I've been writing about a lot of mono-colored Avatar: The Last Airbender legends this month so when I went looking for my next topic, I looked at White and Green cards first. I had gone from Blue to red to Black, and it felt right to just keep going. For my earlier brews I hadn't really looked at jumpstart legends, and I also was only able to write about cards that had been shared with the public. Now that the set is out, there's nothing stopping me from grabbing any card that hasn't yet been covered here on CoolStuffInc.com. This week I ended up picking a mono White Human Monk with the kind of ability that is reminiscent of Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Let's see if I can brew up something a little more powerful than the average list I share with you here every Monday.

This 3/3 costs four mana, and might be the spiciest airbender we've seen out of this set. If Monk Gyatso is in play under my control, whenever another creature I control becomes the target of a spell or ability, I may airbend that creature. Airbending means the creature will be exiled and I may cast it for 2 mana rather than its mana cost. Re-casting these creatures will be at sorcery speed unless I have a way to give them flash, but aside from this small limitation, this is a deceptively powerful ability.

For the first time in a while, I'm going to be exploring a combo deck, though I'm going to build it without much in the way of tutors or game changers. I like to leave you room to tune a list up in power and make it your own, so if you see card or a strategy you don't think makes sense, swap in something that better suits your playstyle or the power level you're trying to play at.

Cheap Targeting

The only thing Monk Gyatso cares about in regards to his airbending ability is that a creature I control gets targeted by a spell or ability. That spell or ability doesn't have to be controlled by my opponent, and it doesn't have to be consequential in any way. It can be as simple as an equip ability, which is why Nadu came to mind when building this deck. You'll see some familiar tech in any Monk Gyatso deck that's trying to get up to no good.

I have four pieces of equipment that can equip for zero mana. Shuko might be the one you are most familiar with from seeing it with Nadu, but I'm also running Leather Armor, Lightning Greaves, and Umbral Mantle. If I've got a creature with a fantastic enter the battlefield trigger, I can attempt to equip one of these to it, respond to my own equip activation by airbending the creature, and then I can re-cast it for a mere 2 mana. I'm running Pearl Medallion, The Wind Crystal, and Oketra's Monument as ways to make that casting cost lower. If I can get it down to zero mana, I can get as many of these airbend/recast loops as I want.

I've also got a couple of cards that can tap to either protect my commander or airbend one of my creatures. Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes can both tap to give a creature protection from a chosen color. Giver of Runes can't target itself, but it can let me give a creature protection from colorless. These two cards are primarily in the list to protect my commander, but they can help me get an extra airbend/recast activation if I haven't pulled into any equipment yet.

Elspeth, Undaunted Hero is a card I hadn't expected to put into this list. It's not a creature, so I can't protect it as easily, but it gives me free targeting after the turn it comes in, and it's got a great final ability. This is a mono-White deck, so giving my creatures flying and +X/+X where X is my devotion to White, could win me a game if my tablemates let it get to its "ult". I'll never use that middle ability, but I like it as an interesting include that at minimum represents a potential alpha strike if left alone.

The Spice of Life

I like decks that are capable of winning games, but I also like variety. A deck that gives me different play experiences is far more likely to be enjoyable for me than a deck that wins more, but nearly always threatens the same wincon. It's not surprising that I enjoy lower bracket play so when I built this list I decided to load up on a pretty decent range of cards with interesting enter the battlefield triggers.

It's worth mentioning that I am running Solemn Simulacrum and Knight of the White Orchid as reliable ways to get extra Plains into play. The former is a format staple, and the latter will let me tutor a Plains onto the battlefield untapped if an opponent controls more lands than me.

I'm running a bunch of "soul sisters" including Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, and Suture Priest. These are low mana creatures that will let me gain life when I have creatures enter play. The Wind Crystal is also in this list, so any lifegain I get might end up being doubled.

Inspiring Overseer, Spirited Companion, Mentor of the Meek, Welcoming Vampire, Enduring Innocence, and Rumor Gatherer are all in the list as ways to get more card draw that synergize with airbending. Esper Sentinel, Alms Collector, and Mangara, the Diplomat are also in the mix, as you always want a lot of card draw to make sure you're hitting your land drops and drawing into what you need to have as good a game as possible. My removal package also has a couple of enter the battlefield creatures, with Loran of the Third Path and Witch Enchanter complementing the usual list of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Generous Gift.

Sun Titan is a old staple that will provide some recursion for a permanent with mana value 3 or less when it enters or attacks. Karmic Guide is also in the list, costs one mana less and can bring back target creature card to the battlefield. I'm running Ashnod's Altar and Felidar Guardian in this list, so we're already looking at the possibility of setting up infinite loops even without Monk Gyatso. This deck isn't specifically tuned around Karmic Guide combo, but it felt right to build in some extra flicker options that wouldn't require my commander.

Recruiter of the Guard and Stoneforge Mystic are in the list as ways to tutor up key cards. The former can get a creature with toughness 2 or less, and the latter can tutor an equipment to my hand. Both can pull out key combo pieces so while I have been leaning away from tutors, these cards both trigger when they enter play so they are perfect for a Monk Gyatso list.

I classified Githzerai Monk and Subjugator Angel under removal when I built this list, but these cards really just enable an alpha strike by entering and tapping all of your opponents' creatures. Removing blockers is a form of removal, and it's possible I could find a way to do this on an opponent's turn before they go to combat. I see these cards as ways to take a good board and more easily turn it into a win. This will be easier if I've had a Cathars' Crusade in play, an Akroma's Will in hand, an Elspeth, Undaunted Hero "ult", or a Moonshaker Cavalry enter play this turn.

Gyatso Combo

All this synergy is well and good, and this deck may win games without launching into a combo, but let's check out what those Monk Gyatso combo lines look like. Keep in mind that all of this depends upon a repeatable way to trigger Gyatso's airbending.

Ashnod's Altar is one of those cards that usually needs to be removed as soon as it enters play. If you leave one around long enough, bad things can happen. In today's deck, that could mean huge armies and lots of enter the battlefield triggers.

Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, is a Human Warrior with a weird enter the battlefield trigger. When he enters play under my control, I can exile any number of other nonland permanents I control until he leaves the battlefield. When I do I'll create a 1/1 White Soldier creature token for each permanent exiled this way. For this to work I need my commander, Ashnod's Altar, a repeatable way to target Abdel, and at least two other nonland permanents.

Nomads en-Kor is a great source for repeatable free targeting, but my zero equip cost equipment also work just as well. I'll play Abdel, exile two other things, and create two 1/1 Soldier tokens. I then target Abdel with an ability and choose to airbend him. When he leaves play, my exiled permanents return. I then sacrifice a Soldier to Ashnod's Altar to make 2 mana, and I use that mana to play Abdel Adrian from exile, repeating the loop and gaining an extra 1/1 Soldier with each iteration of the loop.

The best part of the Abdel Adrian combo line is that I can run it with zero net gain in the number of creature tokens I control if I'm exiling creatures that have helpful enter the battlefield triggers. Simply putting every land in my deck into play with Solemn Simulacrum will solve my mana issues for the rest of the game.

I'm also running Evangel of Heliod and Reverent Hoplite as backup combo pieces. The former will make a number of 1/1 White Soldier creature tokens equal to my devotion to White, and the latter will do the same but with 1/1 White Human Soldier creature tokens. They'll both do the job if I've got enough White mana pips among permanents I control.

Razor Golem is an odd include in any White deck. It costs 1 less to cast for each Plains I control, but it's just a 3 power, 4 toughness Golem with vigilance. With enough Plains in play I can cast it for free, and I just need two Plains to let me cast it for free after it gets exiled with airbending. With a Soul Warden, I can gain an arbitrary amount of life. With a Cathars' Crusade in play I can make all of my creatures gigantic.

Another old card that can become a combo piece with airbending is Workhorse. It enters with four +1/+1 counters on it. I can remove a +1/+1 counter to make 1 mana, so I'll remove three of them to make 3 mana, airbend it, and then use 2 mana to cast it again. Infinite colorless mana doesn't win the game on its own.

Paths Not Traveled

One of the easiest ways to win off of infinite mana is Walking Ballista. Infinite cast triggers can usually win the game off of Aetherflux Reservoir. I'm not as drawn to wincons like Walking Ballista and Aetherflux Reservoir as I used to be. If you are really aiming for higher power levels, those are definitely cards you should consider swapping in for this list.

I thought about leaning into artifacts even harder and running cards like Skyscanner, Circuit Mender, Canoptek Spyder, Foundry Inspector, and Cloud Key. I think an artifact focused build could be viable but you'd need to drop out cards that make the deck more interesting, or at least more interesting to me.

I could see building this deck around equipment tutors and Puresteel Paladin, a 2 mana Human Knight that makes your equip costs zero if you control 3 or more artifacts. I didn't end up learning heavily on mana rocks for this build, as I thought the deck would be more interesting to play with a variety of creatures that have a range of enter the battlefield abilities. Loading up on mana rocks and equipment would make less room for all of those different airbending targets, and I'd make less tokens with Evangel of Heliod and Reverent Hoplite, as I'd probably have a lower devotion to White.

Another theme I ended up leaving out of my list is cards that let me take the initiative. Seasoned Dungeoneer and White Plume Adventurer were both in my first draft, but I ended up dropping them in favor of cards that let me threaten a win in combat. Akroma's Will and Cathars' Crusade let me do that. Looping a card that lets me take the Initiative does win the game, but it's akin to any other combo win. It works, it will win games, but more casual tables might not appreciate games ending that way.

One last direction I could have built in is a combo deck with a focus on casting creatures at instant speed. Vedalken Orrery and creatures with flash would let me launch into a combo and maintain the combo even with interaction on the stack. Those types of wincons can often still be interacted with, but the window of interaction is much smaller. I'm not suggesting Vedalken Orrery is the next cEDH staple with Monk Gyatso in the command zone, but the ability to win with another wincon on the stack is the kind of thing you'll more commonly see in cEDH.

Nasty Gyatsy

Am I lame for building a deck that can combo, but then declaring some combo lines to be too sweaty for the tables I normally play at? Maybe, but that's why I'm trying to lay out all of your options. You should build your version of Monk Gyatso to match your playstyle and the power levels your group likes to play at. That might include lots of tutors and the nastiest and most efficient wincons you can think of. It might be a much tamer list than I'm sharing here today. It's all good if you're having fun and you're playing at the same power level as your playgroup.

One of the things you're going to notice is that this list has a lot of creatures. I like decks with high creature counts but this might be overdoing it. The fact that I really want to have something to airbend and recast is why I'm leaning so heavily in that direction. I recently had a game with Dragonhawk where I saw nothing but lands for every card Dragonhawk exiled, and if I had managed to hit two or three creatures I probably could have landed the win.

Monk Gyatso | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Monk Gyatso

• Creatures (40)
• 1 Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
• 1 Alms Collector
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Bastion Protector
• 1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1 Defiler of Faith
• 1 Enduring Innocence
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Evangel of Heliod
• 1 Felidar Guardian
• 1 Githzerai Monk
• 1 Giver of Runes
• 1 Grand Abolisher
• 1 Guardian of Faith
• 1 Inspiring Overseer
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Nomads en-Kor
• 1 Razor Golem
• 1 Recruiter of the Guard
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Reverent Hoplite
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soul Warden
• 1 Soul's Attendant
• 1 Spirited Companion
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Subjugator Angel
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Suture Priest
• 1 Welcoming Vampire
• 1 Witch Enchanter
• 1 Workhorse

• Spells (10)
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Dawn Charm
• 1 Dawn's Truce
• 1 Elspeth, Undaunted Hero
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Vanquish the Horde

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Cathars' Crusade

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Leather Armor
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Oketra's Monument
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Pearl Medallion
• 1 Shuko
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Wind Crystal
• 1 Umbral Mantle

• Lands (37)
• 33 Plains
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Inventors' Fair

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to tune this list down, I think you'd probably drop out some of the more efficient combo pieces. With a combo involving Monk Gyatso, Ashnod's Altar, Shuko, Abdel Adrian, and a few other creatures, this is already a bit of a Rube Goldberg device. There are lots of points of interaction, and you need a lot of pieces to actually get a win.

To tune this list up I think you'd focus the deck around a few of the most efficient combos, adding in tutors and ways to protect the win. I'm already running Grand Abolisher, but cards like Silence, Teferi's Protection, Conqueror's Flail, and maybe a few stax pieces would help you keep up with higher-powered tables. Loading in wincons like Walking Ballista and Aetherflux Reservoir would also help.

Final Thoughts

I don't really mind combo in lower powered play. Our bracket system dictates that we aren't supposed to play efficient game-winning combos in the lower brackets, with a particular warning on two card combos, but Monk Gyatso doesn't lend itself to two card combos. You need a source for zero mana targeting, and you need some sort of value outlet so the loop you set up actually does something, even if it's just gaining life with a "soul sister". I still wouldn't build a Monk Gyatso list that could combo off and pretend it's a bracket 2 deck.

Today's list doesn't have any game changers, but that doesn't make it bracket 2. If you're going to build and play a version of Monk Gyatso, there's very little reason not to run Teferi's Protection, Smothering Tithe, and Enlightened Tutor. I've been enjoying the added challenge of winning games without as many game changers or tutors, but that's just me. There is plenty of room to tune this list up if that's something you're interested in, and adding game changers is an obvious first step.

I'm now four fifths of the way around the color pie in my run of mono-colored commanders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I had realized I was going to end up doing this, I would have put greater effort into picking more powerful commanders, but with today's list I think I managed to grab a pretty good one. Monk Gyatso is going to see play in high powered EDH, and he's absolutely going to win games, even if his combo lines do involve a ton of disparate pieces and aren't that hard to stop.

Now that I've realized I've been doing a thing, I might as well end it in style. Next week I'm going to write about The Earth King, a very spicy new mono-Green legend with an interest in four power creatures. It's going to be a fun one, so I hope you join me again next week.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading!