Avatar Cards To Watch for Modern
With
There’s a lot to unpack, but let’s talk about a few standouts as spoiler season wraps up!
The Last Agni Kai
To start out with something a little less exotic by comparison to some of the other cards on our docket for discussion, The Last Agni Kai is a nifty, cost-effective instant that acts as both removal and ramp.
Beyond acting as ramp, Agni Kai gives you ability to bank your mana between steps and phases during the turn it resolves, allowing you to have one of your creatures fight an opponent’s creature, deal excess damage, ramp, go to combat and have your mana for combat tricks or post-combat tricks.
So where does this card fit within the context of the Modern metascape? Tough to gauge. At the very least, Izzet Prowess or similar prowess shells seem to benefit greatly from this single. Two mana to trigger prowess for one of your creatures, which in turn will remove an opponent’s blocker from play and refund you some mana to follow up with more spells that can trigger prowess or to use to play another prowess creature seems like a very solid play pattern.
In prowess shells, this card is functionally free to cast if the excess damage produced by its resolution is at least two mana.
Another interesting play pattern that one can pursue with this card is casting it to simply ensure that your mana doesn’t go away between steps and phases for a critical turn in the game. With mechanics like firebending being introduced, having a means to store mana post-combat is invaluable for follow-up plays. In formats outside of Modern, Agni Kai functions like a poor man’s Birgi, by allowing you to remove a pesky stax piece (perhaps) and then giving you the ability to bank your mana between phases on a storm turn or for win attempts that may rely on pre-combat setup and a post-combat push.
Financially, where does this leave us? Honestly, The Last Agni Kai is pretty fairly priced out of the gate sitting at around $5 currently in preorder pricing. It will likely drop a little bit post-release like most singles from the set, but it actually seems it’s been somewhat overshadowed by higher-profile hits.
Overall, this is a nice card that does have some upward potential. How much depends on what the state of play looks like in Modern outside of just the obvious prowess shells that this cleanly slots into.
| The Last Agni Kai | ||
| The Last Agni Kai (Borderless) |
Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
Probably the single most anticipated card in the set insofar as spoilers go so far! Wan Shi Tong is not only an iconic character from one of the show’s most memorable episodes, but also has a killer design in card form.
For XUU, you get yourself a flashy, vigilant, flying creature that draws you cards whenever your opponents search their libraries–much like
Beyond having several relevant keywords, Wan Shi Tong also acts as a mana sink with an X that represents potential card draw the more you pay into it. This attribute also makes Wan Shi Tong an outlet for infinite mana under the right circumstances. As a legendary creature, Wan Shi Tong turns on
Where does this card shine the best? Dimir shells seem to be the best starting point. Dimir Frogtide in particular seems to benefit uniquely from this Bird Spirit, as it can act as a value engine early that can present pressure on life totals throughout the game, only growing in pressure as more searches occur.
Considerations for playing Wan Shi Tong might even extend to running cards that force opponents to search their libraries, like
Outside of Modern, cEDH and similar high-tier Commander players certainly will love this legend. It’s another infinite mana outlet in
The preorder price reflects its early demand and the anticipation that it’ll be valuable across multiple formats. Presale prices are hovering around $45, which is highly inflated. That doesn’t mean its price will tank by any means, but with a set that will have as large of a print run as this, I would expect a realistic settling point for Wan Shi Tong is around $15 to $20, and likely will remain as one of the most valuable cards in the set as far as the secondary market is concerned. Keep an eye on this one!
| Wan Shi Tong, Librarian | ||
| Wan Shi Tong, Librarian (Borderless) |
Badgermole Cub
This creature doesn’t have an obvious shell it fits into nicely within the Modern landscape, but its abilities are worth a conversation or two. Badgermole Cub enters and allows you to earthbend one of your lands, which converts said land into a creature with a +1/+1 counter on it that’s still a land. If that land would be destroyed or exiled, it returns to play tapped. Beyond this enter trigger, Badgermole allows mana dorks you control to add additional green pips (one specifically) to your mana pool when said creatures would tap for mana anyway. This includes your earthbended land–since it’s now a creature, tapping it for its mana ability will trigger Badgermole Cub. In this sense, Badgermole somewhat pays for itself.
There’s a lot of synergies that this possesses. With cards like
If there’s a way to continuously flicker Badgermole, there’s a world where you can earthbend multiple lands, multiple times, which can easily close the game in short order. Additionally, Badgermole being green means it's easy to tutor directly into play with the likes of
If you look at the preorder prices for this little guy, it shouldn’t be too difficult to infer that it’s highly-anticipated and in relatively high demand right out of the gate. In eternal formats like Commander, all the synergies listed above are amplified tenfold.
The one downside with Badgermole Cub is that, while it looks good on paper, it doesn’t have an obvious home in Modern. The best ramp deck in the format is Amulet Titan, which doesn’t have room for Cub, nor does it really need it. If the deck has two mana to spare, they’d usually rather spend it on
| Badgermole Cub | ||
| Badgermole Cub (Borderless) |
Looking Ahead
There’s a very real argument that
Will this set offer the same long-run financial value as
Keep looking ahead! The cards discussed today and many, many more all have significant upside worth paying attention to!
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Corey Williams
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.