Grand Avatar Cycle

## Summary

The Grand Avatar Cycle is a two-card pair of five color Avatar creatures from Dominaria Divided.

Grand Ally costs five hybrid mana, one of each of the five allied color combinations, Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul and Selesnya.

Grand Enemy costs five hybrid mana, one of each of the five enemy color combinations, Orzhov, Golgari, Simic, Izzet and Boros.

Both creatures are 5/5, have flash, and have five enter the battlefield abilities, each corresponding to the strengths of each color pair in their mana cost.

## Grand Ally

Grand Ally costs hybrid mana of every allied color, but can ironically be run in any of the Wedge colors.

It's five triggers are as follows:

Azorius- Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.

Dimir- Return target permanent to its owners hand.

Rakdos- Deal 3 damage to target creature.

Gruul- Target creature gets +3/+0 until end of turn.

Selesnya- Create a 3/3 green beast creature token.

Grand Ally's abilities cater well to a control deck, containing a counterspell, two types of removal, a combat trick and two instant speed blockers. However, unlike Grand Enemy, while their strategies keep a consistent theme, they don't necessarily immediately synergize well with one another. The counterspell can't be used on the bounced card, the beast can't use the power boost offensively, and perhaps most importantly, it's very rare that all of these abilities would be immediately relevant and useful at the same time, often leading to some wasted potential.

However, this was seemingly a small price to pay, as Grand Ally quickly became a control staple regardless. Jeskai control decks, who typically would already run slightly more aggressively using Prowess for power, appreciated its combat trick status, preventing it from getting into situations of compromise between control and aggression, between combat tricks and counterspells.

## Grand Enemy

Grand Enemy costs hybrid mana of every enemy color, but can ironically be run in any of the Shard colors.

It's five triggers are as follows:

Orzhov- You gain 4 life.

Golgari- Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

Simic- Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.

Izzet- Discard a card, then draw two cards.

Boros- Target creature gains double strike until end of turn.

As opposed to the Allied abilities, Grand Enemy's abilities are significantly more scattered strategy wise, but in a vacuum synergize with one another more effectively. While the dredge, lifegain and creature buffing themes aren't necessarily related, the card is almost guaranteed to reach its full potential, being able to immediately buff a creature with both counters and double strike, discard cards without real risk of losing them, and apply offensive pressure by attacking with your newly buffed creature, using the lifegain as padding.

Grand Enemy saw decent play in Bant Exalted voltron/control decks as a card that could provide double strike, two +1/+1 counters, bring back a combat trick from the graveyard and dig for more, all at instant speed. It saw slightly less play in Esper Stoneblade decks, but provided a utility and finishing quality that slower, more control-focused version of the decks could put to great use.