I know.

Believe me, I know that all you are thinking about is how you missed Gran-Gran for the last few weeks; or the wisdom of your recent Badgermole Cub investment ("come on, there were only two Temur decks but five actual Izzet decks!"); or mayhap how far from your moral center it is to play Superior Spider-Man.

But Avatar: The Last Airbender gave us more than one overpowered strategy! This one just happens to have some four-mana spells - admittedly across three colors - instead of all one mana spells.

But man does it have a heck of a Plan B.

0. BearBending on Easy Mode

The "core" combo is Appa, Steadfast Guardian in combination with any other Airbending permanent, with Doc Aurlock in play. While Doc was intended to work with the Plot mechanic (which by definition stretches over multiple turns), he technically synergizes with Airbending in the same cost-reducing way. And as Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin always reminds me, "Technically correct is the best kind of correct."

So: Appa + Doc + X is a recipe for any number of 0 mana Airbending plays during which time Appa makes a commensurate number of 1/1 Ally tokens.

The dumbest opening I've ever had was this:

Turn one: Land, go.

Turn two: Land, Bramble Familiar.

Turn three: Land, tap Bramble Familiar for . With 4 total mana, play Doc Aurlock and Airbender Ascension, Airbending Bramble Familiar. Play Fetch Quest (Bramble Familiar's better half) for 0 mana, flipping over Appa, Steadfast Guardian of course. Get to about 19 Allies before the opponent concedes out of boredom.

Doc Aurlock is a must for the combo because of his cost reduction ability.

Appa is the essential third leg of the combo, because as cool as it is to take an infinite number of repeated actions, only Appa lets you actually move forward by generating power.

The middle leg is usually Aang, Swift Savior - that debonair, if prematurely bald, teenage Spell Queller / Reflector Mage - but can be the aforementioned Airbender Ascension or any number of other options. For instance, Chapin speculated that Aang, the Last Airbender might be tapped just for the potential redundancy as specifically a creature that triggered Airbending.

While the third turn concession I described was both fast and powerful, it was also limited. For instance if the opponent has a relevant sweeper it's at least annoying. Like, you have to rebuild some component of the combo (even with a potentially free Appa). It's also locked into main phase as a result of Airbender Ascension not having Flash.

The more ironclad versions can go off during the opponent's end step, swapping Aang and Appa (who both have Flash) to generate infinite power at a point in the opponent's turn where it is much less likely they will be able to pull off a sweeper. But even the purest version at instant speed (often turn two Doc, turn three tempo the opponent with Aang, finish them off with Appa on turn four) is only doing one thing.

Like, a humble Authority of the Consuls is going to generate a lot of triggers. Probably not enough to actually win the game, but enough that it's at least annoying and you kind of have to know what to do. For some input on how to handle that card, jump down to #4.

This article is about BearBending on HARD Mode. It's not just that sometimes "infinite" isn't enough; it's that for practical purposes, you might not be able to hit infinite to begin with. On Magic: The Gathering Arena, you're probably not going to cross 19-23 Allies before you run out of rope. People can beat 19-23 1/1 creatures! And if you're not perfect on your timing, you might end your turn with the wrong 187 Airbender in hand... Or no Airbender at all!

1. Go, Go Counterspell

One of Aang's most compelling identities in this game we love is just as a walking - sorry flying - permission spell.

In the abstract I might tell you to "just end your turn with Aang in hand" but if you have Appa, you can theoretically just Airbend Aang with Appa, and then use Aang to Counterspell the opponent anyway.

The important thing to understand here is that if you are forced to "go off" on your own turn for whatever reason, and expose your squad to a potential sweeper (or just game-winner), Aang might not be able to save you all by himself. If the opponent just has 6-7 mana it will be difficult to stop them from just re-casting their Wrath effect for two mana. Depending on how many cards you had going on your own turn, you might have two ore more Aangs and two or more Appas, which might allow you to tax the opposing spell for 4, 6, or even more mana; not just two.

A subtle play with permission-Aang (or Appa) might be getting around Inevitable Defeat. You can't actually Counterspell Inevitable Defeat, but you might be able to Airbend away the card's target in response, causing the spell to fizzle. So... Un-counter-able? No argument. "But technically correct is the best kind of correct."

2. Tapping for Red Mana

There are multiple versions of the Bant BearBending deck, but this article mostly assumes a build like this one:

Bant Airbending Combo | TLA Standard | NHA37, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Aven Interrupter
• 1 Imodane's Recruiter
• 1 Quantum Riddler
• 4 Aang, at the Crossroads
• 4 Aang, Swift Savior
• 4 Appa, Steadfast Guardian
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Bramble Familiar
• 4 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
• 4 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Llanowar Elves

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Nature's Rhythm

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Airbender Ascension

• Lands (21)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Starting Town

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Avatar's Wrath
• 3 Aven Interrupter
• 2 Cathar Commando
• 2 Get Lost
• 3 Seam Rip
• 2 Tishana's Tidebinder

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Notably, there is one Imodane's Recruiter in this build. Some decks play an Aven Interrupter, or pulse up or down cards like Nature's Rhythm, Airbender Ascension, or Quantum Riddler.

I'm pointing out the recruiter because this deck has a surprising amount of Red mana...

So, if you draw the Imodane's Recruiter, you can just cast it. Obviously, you are cycling through your starting sixty with Fetch Quest or Aang, at the Crossroads... But if you have Have HAVE to do it the old fashioned way, rest assured the mana base can support your single pip.

Now say you are churning through your deck, and you feel like you've played the Recruiter prematurely. Don't worry! You can just pick it up with Appa later. Provided Doc Aurlock is still in play, you'll have the opportunity to Airbend-loop the singleton Recruiter over and over again.

You don't need a whole lot of untapped tokens to win this way; and it is one of the best ways to do it on MTGA. First of all, if you have to go off on your own main phase, Imodane's Recruiter can help you end the game before you end your turn (because of not only haste, but lots and lots of temporary buffs that all aggregate before wearing off). But more importantly, you really can only get about 20 loops off before running out of time and an unchecked Recruiter will produce dozens and dozens of power over that time frame.

3. The 2 3 Aang Trick

How many kinds of Aang are there in this deck?

The superficial answer is two; but the practical answer is three. I am sure I've attacked with Aang, Destined Savior at some point at this point, but I really don't recall any such games. Aang and La, Ocean's Fury does actually come up, in part because we do it on purpose.

One of the most annoying issues that comes up when combo-ing off with this deck is that sometimes you'll be forced to play Aang, Swift Savior when you have an Aang, Swift Savior already in play. Maybe you need to Counterspell something. Maybe your timing was just imperfect on main phase and you got stuck with Aang in play when you didn't want it.

Intuitively you should just be able to Airbend the original Aang but The Legend Rule supersedes the 187, so you can't.

One way around this (mostly because this tends to come up over multiple turns) is to just flip Aang, Swift Savior into Aang and La, Ocean's Fury so that you don't have an Aang, Swift Savior Legend Rule situation.

A fairly common play pattern might be Appa Airbending Aang and Aang. Typically you should play Aang, at the Crossroads prior to Aang, Swift Savior just because the only hit from Aang, at the Crossroads might just be another copy of Aang, Swift Savior. Now you can keep the three-Ally loop going with your original Aang, Swift Savior in exile in case you need a Counterspell.

Two Aangs and an Appa is going to get out of hand for the opponent pretty quickly because you'll be pulling a profit in excess of just one Ally on every loop. At some point you'll probably flip another source of Airbending, which might allow you to exile the opponent's whole battlefield while creating your own token army.

At some point it might be profitable to just flip an copy of Aang, Swift Savior to Aang and La, Ocean's Fury so you can unlock another Aang, Swift Savior. This will also help you against Authority of the Consuls.

4. Beating Authority of the Consuls

... Is really not that difficult.

It can be annoying as heck, though.

Let me tell you a story.

You probably know I invented the deck Splinter Twin by putting it on the map at a $6k back in 2011.

The sideboard:

• 2 Pyroclasm
• 1 Trinket Mage
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Jace's Ingenuity
• 2 Manic Vandal
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 2 Spellskite

Well at some point in the middle of the tournament I had an opponent who played this card:

I'm sure my opponent thought he was so clever. Two different ways to stop infinite Exarchs. He had gained a bazillion life, but I could not do a bazillion and twenty damage without dealing a bazillion to myself first.

Well Brad Nelson from 2011, here's how my sideboard dug me out:

I got Trinket Mage and put Splinter Twin on it.

The first Trinket Mage trigger got Basilisk Collar, which I put on my Inferno Titan.

"You can't possibly deal enough damage to me to win the game," said my opponent. Who was at a prohibitively high life total thanks to his own Suture Priest combo.

"I agree," responded Our Hero. "But my Inferno Titan with Basilisk Collar can at least mow down all your stupid Suture Priests forever while keeping me alive."

And for my next trick, I tapped my Trinket Mage to get Elixir of Immortality.

"We both agree that I can't kill you with damage. But I'll be gaining at least 14 life per turn... FOREVER. Do you have forever cards left in your deck?"

... Game 3.

Back in 2025: If the opponent has Authority of the Consuls in play, it will be almost impossible to win on your own main phase. It's possible you'll just have to attack for three turns or something. If the opponent has let you combo off, it's not unlikely that you'll be able to attack for at least two turns. You can significantly shorten this by Waterbending an Aang, which can more than double the amount of damage you would generate with an attack. Depending on how many cards were involved in your combo sequence and how many Authorities you had to fight through, you might just get it in one attack.

I've really come around on Authority of the Consuls. I thought it was a good card when Red Aggro was one of the top decks, but never enough to play it main deck like all these Azorius Artifacts are right now. Jim Davis might have said it best: The card is like a mulligan.

Against Bant BearBending, it really feels like all Authority does is force you to attack 2-3 times instead of just once; or maybe just once if you Waterbend to Aang and La. I do respect that it kind of blanks The Fire Crystal in the mirror match, but the card never seems like it's winning games for you that you couldn't have won some other way.

5. Winning With Badgermole Cub

As I've said before, there are lots of different builds of Bant BearBending flying around.

I myself was initially skeptical about Imodane's Recruiter. In part because I just wanted all 4 copies of Airbending Ascension. I just really wanted to maximize the chances of going off super quick!

What took me over the line on this one was that Badgermole Cub can do most of what you get out of Imodane's Recruiter. If you Airbend Badgermole Cub with Appa, you can keep re-playing it, and Earthbending a land each time. This will allow you to not only create power with Appa, but create power with haste thanks to Earthbending. As long as you can get a land though unblocked, Badgermole Cub can give you a way to win on your own main phase (and make deck-building room for another Ascension).

Everybody's* Happy!

LOVE

MIKE

*Except Imodane's Recruiter stans.