The current standard Mono-Blue deck uses a high concentration of instant and sorcery spells to control the game's tempo and remove enemy threats from play
Menace is a great keyword to add to the mix when youre going wide: Your opponents need twice as many blockers, or they just take extra damage
But whereas that's a card on the MTG Commander banlist, Avatar of Growth is far less threatening
Thats a card that already existed in Magic where you wipe out half the board, and so to lay the Marvel art of the Thanos snap on top of it, its just really fun, Barker said
Why its a contender: Crucially, it allows players to stop game-winning threats even when they have no available mana, fundamentally changing how high-power formats are played
It was absurdly good with other fast mana spells, letting you empty your whole hand, and then get a brand-new one