be a defensive play into a source of huge card advantage.

This deck has a lot of legendary cards that are huge players for us, so Thalia's LancersThalia's Lancers is a great inclusion. Every time it enters, we get to tutor up a legendary card to our hand. Though it is unlikely and would require a good bit of mana, we can actually tutor up entire combo lines with this card being blinked or airbended over and over again. 

Touch the Spirit RealmTouch the Spirit Realm is a neat piece of tech borrowed from cEDH tables. Because Channel abilities aren’t spells, they’re harder to counter. For two mana, we can Channel it to save a creature from removal and get another blink trigger without the risk of the effect being countered as a spell, or we can cast it for three mana to exile an opposing threat. That flexibility makes it a nice inclusion for this type of deck.

Solemn SimulacrumSolemn Simulacrum and Kor CartographerKor Cartographer are excellent blink payoffs here as well. Repeatedly flickering them will pull more PlainsPlains from the deck, keeping our mana flowing and ensuring we can keep pace in the late game. Sword of Hearth and HomeSword of Hearth and Home is a personal favorite. It can protect a creature from targeted removal, blink another for value, and ramp us at the same time. The one drawback is its protection from white, which prevents us from targeting the equipped creature with our own effects. It’s something to keep in mind, but the upside is worth it.

These types of effects do two very important things for us. First, they thin our deck. While many players argue that thinning doesn’t matter much in Commander since we’re starting with 99 cards, repeated use can add up. With something like PanharmoniconPanharmonicon and Conjurer's ClosetConjurer's Closet in play, we could easily pull 5 to 15 Plains from the deck. That’s enough to noticeably change draw quality.

Second, they ramp us. Blink decks tend to be mana-hungry, since we’re casting creatures repeatedly rather than just once. It’s the difference between Nature's ClaimNature's Claim and Loran of the Third PathLoran of the Third Path. Claim is cheap and efficient, but Loran sticks around and can be reused. Over the course of the game, those extra costs add up, and we need to keep our mana base strong to keep playing at full speed.

The Cost-Reducers

This deck really wants to lean on cost reduction, so we’re running four reducers.

The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal is the weakest of the bunch, since it costs four mana, but it still has utility. It can grant our whole team flying and lifelink for the turn, which can swing games if we need to close quickly. Sometimes you don’t need every card to be perfect, sometimes you just need them to fill a role.

Oketra's MonumentOketra's Monument is stronger. It reduces the cost of all our white creatures and produces a 1/1 Warrior token whenever we cast one. Even without dedicated token synergies, that production adds up and gives us redundancy if Aang isn’t on the field.

Pearl MedallionPearl Medallion is a classic Magic staple, making every white spell cost one less. In mono-white, it’s one of the most reliable cards we can ask for.

Finally, there’s one of my pet cards: The Immortal SunThe Immortal Sun. We’re not running planeswalkers, so the downside doesn’t matter. It reduces the cost of all our spells, draws us an extra card each turn, and it buffs our entire team with a +1/+1 anthem. It does everything we want and then some.

Token Synergy

Since Aang’s token production is a core part of the deck, we’ve dedicated a few slots to make the token plan a bit more impactful. Abdel Adrian, Gorion's WardAbdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward is a jack of all trades in this deck. It can protect us from wipes by exiling our board, enable more blink triggers, and generate piles of soldier tokens when combined with other blink effects in the ninety-nine. With the amount of permanents we can exile, Abdel can easily flood the board.

Reverent HopliteReverent Hoplite and Evangel of HeliodEvangel of Heliod both scale off devotion to white, which in this deck gets very high. They can both produce massive numbers of tokens on their own, but Divine VisitationDivine Visitation takes those tokens to the next level, turning every 1/1 into a 4/4 Angel with flying. It quadruples our board presence in one card.

Blessed SanctuaryBlessed Sanctuary is another great inclusion. It gives us a 2/2 Unicorn whenever a nontoken creature enters, feeding more tokens into our engine. It also protects us from damage-based board wipes, like Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act, which is a nice bonus.

Heraldic BannerHeraldic Banner serves as both ramp and a buff to all our creatures. Even just +1 power across a board of 15 Soldiers can be the difference between victory and a stalled game.

Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade is one of the most explosive finishers we can play. Each time a creature enters, every creature we control gets a +1/+1 counter. With Aang generating a dozen or more tokens, it quickly creates a lethal board. And if combat isn’t an option, SkullclampSkullclamp turns our tokens into steady card draw, letting us refill and keep the engine running.

Game Changers

There are two big game-changers in the list. They’re not essential, so feel free to swap them if you prefer, but they can swing games in our favor. The first is Enlightened TutorEnlightened Tutor. Cost-reducers are essential to our infinite loops, and the Tutor helps us find them. It gives us the consistency we need to get the deck online faster.

The second is The One RingThe One Ring. It’s already a strong card for keeping our hand full, but it has even more value here. With Appa or Aerial Extortionist, we can reset The One RingThe One Ring over and over, effectively giving us permanent protection from everything until an opponent finds a way to break the lock. While that isn’t always the flashiest way to win, it gives us time to build our token army and eventually close the game.

How Do We Win?

Like most blink decks, this list aims to overwhelm opponents with value and creature tokens until they can’t keep up. That might be through infinite loops, but often it’s simply a matter of snowballing advantage. Once the board is stabilized, we’ll generate so many tokens and so much incremental value that there’s no catching up.

Halo FountainHalo Fountain offers an alternate win condition. With all the tokens we can generate, it’s easy to attack with or tap fifteen creatures, then activate Halo Fountain’s ability for an instant win.

And as a final backup, Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry acts as our mono-white Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth. It gives our entire team flying and a massive power boost, turning our board of tokens into an unstoppable strike.

Leveling Up

If we want to push this deck into higher power brackets, I would recommend something I’ve never actually suggested before on any dech tech: swapping the commander. Moving from Aang, Airbending MasterAang, Airbending Master to Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian changes the deck’s structure but makes it more powerful. Appa costs less, has flying, and can airbend multiple permanents at once. With cost-reducers, setting up infinite loops is much easier, and you don’t have to wait until upkeep to start producing tokens.

In that version, I’d increase the quality of ramp by adding cards like Mana VaultMana Vault, since Appa can airbend them to "untap" them. I’d also add more tutors to improve consistency and even explore stax pieces like Winter MoonWinter Moon, which slows opponents down far more than it slows us. Since we’re in mono-white, we’re well positioned to take advantage of that kind of stax effect. 

Wrapping Up

The airbending mechanic is a fascinating addition to Magic. I love the idea of recasting spells repeatedly and finding ways to exploit casting synergies, whether with something like Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir or with cards that care about being cast, like Ulamog, the Infinite GyreUlamog, the Infinite Gyre. The downside, of course, is that permanents being cast again are vulnerable to counterspell magic, which definitely adds some risk. Even so, I’m just excited to see more blink tools printed. They open up new directions for the archetype and give us more ways to brew.

As always, feel free to use this deck however it suits you. You can copy the list directly, take it as a starting point for your own build, or just pick up a few ideas. At the end of the day, you’re the one steering your Commander experience. Until next time, happy brewing.

Aang, Airbending Master Commander Deck List