Serra Avatar is an undeniably cool card. When it
was first printed, there were very few cards
that cared about your life total in this manner
- it was more common to use it as a resource,
paying life points to get an effect from another
card (like with Greed). In the modern era, there
is probably even more support for this than
there was in 1999: note how well it fits in
Ajani's deck from the recent Ajani vs. Nicol
Bolas duel deck, to the point where I almost
wonder why it wasn't included there (the fact
that its name references a different
planeswalker notwithstanding). A lot of
people may be too jaded to see the Avatar in
this way, but even if "all it does" is give a
win condition to lifegain decks that "don't do
anything," that's not nothing.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
another card that hasn’t been reviewed for about
9 years lets dig in and explore how effective it
is today shall we? In standard it isn’t its
overcosted and has no reanimation shenanigans
due to its shuffle in clause and can be chumped
blocked all day by a multitude of tokens and is
vulnerable to creature removal without providing
an immediate impact on the board or even a
powerful threat. Yes having a 20/20 or lower
creature can be powerful but is simply
outclassed by a wide variety of cheaper options
decks can utilize making this a poor choice for
existing decks. In modern, legacy and vintage
this card has simply faded into obscurity as
decks in eternal formats could have used it but
haven’t making it sketchy and not suited for
competitive play in this environment either and
any historical significance and play it once may
have had is now overshadowed by its status as an
overcosted beater as we now have undercosted
beaters. In casual and multiplayer this card can
be interesting in commander you have a 40/40 for
seven mana a better deal and combine this
creature with equipment’s or combinations, maybe
Angelic Chorus as previously mentioned in a
review long ago or cards like Pandemonium and
its ilk can make having such a big creature
effective. In limited its overcosted and not
really a bomb due to not having evasion but it
can shuffle back into the library and the chance
to draw it increases in limited making a way to
put pressure on your opponents, Overall a card
that is still good for casual Timmy players and
good when you need a huge dumb creature but this
card has fallen out of favor if it was ever held
in high favor.
Today's card of the day is Serra Avatar which
is a seven mana White that has power and
toughness equal to your life total and gets
shuffled into library when sent to graveyard.
This is an okay card in a life gain theme, but
less as an attacker as it lacks evasion or
Trample and more for the combinations with the
power and toughness it can reach. The high
cost is a bit more reasonable in a major life
gain and stalling deck which can prolong the
game, though other effects are needed to make
this into an actual finisher.
For Limited this is more of a bomb that can
steamroll over anything available when given
some time and some kind of defense to prevent an
opponent from chipping away at your life points
if they can maintain blockers. The
potential makes this an obvious first pick in
Booster and major reason to run White in Sealed,
particularly if supporting life gain is
available.
In Multiplayer there is often enough time to get
this into play while life points are high and
formats like Two-Headed Giant that have a
starting amount over twenty can really allow
this to shine.
