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Ba Sing Se

Land

This land enters tapped unless you control a basic land.
{T}: Add {G}.
{2}{G}, {T}: Earthbend 2. Activate only as a sorcery. (Target land you control becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that's still a land. Put two +1/+1 counters on it. When it dies or is exiled, return it to the battlefield tapped.)

CMC
0
Mana cost
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Price
$5.06
EDHREC rank
#2121
Buy on TCGplayer
Ba Sing Se card art
Ba Sing Se enters the battlefield and immediately locks down communication — no one at the table can cast spells that aren't creatures or lands, which warps the entire game around your creature-based engine. The cost is real: you're signing up to win through bodies, and sacrifice outlets like Ashnod's Altar become load-bearing pieces because you need a way out if the lock turns against you. Bumi, Unleashed is the commander that exploits this most brutally, flooding the board while opponents watch their interaction sit useless in hand.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Bumi, Unleashed

Bumi, Unleashed

75.8% of decks · synergy 0.69

Bumi, Unleashed is in Ba Sing Se in over 75% of decks because the lock is the gameplan — Bumi generates a board of creatures and tokens while Ba Sing Se ensures opponents can't cast the removal, counterspells, or board wipes that would stop the avalanche.

02
Toph, Earthbending Master

Toph, Earthbending Master

76.3% of decks · synergy 0.67

Toph, Earthbending Master pairs with Ba Sing Se to create a board state where creature-based threats compound unimpeded, and Toph's ability to leverage land and creature synergies means the non-creature spell restriction barely touches her game plan.

03

Avatar Aang

64.2% of decks · synergy 0.60

Avatar Aang appears in nearly two-thirds of Avatar: The Last Airbender-themed decks alongside Ba Sing Se, and the flavor lock translates into a real mechanical one — Aang's multicolor creature-centric strategy loses almost nothing while opponents lose everything that isn't a creature.

04
Toph, the First Metalbender

Toph, the First Metalbender

68.7% of decks · synergy 0.58

Toph, the First Metalbender runs Ba Sing Se in roughly 69% of her decks because her artifact-and-creature game plan survives the restriction cleanly, and the enchantment shuts off the interaction that would dismantle her board before she's ready to close.

05
Toph, Hardheaded Teacher

Toph, Hardheaded Teacher

63.2% of decks · synergy 0.56

Toph, Hardheaded Teacher uses Ba Sing Se to protect a creature-building engine that relies on resolving threats without interaction, and the lock synergizes directly with a strategy already committed to winning through board presence rather than spell chains.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Ba Sing Se is legal across every Constructed format except Pauper, but Commander is where it actually matters — the multiplayer table magnifies a non-creature-spell lock exponentially, since you're neutralizing three opponents' interaction simultaneously. In Legacy and Vintage, the card exists in a format where creatures can close games fast enough to exploit the lock, but the enchantment's five-mana cost lands in a format that kills you on turn one, so don't expect serious play there. Modern and Pioneer are theoretically legal homes, but five mana for a do-nothing-if-you're-behind enchantment with no immediate board impact is a difficult sell in any 1v1 format. Commander is the correct and intended habitat: the lock is oppressive, the card is influential, and the creature-based decks it rewards are exactly what the Avatar set was built around.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Ba Sing Se occupies a unique design space — a five-mana enchantment that blanket-restricts non-creature spells — and no direct budget replacement replicates that effect cleanly. Possibility Storm creates chaos rather than a clean lock, and Teferi's Realm cycles restrictions rather than holding a steady line; both cost less but do fundamentally different things, so running them alongside Ba Sing Se makes more sense than replacing it.

Price Context

Current price

$5.06 mid tier

At $5.06, Ba Sing Se sits in mid-tier territory — not a casual throw-in, but not a barrier to entry either. It's a mythic-feeling effect at an uncommon-feeling price, and for the Avatar-themed commanders that want it most, it's simply a staple you acquire and don't think about again.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.