Legendary Creature — Bison Ally

Appa, Loyal Sky Bison

Mana value6EDHREC#6,960

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The Commander

Flying

Whenever Appa enters or attacks, choose one —

• Target creature you control gains flying until end of turn.

• Airbend another target nonland permanent you control. (Exile it. While it's exiled, its owner may cast it for {2} rather than its mana cost.)

Guide

Gameplan

Appa is a mono-white blink-and-evasion engine: each time it enters or attacks, you either grant flying for evasive damage or "Airbend" one of your own nonland permanents to re-cast it for {2} , refiring ETB triggers cheaply. You build a board of value creatures (or aggressive fliers), beat down through the air, and grind incremental advantage by repeatedly bouncing your best permanents back for two mana.

Strengths

Repeatable, very cheap flicker effect on a body that also evades — strong synergy with ETB creatures
Built-in evasion package lets you push commander damage and pressure quickly
Airbend dodges targeted removal and resets auras/counters/enchantments at instant speed via flash enablers
Mono-white keeps the mana base clean and consistent

Weaknesses

Airbend isn't true blink — it exiles and you must pay to recast, so it's slow and clunky on a stalled board
Mono-white struggles with card draw and ramp compared to other colors
Heavily reliant on Appa staying on the field; commander tax and removal slow the engine
No native way to protect Appa beyond white's limited toolbox

Key Cards

Cloudgoat Ranger — A premium ETB token-maker that Airbend re-casts for to flood the board with bodies.
Restoration Angel — Flier with its own flicker ETB, doubling down on evasion and value reuse alongside Appa.
Skyclave Apparition — Airbend it to exile another threat each loop, turning removal into a recurring engine.
Swords to Plowshares — Best-in-class white removal to clear blockers or protect your aggressive plan.
Sun Titan — Recurs your cheap permanents and ETB pieces, deepening the value loop Appa fuels.
Smothering Tithe — Mono-white's premier ramp/advantage engine to fund repeated Airbend payments.

Upgrade Path

Add stronger ETB payoffs (Skyclave Apparition, Solitude, Sun Titan) and protection like Mother of Runes and Flawless Maneuver to keep Appa online. Bolster white's weak spots with ramp/draw engines — Smothering Tithe, Esper Sentinel, Land Tax, Welcoming Vampire — so you can always afford the {2} Airbend tax. Finish faster with anthem/overrun effects (Cathars' Crusade, Akroma's Will) to convert the wide, evasive board into lethal swings.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Evasive beatdown with fliers and granted flying, including Appa commander damage
▸Overrun a wide token board with anthems like Cathars' Crusade and mass evasion
▸Snowball ETB value (removal, tokens, draw) until you out-resource the table

Archetypes

Blink/Flicker — Airbend cheaply re-casts your ETB creatures every combat for stacking value.
Flying Aggro — Appa grants evasion and is itself a 6-drop flier that can deal commander damage fast.
Tokens/Go-Wide — Re-casting token-makers like Cloudgoat Ranger and giving fliers evasion swarms the air.
Value Midrange — Mono-white grind plan leveraging repeatable ETBs and enters-or-attacks triggers.