"Avacyn, Angel of Horror: Undying Was Apparently Too Fair."

"Avacyn, Angel of Horror: Undying Was Apparently Too Fair."

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

I have to admit that I am an old soul.

I was around when Magic: The Gathering first came to the Philippines in 1995. I wouldn't actually get into the game until much later—around the time of 8th Edition—but I was already watching what was happening in the game.

And some of the things I saw happening in Legacy were absolutely brutal.

One of the plays that stuck with me was the classic:

Dark Ritual → Entomb → Exhume.

And suddenly, on Turn One, there was an Akroma staring you down.

At the time, that was one of the nastiest things you could do.

The plan didn't stop there.

You could keep reanimating creatures like Iona to completely shut down a particular color, and eventually bring back Avacyn to make your permanents indestructible.

All of this could happen for a surprisingly small amount of mana.

That was perfectly fine in 60-card formats where you could build your deck specifically around making those plays happen.

But once Commander entered the picture, things became a little different.

If you wanted to reanimate some of those legendary creatures, you also had to deal with your commander's color identity.

Which brings me to Avacyn, Angel of Horror.

This might just be one of those creatures that is absolutely begging to be reanimated.

Sure, she costs eight mana.

But black reanimator decks don't necessarily care about that.

They simply look at an eight-mana creature and say:

“Oh, that's going into the graveyard eventually.”

And if you happen to have your reanimation spell ready?

Well…

Why wait?

An 8/8 flying creature with deathtouch is already pretty nasty.

But it is Avacyn's ability that really gets me excited.

If Avacyn or another nontoken creature you control dies, you get to return that card to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.

Just picture this.

You sacrifice something like Blood Pet for mana.

Then you sacrifice Fleshbag Marauder, which probably takes one of your opponent's creatures along with it.

Now those creatures aren't simply sitting in your graveyard.

At the beginning of the next end step, they come right back.

And suddenly you get to use them again.

Well damn.

In a Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck, this gets even more ridiculous.

Think about all those experience counters you're generating while sacrificing creatures.

Now imagine having creatures that can repeatedly sacrifice themselves, return to the battlefield, trigger their enters-the-battlefield abilities, and then get sacrificed again.

Over.

And over.

And over.

You just need to protect Avacyn.

Because as long as Avacyn stays on the battlefield, your graveyard has effectively become a revolving door.

In some ways, this feels like an upgraded version of Undying, a mechanic from the original Innistrad era.

Undying lets a creature come back once after it dies.

Avacyn doesn't seem particularly interested in limiting herself to one trip.

As long as she remains alive, your creatures can keep coming back.

And the really interesting part is that they don't necessarily have to return on your turn.

They can come back at the beginning of the next end step.

Which means you can sacrifice a creature during your turn, get it back at your end step, and then have it available again for the next round of nonsense.

Imagine doing this for three turns.

Your opponents aren't simply dealing with the same creatures over and over.

They're dealing with their enters-the-battlefield abilities over and over.

Spirited Companion can keep drawing you cards.

Solemn Simulacrum can keep finding you lands.

Fleshbag Marauder can keep forcing sacrifices.

And creatures that generate value when they enter the battlefield suddenly become repeatable engines instead of one-shot effects.

That is where Avacyn starts becoming really scary.

You're not simply reanimating creatures.

You're repeatedly reusing the best parts of your creatures.

And that's exactly the kind of thing a graveyard-loving Commander player wants to hear.

So yes, I think Avacyn, Angel of Horror is going into one of my Orzhov Reanimator decks.

Because apparently, in my version of Magic, death is no longer a permanent condition.

It is merely a scheduling issue.

And if Avacyn is around, apparently the graveyard has office hours.

(Insert maniacal laughter here.)