Heavily present card throughout the standard format, Avacyn brings together interesting skills: leaving its fantastic flavor to the fantasy literature lovers, let’s dissect its skills in some particular situations.

The angel who challenges God’s wrath

Archangel Avacyn will save its people once again. If our opponent casts a mass removal like Supreme Verdict or Wrath of God, we can take advantage of Avacyn’s Flash ability and play it in response. When it enters the battlefield, its ability will trigger and go on the stack as the higher object, the first that will resolve. This will ensure that our creatures have the necessary indestructibility to resist to the wrath of God. It’s important to underline how a triggered ability is independent from its source. For example, our opponent can play Reprisal on Avacyn entering the battlefield before its ability makes it indestructible. This will get rid of Avacyn but not of its ability on the stack. However, Indestructibility will not save our creatures from other types of mass removals, like the second mode of a Merciless Eviction or the effect of a Languish. At the same way, indestructible will not help our creatures in the case we have to sacrifice them.

Under Avacyn’s command

In a Commander match, the colors we are allowed to use to build our deck depend on our commander’s mana colors, plus color indicators. Furthermore, for double-faced cards like Avacyn, we will be able to play cards of the color of the back face:

So Avacyn’s color identity is White and Red.

Avacyn Displacer

Like every double-faced card, if Avacyn gets blinked while being “Avacyn, the Purifier”, it will re-enter the battlefield with its front face “Archangel Avacyn”. This is an interesting interaction when the “red face” triggered ability is on the stack. We can respond to the ability by blinking the archangel, (perhaps with Eldrazi Displacer), and letting trigger its “white face” ability while re-entering the battlefield, giving indestructible to our creatures, and then letting resolve the “red face” ability and deal 3 damage to each other creature and each opponent.

Abrupt Purifier

With Shadows over Innistrad the rule that defined the converted mana cost of a double-faced card has changed. Now, when a double-faced card is transformed, it has the CMC of its front face, for example: to destroy a transformed Avacyn with Engineered Explosives, now we need five counters on it.

The only exception to this rule is if we copy the transformed face of a double-faced card. In this case, the CMC of the copy is 0. Our Explosives with 5 counters will destroy the original Avacyn, the Purifier, but not its copy.

Tons of mana

Let’s say that we control 3 Grizzly Bears. We play Avacyn. In response to its triggered ability our opponent casts a Doom Blade targeting our Avacyn. We respond by playing another Avacyn!! If you think that this is an unreal scenario just know that it really occurred. Let’s see what happens: We have Avacyn’s trigger on the stack, and another Avacyn trigger that waits to go on the stack on top of Doom Blade.

As we know, abilities go on the stack before the active player receives priority, after state based actions are checked.

In this case, before we can put on the stack the triggered ability from the second Avacyn, we’ll have to choose which one will go to the graveyard due to the legend rule. Seen that they are both angels, the transformation ability of the remaining one won’t trigger. Once we have chosen which one goes to the graveyard, we can resolve the ability and make indestructible all of our creatures, Angel included. Avacyn’s triggered abilities, as all others, are independent from their source: it’s not relevant which angel we will sacrifice, we will still have our abilities resolving normally.

Angels and Dragons

Our opponent has taken control of our Archangel Avacyn with Dragonlord Silumgar’s ability. Now the Dragonlord dies. The abilities that trigger when the dragon dies will check the game state as it was before the triggering event.
Before Dragonlord Silumgar died our opponent controlled Avacyn as well. The angel’s ability will then trigger but go on the stack only when Avacyn comes back under our control.

Our opponent will be the controller of the delayed triggered ability, seen that he/she controlled the ability that created it.

At the beginning of our next upkeep, our opponent will transform Avacyn even if it’s under our control. Avacyn the Purifier’s ability will normally trigger and we will be the controllers; therefore we will deal damage to our opponent… a proper punishment for stealing an Angel with a Dragon!

Sorin over Innistrad

Avacyn the Purifier’s triggered ability deals 3 damage to each other creature and each opponent. We can then choose to redirect the damage it would deal to our opponent on the Sorin, Grim Nemesis he/she controls (or any other planeswalker he/she controls).

However, we will not be able to redirect the damage on both a planeswalker and our opponent, or on two planeswalkers that our opponent controls.

Angels and Demons

We can control both Archangel Avacyn and Avacyn the Purifier at the same time. They are both legendary and share a face, but have a different name. If the Archangel transforms, it becomes a Purifier and, at this point, we would have a trigger willing to go on the stack, but not before choosing which of the two Angels will go to the graveyard.

This is all for our beloved Archangel, see you next month with another tricky card and its interactions!

 

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