Commander blueprint · Avatar: The Last Airbender

How to build Bumi, Unleashed

Bumi, Unleashed untaps every land you control each time his damage reaches a player, then adds a combat that only land creatures may join. This build spends its mana before the first attack, because the hit pays it back, and puts that mana into lands that can fight.

Art by Toni Infante

Spend every land before combat, because the hit untaps them

Bumi changes the order of a turn. Mana you spend in your first main phase is not gone, because the lands that made it untap the moment his combat damage lands, and your second main phase starts with them ready again. Say you have eight lands with Raging Ravine and Treetop Village among them. The other six pay to wake the Ravine and to wake the Village before combat, and both attack beside Bumi. If his damage reaches a player, all eight lands untap. The Ravine and the Village are still creatures until the end of the turn, so both attack again in the land combat, and the Ravine takes a second +1/+1 counter for it. The six that paid for them are untapped when your second main phase begins, which is enough for Relentless Assault. That untaps every creature that attacked, adds a third combat and a third main phase, and Bumi swings again. When his damage lands a second time, so does the untap.

So whatever you pay for before combat is free again by the second main phase: the manland activations, Sylvan Awakening, the to move Swiftfoot Boots, the for Rogue's Passage to make Bumi unblockable. Kessig Wolf Run and Rogue's Passage both tap themselves to work, and both untap with everything else, so each one is usable in both combats.

That is the difference from the Toph, Hardheaded Teacher build in the same colours, where every land Toph wakes has to choose each turn between making mana and attacking. Under Bumi a land creature can do both in one turn. Tap it for mana in your first main phase, let it miss the first attack, and it is untapped and ready for the second when Bumi connects. Sylvan Awakening does that to the whole mana base at once. Tap every land, spend three of the mana on the Awakening and the rest on anything else, then attack with Bumi. If he connects, every land you control is an untapped 2/2 with haste and indestructible for the land combat, and a 2/2 blocker with reach until your next turn.

Only lands join the second combat, and haste decides which ones

The land combat keeps the ordinary rules for who may attack. A creature has to be untapped, and it needs haste unless you have controlled it continuously since your turn began. For a land, that test is about the land and not about when it became a creature, so any land you had last turn can be woken in the middle of this one and attack at once. That opens a window after the untap. Before attackers are declared in the land combat, you can sink every spare land into Lair of the Hydra, which becomes an X/X for , wake Mutavault for , or cast Kamahl's Will on as many lands as you like. Bumi is a commander you control, so the Will's other half comes too: every creature you control deals damage equal to its power to one creature you choose, which takes care of the blocker that worried you.

The land you played this turn is the exception, because it has not been yours since the turn began. It needs haste. Earthbend gives haste, and so do Sylvan Awakening, Kamahl's Will, Wrenn and Realmbreaker, Nissa, Who Shakes the World, Llanowar Loamspeaker, Primal Adversary and both Embodiments. Nissa, Worldwaker, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Quirion Druid and the manlands do not, so point those at a land that was already down.

The restriction also covers your other creatures, which never attack in the land combat. So the twenty-three nonland creatures in the ninety-nine are mostly here for what they do from the sideline. Embodiment of Insight gives every land creature vigilance and Embodiment of Fury gives them trample. Sylvan Advocate gives them +2/+2 once you control six lands. Blossoming Tortoise gives them +1/+1 and makes every land's activated ability cost less, which makes Mutavault free. Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender is the one that wants to attack in the first combat: when it does, every land creature you control gets two +1/+1 counters, three with Solid Ground out, before any of them swing in the second.

Trample turns a chump block into a trigger

The trigger asks for combat damage to a player, not for Bumi to go unblocked. Chump him with a 1/1 and he assigns one damage to it and four to the player, and your lands untap exactly as if nobody had blocked. What stops him is a blocker with toughness 5 or more, two blockers that add up to it, a fog, or removal before damage. The list answers each one cheaply. Rancor and Kessig Wolf Run add power, and Bumi Bash deals damage equal to your land count to the creature most likely to block. Flopsie, Bumi's Buddy stops any creature of yours with power 4 or more from being blocked by more than one creature, which covers Bumi and every land earthbend 4 wakes. Rogue's Passage takes blocking off the table for , and Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Heroic Intervention, Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Snakeskin Veil keep the removal off him.

Bumi costs five and has no haste of his own, though the land he wakes does. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots fix that, and so does Arena of Glory. Pay , tap and exert it for , spend that on Bumi, and he can attack the turn he arrives. Exert only stops a land untapping in your next untap step, and Bumi's trigger is not an untap step, so the Arena untaps with the rest the moment he connects.

Double strike is two untaps and two land combats

Each time Bumi's damage reaches a player is a separate trigger. With double strike he deals damage twice in one combat, first in the first strike damage step and then in the regular one, so the lands untap twice and two land combats follow, one after the other. Three cards give it to him. Embercleave has flash and costs less for each creature you have attacking, so with Bumi and three land creatures in the attack it costs , and it arrives after blockers are declared. Savage Beating gives every creature you control double strike for the turn, and it can only be cast during combat on your turn, which is when you want it anyway. Berserkers' Onslaught gives it to everything that attacks, every turn. Toph, Greatest Earthbender does the same for land creatures only, so it never reaches Bumi, but it doubles the damage of every land in every combat.

The catch is the second of the two land combats. A land creature that attacks in the first is tapped for the second, unless it has vigilance. Embodiment of Insight gives every land creature vigilance, and Kamahl's Will, Wrenn and Realmbreaker and Nissa, Who Shakes the World give it to the lands they wake. With Embodiment of Insight out and double strike on Bumi, every land creature you control attacks in all three combats and still taps for mana afterwards.

Seize the Day is two more hits, each paid for by the last

Seize the Day is the cleanest of the five cards here that give Bumi another ordinary combat, which he needs because the land combat leaves him out. Cast it in the second main phase with lands the last hit untapped. It untaps Bumi and adds a combat and a main phase. When he connects in that combat, the lands untap again and another land combat follows, and in the extra main phase after it those lands pay the to flash it back, for one more of each. That is two more hits from one card, both paid for by lands that had already been tapped once that turn. Relentless Assault is the same idea without the flashback, and it untaps every creature that attacked rather than Bumi alone, so the manlands come back for another swing as well. Combat Celebrant, exerted as it attacks beside him, untaps your other creatures and queues a combat he can join, and Savage Beating's other mode untaps your creatures and adds one too.

Moraug, Fury of Akoum adds a combat each time a land enters during one of your main phases, with every creature you control untapped as it begins. Keep Wooded Foothills or Fabled Passage for the second main phase. Playing it is one landfall and cracking it is another, which is two more combats with Bumi in both. Moraug also gives each of your creatures +1/+0 for every time it has attacked that turn, so a land that has already swung twice hits harder the third time.

Natural Emergence stays out, though it wakes every land at once

Natural Emergence turns every land you control into a 2/2 first striker with no end date, which reads like the best card ever printed for Bumi. The list leaves it out because those lands are creatures on everyone else's turn as well, and one sweeper cast by an opponent takes your whole mana base with it. The rule here is to risk a few lands and never all of them. Both Nissas, Quirion Druid and Primal Adversary leave a land a creature with no way back, and that is a loss the deck survives. Earthbend is safer, since a land it wakes comes back when it dies, tapped and without its counters. Most of the rest wake lands only until the end of your turn, so on other turns they are lands and nothing else, and Sylvan Awakening, which lasts until your next turn, makes its lands indestructible for exactly as long as they are creatures.

Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender is the second Bumi in the list, and a third stays out

Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender is the mono-green Bumi from the Eternal set, and it is in the ninety-nine for its counters. Three legendary creatures carry the name. This page builds Bumi, Unleashed, the red and green rare from the main Avatar: The Last Airbender set. Bumi, King of Three Trials, from the same set, costs six and picks its modes by the number of Lesson cards in your graveyard, and this list holds one Lesson, Cracked Earth Technique, so it stays out. The legend rule only stops two permanents with the same full name, so the commander and Eclectic Earthbender can share the battlefield. Eclectic Earthbender earthbends 1 as it enters and puts two +1/+1 counters on every land creature you control each time it attacks, so it belongs in the first combat while the lands it grew wait for the second. Two more cards carry the name without being him: Bumi Bash, the removal spell above, and Flopsie, Bumi's Buddy.

Its counters outlast the turn, even on lands that were only awake until the end step. A +1/+1 counter stays on a permanent when it stops being a creature, so a Raging Ravine or Treetop Village that took two from Eclectic Earthbender sits on the battlefield as a land carrying two counters on everyone else's turn, and comes back as a 5/5 the next time you pay to wake it. Over a few turns that makes the cheap manlands the biggest things you have, and the same goes for any land that Kamahl's Will or Sylvan Awakening had woken while Eclectic Earthbender was attacking.

The core list

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The budget rung keeps the untap and gives up the instant speed

Twelve swaps bring the list to $114, and every cut is one of the dearest cards in the core list. The engine does not change. Bumi still untaps everything when he hits, the manlands and Sylvan Awakening are all still here, and so are Relentless Assault, Seize the Day and Moraug. What goes is the double strike you can cast after blocks. Embercleave and Savage Beating become Fireshrieker and Port Razer. Fireshrieker gives Bumi double strike for to equip, but only at sorcery speed, so the table sees it before anyone blocks. Port Razer untaps every creature you control and adds a combat when its own damage reaches a player, but it cannot attack the same player twice in a turn, so point it at a different opponent each time.

The other swaps keep each job at a lower price. Craterhoof Behemoth becomes End-Raze Forerunners, which gives your other creatures +2/+2, vigilance and trample for the turn, and the vigilance is the part that matters here, because lands that attack without tapping are still mana in the second main phase. Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender becomes Kamahl, Heart of Krosa, another eight-drop. It gives your creatures +3/+3 and trample as each combat on your turn begins, and each bonus lasts until the turn ends, so a land creature awake for both combats goes into the second at +6/+6. Toph, Greatest Earthbender becomes Skarrg Guildmage, which wakes a land as a 4/4 for as often as you can pay. Sylvan Library becomes Shamanic Revelation, which draws a card for each creature you control and so counts every awake land. Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender, Kodama of the West Tree and Heroic Intervention become Earthbending Lesson, Badgermole and Tyvar's Stand, and Wooded Foothills, Arena of Glory and Stomping Ground become Evolving Wilds, Ghitu Encampment and Temple of Abandon. The rung has no Game Changers, the same as the core list.

Bracket 4 makes Bumi a Forest, and the combats never stop

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild makes every nontoken creature you control a Forest land as well as whatever else it is. That includes Bumi, and it breaks his restriction open. As a land creature he can attack in the land combat his own trigger made, and his untap now reaches every creature you control, him included. So he hits, everything untaps, a land combat starts that he can join, and if he hits again it all happens again. The loop runs for as long as his damage keeps reaching a player, and since Rogue's Passage untaps every time, makes him unblockable in each of those combats. A two-card loop like that is a bracket 4 card on any honest reading, so it goes here and not in the core list.

Aggravated Assault is the second loop, and it needs no Ashaya. For at sorcery speed it untaps your creatures and adds a combat and a main phase. Bumi connects in that combat, the lands untap, and the ones that sit out the land combat pay for the next activation in the main phase that follows, so five lands held back is enough to repeat it for as long as he keeps connecting. The four Game Changers find and speed up the pieces. Worldly Tutor puts Ashaya on top of your library, and Natural Order sacrifices a green creature to put it straight onto the battlefield, with Dryad Arbor counting as one. Crop Rotation turns any land into Rogue's Passage at instant speed after attackers are declared, and if the land you sacrifice was earthbended it comes straight back. Ancient Tomb gets Bumi down a turn sooner. Badgermole Cub makes every land creature tap for an extra , and Toph, Earthbending Master earthbends every time you attack, in every combat. Out go Rampant Growth, Skyshroud Claim, Sheltered Thicket, Cracked Earth Technique, Earthbender Ascension, Quirion Druid, Combat Celebrant and Rishkar's Expertise.

FAQ

Can Bumi, Unleashed attack in the extra combat?

Not on his own. The combat his trigger adds is for land creatures only, and Bumi is a creature but not a land. Your other nonland creatures sit it out with him. On the bracket 4 rung, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild makes every nontoken creature you control a Forest as well, and then Bumi can attack in it, which is what turns him into a loop.

Do my land creatures untap for the second combat with Bumi?

Yes. His trigger untaps every land you control, and a land creature is still a land, so the ones that attacked beside him are untapped again and can attack in the land combat. Lands you tapped for mana before combat untap too, and if they were creatures they can attack in it, which is why this build spends its mana before the first attack.

Does Bumi, Unleashed still trigger if he gets blocked?

Yes, as long as some of his damage reaches the player. He has trample, so a 1/1 blocker takes one and the other four go through, and that counts as combat damage to a player. A blocker with toughness 5 or more soaks up all of it, and that is the case Rancor, Kessig Wolf Run, Bumi Bash and Rogue's Passage are in the list for.

Is there an infinite combo with Bumi, Unleashed?

Two. Ashaya, Soul of the Wild makes him a land, so he can attack in his own extra combat and his untap reaches him, and each hit makes another combat for as long as his damage keeps landing. Aggravated Assault makes a combat and a main phase for , and each hit untaps the lands that pay for the next activation. Both are on the bracket 4 rung and neither is in the core list.

What bracket is the Bumi, Unleashed core list?

Bracket 3, going by how it plays rather than by anything printed on it. It holds no Game Changers, so no single card sets a floor. What makes it a 3 is a turn with two or three combats and Craterhoof Behemoth waiting at the end of it. The budget rung has no Game Changers either and loses the double strike you can cast after blocks. The bracket 4 rung adds four Game Changers and the two loops.

How much is a Bumi, Unleashed deck in paper?

About $278 for the hundred cards, if you buy the least expensive paper copy of each. Sylvan Library, Craterhoof Behemoth, Toph, Greatest Earthbender and Kodama of the West Tree are the four dearest and come to about a third of that. The budget rung swaps out twelve cards and lands at about $114, and the bracket 4 rung comes to about $557, close to half of the difference being Ancient Tomb.

Is Bumi, Unleashed the same card as Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender?

No. Bumi, Unleashed is the red and green rare from the main Avatar set, and he is the commander here. Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender is a mono-green card from the Eternal set that puts two +1/+1 counters on each of your land creatures when it attacks, and it is in the ninety-nine. The two have different names, so the legend rule lets both sit on the battlefield at once.