Yes, Cabbage Could Really Dominate Magic: The Gathering's…

Magic: The Gathering saw the release of its Edge of Eternities set just a little over two weeks ago, and it had quite an impact on the meta, thanks to a wide selection of powerful cards and new mechanics. This is one of the core aspects of each release for the game, as formats evolve alongside the addition of new cards that keep things refreshing and interesting with never-before-seen combos and designs. Now, all eyes are set on Magic: The Gathering's Spider-Man cards, which will come out in September. However, several cards from the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender set have been revealed, and one of them may become a meta staple.

It's no secret that Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond sets have been controversial since they were announced as Standard-legal in November of last year, and there are a few reasons for this. Among them is the brand identity of MTG as a whole, which some fans believe is being diluted, as well as the fact that some UB cards are just more powerful than regular ones - possibly to drive sales. Yet, one of the most interesting cards from the Avatar set is indeed quite powerful, and it's likely to be OP under the right conditions. This is called The Cabbage Merchant.

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By Andrea Trama

Magic: The Gathering's Avatar Set is About to Bend The Game With Cabbage

While at face value it may not seem like a good card, The Cabbage Merchant is actually incredibly strong in Magic: The Gathering Commander decks that revolve around Food tokens, generating mana, artifacts, and more. It's also potentially very good in competitive Commander, called cEDH for short, as it's basically the Food token equivalent of two of the most powerful Commander cards ever: Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe. The Cabbage Merchant has three abilities:

It generates a Food token whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell
It makes the user sacrifice a Food token whenever a creature deals combat damage to them
It allows the owner to tap two Food tokens to generate one mana of any color

The first and the last are incredibly powerful effects, with the ability to generate Food tokens even multiple times per player turn in Commander being on the same level as Rhystic Study's draw ability or Smothering Tithe's Treasure token generation. This is because Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe create a lot of interaction with other players and discussions about what should be done at the table, and they can be neutralized by paying mana. However, The Cabbage Merchant does this regardless, which can be devastating if left unattended. Interestingly, one of the unwritten rules of MTG's Commander is not to feed into other players' Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe.

Although this card is borderline broken in MTG's Commander, it may not perform the best as a commander itself, and instead, it's mostly better in the 99. It can be great in other decks, even competitive ones, with commanders like:

Ygra, Eater of All
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Thrasios, Triton Hero + Tymna the Weaver
Thrasios, Triton Hero + Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
Baylen, the Haymaker
Etali, Primal Conqueror / Etali, Primal Sickness

The Cabbage Merchant is the second powerful Food token-related commander recently, as Edge of Eternities' Ragost in MTG claimed the spot as the most hyped commander of the set, and it revolves entirely around Food tokens.

For example, if The Cabbage Merchant is used in a Black and Green deck with Ygra, Eater of All as a commander, and if both these creatures are on the battlefield, the former's ability to sacrifice a Food token whenever a creature deals combat damage to the owner can become a benefit for the latter, which gains two +1/+1 counters any time a Food is put into a graveyard. Likewise, another MTG Bloomburrow commander that benefits from the tokens generated by The Cabbage Merchant is Baley, the Haymaker, who can tap the Food tokens alongside other ones to gain various benefits.

Why The Cabbage Merchant Can Break MTG's Commander

It's also worth mentioning that cards like Doubling Season or the new Exalted Sunborn in MTG's Edge of Eternities have effects that double the number of tokens created by the user. As such, having one of these cards on the field alongside The Cabbage Merchant will produce two Food tokens any time an opponent casts a noncreature spell, which is very often in Commander, especially considering there are four players at the table.

The Cabbage Merchant can be amazing in decks that are mana-hungry, as if it's not removed, it will inevitably generate anywhere between 5 and 8 Food tokens per turn cycle, which is a lot of mana. On top of that, if targeted with removal, players can still sacrifice their current Food tokens to add mana to their pool in response.

The Cabbage Merchant is only available in some MTG Avatar products, as it's part of the Eternal set. Since it comes from Jumpstart Boosters, players interested in this card and others for Commander should get the boosters as soon as possible, as they became hard to find after launch with Foundations, and their cards became very expensive.

Another interesting thing to note is that Commander revolves around a lot of spell tricks to counter opponents' spells, such as Swan Song or Red Elemental Blast, and while these typically only cost one mana, they almost never have effects to counter creature cards. Instead, removals are necessary for that, but Magic: The Gathering's new Redirect Lightning card from the Avatar set can take care of those if The Cabbage Merchant is played in a deck that uses Red, too. As such, this can be an amazing card to use, and it could dominate the cEDH or regular Commander discourse for a while.

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