Toph, the First Metalbender – Avatar
Date Reviewed: October 29, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 4.17
Limited: 3.67
Multiplayer: 4.00
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Much like Magic, Avatar: The Last Airbender embraces elemental concepts beyond the four conventional ones of European alchemy. But they have rather different flavor orientations; you can kind of tell from reading the cards that it took some work to translate Avatar‘s bending abilities into Magic terms. Even so, Toph is a very interesting card to work with, despite being written in a confusing way. The actual point is the second ability, and the first ability is there because Magic’s rules don’t allow designers to just say “You can also do this with your artifacts”. Why would you want to do it with your artifacts? Because you can load up on low-cost trinkets like Soul-Guide Lantern and Ornithopter and then turn them into bigger threats, or take advantage of the fact that ones with tap abilities can suddenly be untapped by Seedborn Muse. I think, though, the most shocking thing about earthbending is that you get the card back if it dies. They clearly felt it was to prevent “feel-bad” moments when lands get killed in combat, but it seems like asking for trouble. Treasure tokens are strong enough as they are, without the ability to use each one twice – that may requires setup time which may have to be respected, yet it’s going to feel downright unfair when it comes together.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Toph, the First Metalbender got a lot of attention for his unusual ability, and I do recall that there were immediate speculations of combos that he can immediately leverage…mostly rude things, like Mindslaver and Aeon Engine. Even without those combos, he’s a pretty interesting card with some fun applications, and while the ability isn’t always upside, it is more often than it isn’t, and there’s a lot it can do.
The main attraction here is that Toph also has earthbending, another of the four “bending” abilities from the set. Earthbending animates a land into a creature, but it also gives it a sort of soft recursion after it dies, so that you don’t immediately get thrown off if the land gets thwarted. Of course, this does synergize cruelly with the aforementioned artifacts, but it generally has decent applications, especially if you have other ways to earthbend. On his own, Toph churns out a steady stream of 2/2 bodies, albeit slowly.
He’s going to be most attractve for his combo potential, but remember that a lot of removal in the modern day tends to, if it’s broad, hit “nonland permanents”, and that means they have to deal with Toph to have a chance to get to your troublesome artifacts. He’s justa 3/3 with no abilities of his own, so it’s not insurmountable, but he feels like the kind of card that’s going to be sought out for his combo potential and used besides as a sort of value engine.
Constructed: 3.5 (I think he’s too slow for deep formats, and he feels a bit too fiddly to really have a massive Standard impact)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4 (never underestimate what an army of 2/2 bodies can do, and you can even earthbend one that’s already been activated to make it bigger)
Multiplayer: 4 (the Aeon Engine combo is a good way to make sure you send that special message to someone)
Commander [EDH]: 4 (hurt a bit by being outside the typical artifact colors, helped by offering Ally synergies and having those particular combos to his name)
Thijs
In the range of bending several elements, this time it’s ‘earth’ – even though Toph is a metalbender. Anyway, this 3/3 human is obviously created as a possible commander. A confusion mechanic arises in his first ability: he makes artifacts lands, but they don’t tap for mana. The key phrase here is ‘in addition to their other types’. It just adds the type, not the ability. Useless, you say? Let’s look a bit further.
This warrior ally bends earth. That means that at the end step, he can make a land into a creature (with haste, not that that matters when it comes to lands or artifacts). And he does that every turn! Think of the possibilities in decks that play lots of low-cost artifacts. A Memnite becomes a land, then becomes a 2/2 with haste. And when it dies, it returns to the battlefield tapped. For how much? That’s right, 0 mana.
Toph, you might just be one of the more interesting cards that have come out of this whole Universes Beyond experiment. I for one can’t wait to start working with you!
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3 (unless you can somehow make it work…)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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