Aang, Airbending Master

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Aang is a 5cmc 4/4 that airbends (temporarily exiles) a creature on ETB, accumulates experience counters whenever your creatures leave the battlefield without dying (flicker, bounce, phase-out, sacrifice to non-death effects), and converts those counters into a growing Ally token army each upkeep. It's signature in flicker shells where repeated exile-and-return of your own creatures rapidly stacks experience counters, and in tokens-go-wide strategies that leverage the Ally token flood; the airbend ETB also doubles as a tempo tool against opposing threats. The engine is slow to spin up and Aang himself is a removal magnet once the token engine is visible.

• The airbend mechanic exiles the target creature and allows its owner to recast it for {2} — this means Aang's ETB can be used offensively on opponent creatures (forcing a recast tax) or protectively on your own creatures to dodge a boardwipe and generate an experience counter in the process.

  tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

• Experience counters are permanent and survive Aang's own removal; killing Aang after several counters are built up does not reset the token production, so replacing him (e.g., via recast or Commander zone) immediately resumes the engine.

  tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

• Airbending your own creatures that have ETB triggers creates a powerful loop with Aang: the exiled creature's owner casts it for {2} on re-entry, triggering ETBs again, while each departure also grants an experience counter — making low-cost ETB creatures especially synergistic.

  tagging · claude-sonnet-4-6

• EDHREC rank: #5,610