Bumi, UnleashedBumi, Unleashed | Illustrated by Toni Infante

Boasting an EDHREC salt score of 2.67, ArmageddonArmageddon has become the scourge of casual tables. It slows games to a meager crawl, like a fly crawling its way out of a jar of molasses, and few players have not only the patience but the sheer will to continue. Even the mere mention of Armageddon during Rule 0 talks is enough to inspire potential opponents to find a different Commander pod. Naturally, while the card is technically legal, it rarely appears outside of cEDH or, perhaps, nightmares.

The fear of losing precious lands has meant that the strategy of transforming said lands into fragile creatures has fallen entirely out of favor. We're as psyched to Armageddon ourselves, or at the very least Strip MineStrip Mine ourselves, as we are to pay the one mana for our own Rhystic StudyRhystic Study or entrap ourselves in a StasisStasis and Winter OrbWinter Orb lock.

Bumi, UnleashedBumi, Unleashed and the new earthbend mechanic from Avatar has changed the risk/reward calculus on land animation, but given the strength of this iteration of Bumi, they may have overcorrected. Let's explore how a Bumi, Unleashed deck might actually celebrate sending land creatures to an early grave…

What Does Bumi, Unleashed Do?

Bumi, Unleashed seems psyched to learn just how much hurt these land creatures can dish out. He's a 5/4 Human Noble Ally with trample for that earthbends 4 upon entry. This means that one of your lands becomes a 0/0 creature and receives as many +1/+1 counters as it earthbends; in this case, four. Here's the kicker that sets Bumi far apart from his spiritual successors: when an earthbent land dies or is put in exile, it immediately returns to the battlefield tapped in its original form. The opportunity cost for animating our lands with earthbend is, therefore, just shy of zero.

Bumi's beefy stats and the resilience of earthbent lands aids the commander's last ability. When he deals combat damage to a player, we untap all of our lands and receive another combat phase exclusive to those land monsters.

Bumi, Unleashed represents both the enabler and payoff to a land animation strategy with earthbend guardrails firmly in place. Previous commanders with animation ambitions took a different tack in protect their resources. For example, Jolrael, Voice of ZhalfirJolrael, Voice of Zhalfir hopes to offset any card disadvantage by allowing us to draw cards when our lands deal damage, and Obuun, Mul Daya AncestorObuun, Mul Daya Ancestor boosts our land creatures for quick damage before they revert to land form when our turn is up. Still, until now, land animation was a decidedly unpopular strategy. According to EDHREC, there are roughly 850 land animation decks as compared to more than 30,000 Landfall ones.

Land destruction remains a fairly taboo topic at casual tables, but for this take on Bumi, we are going to encourage it amongst ourselves…

Key Cards for Bumi, Unleashed

For this take on Bumi, I had to start by acknowledging that many of the pre-earthbend land animation spells simply weren't going to make the cut. Earthbend is so vastly superior that something like Life and LimbLife and Limb or Quirion DruidQuirion Druid wouldn't make the cut. Instead, we're going to load up on Avatar cards and really lean into earthbend. Here are some of the cards I chose, with an emphasis on those offering cheap or repeatable earthbending:

• Toph receives four different treatments in Avatar, all of which slot perfectly into Buni. We're running every one: Toph, Earthbending MasterToph, Earthbending Master, Toph, Greatest EarthbenderToph, Greatest Earthbender, Toph, Hardheaded TeacherToph, Hardheaded Teacher, and Toph, the Blind BanditToph, the Blind Bandit.
• Bumi contains an earthbend ETB ability, but other cards from the set earthbend repeatedly to grow our land army regularly. These are Ba Sing SeBa Sing Se, The Boulder, Ready to RumbleThe Boulder, Ready to Rumble, and Avatar Kyoshi, EarthbenderAvatar Kyoshi, Earthbender.
• Some of our earthbenders offer ongoing anthems, as well, even if these effects are a bit overcosted. It was still worth including them to grow our earthbending stock. Standouts include Badgermole CubBadgermole Cub, Bitter WorkBitter Work, Earthbending StudentEarthbending Student, Solid GroundSolid Ground, and Earthbender AscensionEarthbender Ascension.
• BadgermoleBadgermole obviously slays in this deck, but it's still unclear what its price is going to be once the set is in regular rotation. For now, let's consider it fair game.
• I decided to run a few select non-earthbending land animation cards if they offered supreme synergy with the rest of our deck strategy. Embodiment of InsightEmbodiment of Insight and Embodiment of FuryEmbodiment of Fury made the cut.

Once our lands are properly earthbent, we're psyched if they shuffle off this mortal coil. These sac outlets allow us to reap maximum profit:

• Sylvan SafekeeperSylvan Safekeeper, Elvish ReclaimerElvish Reclaimer, Evendo BrushrazerEvendo Brushrazer, and Sprouting GoblinSprouting Goblin are all fairly straightforward, providing cards, mana, or protection in exchange for dead lands. Evendo Brushrazer even does more brush razing by offering both cards and mana.
• I have such nostalgia for Zuran OrbZuran Orb from the days when I believed life totals were paramount and lands in graveyards meant BalanceBalance hit extra hard. It may be a bit of overkill in this deck, but the Orb stands alone as the cheapest, most free land sac outlet around.
• Nahiri's LithoformingNahiri's Lithoforming operates like a budget ScapeshiftScapeshift in this deck for when we need to dig deep into our deck.
• Springbloom DruidSpringbloom Druid, Entish RestorationEntish Restoration, and HarrowHarrow are particularly strong when the land we sacrifice boomerangs back onto the battlefield. It feels great to ramp this hard.

Of course, no lands-matter deck would be complete without a bit of landfall. I decided against going all-in on the strategy to make space for more Avatar cards, but there exists no shortage of landfall all-stars from which to choose a select few:

• SabotenderSabotender, Tannuk, Memorial EnsignTannuk, Memorial Ensign, and Tireless TrackerTireless Tracker turn landfall triggers into damage and cards.
• Scute SwarmScute Swarm remains one of the best armies-in-a-can available. Opponents will freak as soon as it hits the battlefield, even without an immediate landfall trigger.
• Springheart NantukoSpringheart Nantuko slays in Bumi. Earthbend a land, bestow Nantuko onto it, play a land, pay two mana, and voila: land tokens galore.
• Omnath, Locus of RageOmnath, Locus of Rage and Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum can easily end games. I've witnessed Omnath effortlessly dish out double-digit damage more times than I can count, even without a dedicated creature sac outlet.

Earthbent lands recur themselves, but I wanted us to feel empowered to freely fill the graveyard with lands even if we had to unearth them ourselves. The following cards keep the battlefield stocked up on lands:

• Blossoming TortoiseBlossoming Tortoise ramps and provides a modest land creature-relevant anthem, to boot.
• Titania, Protector of ArgothTitania, Protector of Argoth spits out significant token power alongside a quick recursion of our best dead land.
• Worldsoul's RageWorldsoul's Rage ramps from both the graveyard and our hand while taking out a utility creature. It's unlikely we'll have more than three lands in our graveyard at a time, so this card feels like an upgrade to Splendid ReclamationSplendid Reclamation in this deck, as is Aftermath AnalystAftermath Analyst.
• As a Boomer Jund player, I'm psyched to have found an appropriate Commander deck for Wrenn and SixWrenn and Six so I can see what all the fuss is about. Planeswalkers are a mixed bag in the format, but a mere two-mana casting cost elevates Wrenn and Six above the rest.

This deck runs a fair number of utility lands, including many that can find their own way to the graveyard. Demolition FieldDemolition Field and Scavenger GroundsScavenger Grounds offer reusable removal. Fetchlands can also be earthbent into creatures and reused; I chose to include Wooded FoothillsWooded Foothills and Fabled PassageFabled Passage, but please feel free to adjust the land base according on your budget and/or tolerance for the many Evolving WildsEvolving Wilds-types available.

When I went into this Bumi experiment, my first inclination was to include plenty of manlands, or lands that, for a cost, animate themselves for a turn. Upon further investigation, it seems most of these run counter to an earthbending strategy altogether. Many require a significant mana investment, such as Raging RavineRaging Ravine and Restless RidgelineRestless Ridgeline, and ultimately only increase the land's stats for a single turn. It also wasn't worth running any of the vanilla-adjacent flavors of manland, such as MutavaultMutavault and Mishra's FactoryMishra's Factory, even if they only required a single mana to activate; one mana to give an earthbent Mutavault +2/+2 until end of turn represents a worse rate than Giant GrowthGiant Growth. However, Blinkmoth NexusBlinkmoth Nexus fits in nicely as a cheap way to provide flying. (Inkmoth NexusInkmoth Nexus is, of course, also up for grabs if you're so inclined.)

Thanks to Avatar, some of our lands have keyword abilities even when not animated. Rumble ArenaRumble Arena has vigilance, and Secret TunnelSecret Tunnel can't be blocked. Although Lotus FieldLotus Field provides hexproof, another super-relevant keyword ability, it felt like too much of a liability to earthbend because its ETB effect can be brutal.

Mosswort BridgeMosswort Bridge and Spinerock KnollSpinerock Knoll are perfect for Bumi. When repeated, these are incredible value engines that can majorly save us mana and enable the cheating of timing restrictions.

How Does This Bumi, Unleashed Commander Deck Win?

The goal here is to overwhelm our opponents with attacking lands once we've sufficiently extracted maximum value from their demises. We start by throwing down a few cheap creatures and try to earthbend at least once early on. This enables our Harrow-type effects to exceed their usual ramp capacities, though, again, we shouldn't be afraid to sacrifice lands anyways. Cards like Forgotten CaveForgotten Cave, Tranquil ThicketTranquil Thicket, Sheltered ThicketSheltered Thicket, and Sokenzan, Crucible of DefianceSokenzan, Crucible of Defiance can pad our graveyard with lands early on so our recursion methods aren't entirely dead.

Once Bumi comes out, our lands can really start swinging in unfettered. Duskshell CrawlerDuskshell Crawler and BadgermoleBadgermole unlock trample for our lands so we can get in for those extra points of damage; don't forget that earthbend resembles the amass mechanic, in that we can earthbend an already-earthbent land to grow its power and toughness even more. Quilled GreatwurmQuilled Greatwurm and Defiler of VigorDefiler of Vigor similarly act as fertilizer for our land army, encouraging fearless attacks that simply must be stopped by our opponents. Bumi includes an extra combat clause already, but Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum attaches even more combat steps to our turn whenever an earthbent land is removed from the battlefield.

Most importantly, our main goal is to outvalue our opponents so our land attacks can continue unabated. I've already mentioned Springheart Nantuko, but Ashaya, Soul of the WildAshaya, Soul of the Wild also offers a one-way ticket to Valuetown. When the card is out, we can earthbend and sacrifice our creatures for even more ETBs. Along those lines, Ojer Kaslem, Deepest GrowthOjer Kaslem, Deepest Growth's land side can be earthbent and killed to return Ojer Kaslem to its original form, ready to cheat out creatures and lands anew.

Last, but certainly not least, don't forget that Bumi's combat damage ability untaps all of our lands. Even if we don't partake in the extra combat step, we receive an influx of mana for our second main phase. Sword of Feast and FamineSword of Feast and Famine is already a busted card, so we might as well emulate its best effect.

Bumi, Unleashed Commander Decklist

Earth Day

Earthbend is one of the most anticipated new mechanics in Avatar, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. How have you been planning to abuse earthbend? Is Bumi, Unleashed of interest, or have you set your sights on one of the many Tophs? Let's break the already-broken earthbend together!