Aang, Swift Savior Deck Tech

Aang, Swift Savior | Illustrated by Tetsuko

When I first picked up Magic, I was also beginning to dabble in playing control decks in other card games. Naturally, that lead me to look into what control decks had to offer in Magic, and I stumbled upon one of my first loves: Azorius() control. In the years since Commander has taken over Magic, I've been on the hunt for interesting commanders that lend themselves to this strategy. Recent reveals from Avatar: The Last Airbender have provided me with a new commander that I believe will be perfect for the job. In this deck tech, I'm going to be building a sweet control deck with Aang, Swift Savior.

What Does Aang, Swift Savior Do?

Aang, Swift Savior is a three-mana 2/3 with flash. When Aang enters, he airbends up to one other target creature or spell. Then, he has an eight-mana ability with waterbend that transforms him into a 5/5 with reach and trample that puts a +1/+1 counter on each other tapped creature its owner controls when he attacks.

The front face reminds me a lot of Aven Interrupter, another three-mana flash creature that exiles a spell when it enters. However, Aang has a few things going for him that Aven Interrupter doesn't. First, he can exile a creature that's already in play! That's a huge boost to Aang's versatility as a piece of interaction. Second, he can flip into a big creature and get aggressive when the time comes to get the game over with.

My build of Aang is going to be a control deck that looks to take advantage of blink synergies to repeatedly exile opposing creatures and spells. Then, once all opponents have been rendered inert, this deck will turn the corner by flooding the board with creatures, flipping Aang, and turning creatures sideways to close the game out.

Key Cards for Aang, Swift Savior

Aang, Swift Savior's enters trigger is great for temporarily dealing with a threat. Aven Interrupter can delay the spells that Aang airbends away a little longer by making them more expensive. Drannith Magistrate removes opponents' ability to cast those spells entirely. As a neat bonus, Drannith Magistrate also restricts opponents from casting their commanders, a perk that has contributed to this Wizard's salt score since he was released in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

Yorion, Sky Nomad is a creature that would feel perfectly at home in the Avatar universe, and he's also right at home in this deck! Yorion combines with both Appa, Steadfast Guardian and Aang, Swift Savior to create a recurring blink engine. Yorion exiles and returns either Aang or Appa, they return and airbend Yorion, then Yorion can be cast from exile for 2 mana to repeat the process. When creatures with powerful card-advantage-generating enters triggers, like Aether Channeler or Spellseeker, are added to the mix, this deck has the ability to run away with games very quickly.

On the topic of value, Archaeomancer, Mystic Sanctuary, and Ghostly Flicker combine to create one of many infinite recursion engines featured in this deck. Infinitely recurring interactive spells significantly speed up the clock on rendering opposing decks nonfunctional. Perhaps most importantly, Mystic Sanctuary returning a spell to the top of the library also provides insurance against decking out, which isn't a concern I have for this deck when things are going to plan, but if an opponent ends up exiling a win condition, like Secure the Wastes, things can veer off course far enough that it comes up.

Sublime Epiphany and Three Steps Ahead can both use their copy mode to create a token copy of Archaeomancer that will enter and recur a spell. Barring mana constraints, this gives the deck access to an infinite number of counterspells! I'll get into how I plan on paying for that in the win conditions section.

How Does This Aang, Swift Savior Deck Win the Game?

 

Control decks are often quite mana-hungry. My solution is very simple: make infinite mana! I've included Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal, which can generate infinite mana when paired with nonland permanents that can be tapped for at least three mana. There are plenty of mana rocks to make this plan feasible, along with many tutors to assist with assembling the combo.

Displacer Kitten is the element that really brings this combo into win condition territory. This deck is not particularly good at making use of infinite mana, with the exception of a couple infinite recursion combos. However, Displacer Kitten triggers is another story entirely! The Isochron Scepter Dramatic Reversal combo generates infinite cast triggers, which translates to infinite enters triggers from Aang, Swift Savior. For the rest of the game, Isochron Scepter can be activated over and over again to repeatedly blink Aang in response to airbend every creature in play and every spell an opponent casts until either this deck finds a way to win the game or the opponents simply give up. That being said, the latter is significantly more likely than the former.

One way to put infinite mana to good use is a Secure the Wastes making 300 million 1/1s to quickly wrap up a game. I like having access to this card as a way to demonstrate to opponents that have been locked out of the game that do in fact have a way to win the game. Thanks to the back face of Aang, Swift Savior, Secure the Wastes is also a perfectly fine win condition even if infinite mana can't be sunk into it.

Aang, Swift Savior Commander Decklist

Conclusion

This deck is looking to commit party fouls at a frequency that probably confines it to Bracket 4 (Optimized). The two-card infinite combo of Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal is the squeaky wheel that eliminates it from Bracket 3 (Upgraded) contention, depending on one's interpretation of the bracket system guidelines. I would make the argument that this infinite combo requires a third piece (Displacer Kitten) to do anything productive in 90% of cases, but those are nuances that players get to bring up in Rule Zero discussions!

This is a high complexity deck for players that enjoy getting really in the weeds with their decision making. At the forefront of that complexity is a high density of tutors, many of which being able to grab other tutors to eventually find the right card. I'd definitely advise a player that wanted to learn this deck to spend some time absorbing the whole decklist. Even I often find myself staring blankly at a Drift of Phantasms in my hand, positive that I can use it to get what I need but not entirely sure if I remember how. That's part of the fun of Commander for me!

For more Azorius control action, I'd recommend my 60 to 100 article about Caw-Go.