Mythic Two-Drop Takes Over Multiple Formats with New Mechanic

While the Empower Jace mechanic is at its best when heavily built around, there are a few Reality Fracture powerhouses that can dominate all by themselves. While it’s still early, Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes has quickly emerged as the best of the bunch. It’s not often that a Standard-legal card makes waves in Vintage, but this two-drop is making a name for itself.

Eternal Impact

Almost immediately following the release of Reality Fracture, Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes started putting up results as a four-of in Vintage. The primary home for this card is Sultai, a midrange deck looking to grind the opponent into dust with value-generating creatures.

Even with no other Planeswalker or Landfall synergies, Avatar fits this deck perfectly at face value. It’s easy to set up a window where you jam this creature, then follow up with a Fetch land to get your Jace token up to 4 loyalty immediately. This way, even if your opponent has a removal spell, you pull ahead on card advantage. If they don’t kill it, you can keep playing lands and drawing extra cards over time.

You also have access to Lurrus of the Dream-Den to rebuy Avatar and keep the value train rolling. With other bursts of card advantage like Psychic Frog and Ancestral Recall, the risk of running out of lands to play is extremely low, even in the late game. In the rare case you do, though, excess copies of Avatar still hold value as blue spells to pitch to Force of WillForce of WillYou may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell. and Force of NegationForce of NegationIf it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard..

While Lurrus has made Avatar a natural fit for Vintage, the creature is also popping up in Legacy Bant Lands brews. This deck can abuse Mox DiamondMox DiamondIf this artifact would enter, you may discard a land card instead. If you do, put this artifact onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. to accelerate Avatar out early, then use Carnivorous Cultivator to rebuy lands and keep the Landfall triggers coming. With Uro, Titan of Nature’s WrathUro, Titan of Nature’s WrathWhen Uro enters, sacrifice it unless it escaped.
Whenever Uro enters or attacks, you gain 3 life and draw a card, then you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Escape—{G}{G}{U}{U}, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.) putting extra lands into play, it’s easy to build Jace’s Loyalty in no time and threaten the -10 ability.

Maximizing the Final Ability in Standard

Even though Avatar’s final ability can come to fruition in Eternal formats, it’s by far the most threatening in Standard Simic Landfall shells. After all, the combination of Icetill Explorer and either Fabled Passage or Escape Tunnel goes completely ballistic. These tools make it very possible to put 10 loyalty counters on Jace in one turn, especially if you have multiple Avatars in play.

Beyond making the -10 ability more attainable, this deck also uses Trampling monsters like Mossborn Hydra that wear those counters well. Earthbender Ascension can also grant Trample to any of your other creatures, making it trivial to break open a board stall. Throw in Mightform HarmonizerMightform HarmonizerLandfall — Whenever a land you control enters, double the power of target creature you control until end of turn.
Warp {2}{G} (You may cast this card from your hand for its warp cost. Exile this creature at the beginning of the next end step, then you may cast it from exile on a later turn.), and you’ll almost guarantee lethal.

It’s crazy to think it’s only been six days since Reality Fracture’s official release, and Avatar is already crushing events across formats. There’s still more brewing potential, so we may see the card’s popularity keep growing over time. This is a great example of how raw power and rate can turn a design into a multi-format staple.

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