Appa, Steadfast Guardian wants a deck that sends cards back to their owners' hands. It also suits a deck that makes an army of small creatures and attacks with all of them.
Mana cost
White ()
Power / toughness3 / 4
RarityMythic
Flash
Flying
When Appa enters, airbend any number of other target nonland permanents you control. (Exile them. While each one is exiled, its owner may cast it for rather than its mana cost.)
Whenever you cast a spell from exile, create a 1/1 white Ally creature token.
Picked for what they do in Appa's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Appa's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Appa works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast2 Oct 2025
If the spell you cast has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X.
Wizards of the Coast2 Oct 2025
Lands exiled this way cannot be played from exile. (Lands that were animated by earthbend will be returned to the battlefield tapped when they're exiled.)
Wizards of the Coast2 Oct 2025
Since you are using an alternative cost to cast a spell from exile this way, you can't pay any other alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs, such as kicker costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those.
Wizards of the Coast2 Oct 2025
To airbend one or more permanents and/or spells means to exile each of those objects. For each card exiled this way, for as long as it's exiled, its owner may cast it from exile by paying {2} rather than paying its mana cost.
Wizards of the Coast2 Oct 2025
Tokens exiled this way will cease to exist and cannot be cast.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryWPlayers write colors as letters: W for white.BounceBounce decks send cards on the battlefield back to their owner's hand, to slow opponents down or to reuse their own cards. Bouncing an opponent's card makes them pay for it again; bouncing your own lets its 'when this enters' ability happen twice.Open the Bounce pageAirbendAirbend sends a permanent or a spell into exile, out of the game for now. Its owner can cast it again later, but only by paying 2 mana instead of its normal cost.Open the Airbend pageETB ValueDoes something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One RingOpen the ETB Value pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageAlliesAllies range from Zendikar's adventurers to the heroes of Magic's Avatar: The Last Airbender cards. Many Zendikar Allies get a bonus whenever another Ally enters the battlefield under your control.Open the Allies page
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