When you look out at the post-Vivi standard Magic: the Gathering meta, what is there to see? There are Badgermoles burrowing their way into a variety of decks, and the Avatar Kuruk is helping Dimir strategies waterbend their way to victory. That makes sense, those are both powerful Mythic Rare cards, but why are there so many boomerangs flying everywhere?
At first glance, Boomerang Basics may not seem that impressive. It's a blue bounce effect, something that we see very regularly. Furthermore, unlike spells like Unsummon, Into the Flood Maw, and well… Boomerang, it's only sorcery speed. This means that you can't use it to disrupt combat or to interfere with opponents during their turns.
The secret that will make you want to return to Boomerang Basics over and over again is the fact that it draws a card if you use it to bounce one of your own permanents. This means that it provides card advantage while also enabling you to recur powerful enter the battlefield abilities. Doing this for just a single blue mana is a great bargain.
There are all sorts of cards in Standard at the minute that can benefit from being playing repeatedly. Stormchaser's Talent will produce another Otter every time you boomerang it off the board and back into play. Not only that, but removal effects like Nowhere to Run and Grim Bauble can be looped back into your hand and used to take out additional creatures.
Since Boomerang Basics is a lesson, it also synergizes with cards like Gran-Gran and Combustion Technique, helping their effects scale and unlocking their full potential.
Magic World Championship 31 is happening over this weekend in Bellevue, Washington. 126 decklists have been submitted for the event, featuring a total of 253 copies of Boomerang Basics. This puts it miles ahead of Badgermole Cub, the second most popular card from the Avatar set, which shows up 183 times.
Are there any Avatar cards that you absolutely love? Personally, I've had a lot of fun experimenting with Ozai, the Phoenix King in Commander. Share your hot takes in the Wargamer Discord.