In season 1 of Avatar: The Final Airbender, few moments land tougher than the reveal that the traditional, mad king of Omashu is, in actual fact, Aang’s childhood pal Bumi. He’s launched as a cackling, erratic previous man who’s each frail and senile, somebody the Avatar doesn’t acknowledge in any respect. It’s been a century, in spite of everything. Because the episode performs out, Bumi presides over a weird collection of “checks” that really feel much less like trials and extra like a joke performed at Aang’s expense. Within the final take a look at, Aang has to combat the champion of his selection. When he picks the king, he’s shocked to seek out out that beneath that hunch and enormous robes, Bumi retains a muscular physique and sharp abilities that make him one of the vital highly effective earthbenders on the earth.
It’s such a memorable twist as a result of Bumi doesn’t arrive as a menace. He takes benefit of how he’s perceived after which, with a magician’s flourish, immediately reveals the reality. The second is sudden and destabilizing, so it’s becoming that Bumi himself stars within the Secret Lair reprint of a Magic: The Gathering card from the Shadowmoor set known as Dramatic Entrance.
At face worth, Dramatic Entrance is disarmingly easy: for 5 mana, you might put a inexperienced creature card out of your hand onto the battlefield. There’s no further price discount, no safety, no bizarre twists which might be arduous to know. It’s not even all that environment friendly. However it lets the participant interrupt the sport’s anticipated rhythm. Inexperienced decks nearly at all times construct towards massive creatures that price lots of mana, which is why they usually deal with methods to generate extra mana sooner. Dramatic Entrance technically “cheats” a giant creature onto the board, however you’re nonetheless paying a considerable quantity of mana. So that you’re solely getting good worth with Dramatic Entrance for those who use it as early as potential to play one thing that prices seven mana or extra. Higher but, pair it with Progenitus, a just about unkillable 10/10 that prices 10 mana.
The unique Dramatic Entrance card artwork from Mike Dringenberg incorporates a neon inexperienced sky as a hulking, green-skinned large has simply landed. Timber round him are bent and damaged as a large cloud of mud and grime explodes underneath his toes. The holes within the clouds above make it appear like he was shot down from the heavens like a cannon ball and caught the superhero touchdown. “Some issues aren’t price ready for,” reads the flavour textual content.
Regardless of some glorious artwork, Dramatic Entrance by no means actually discovered a spot in aggressive play, little doubt attributable to its excessive mana price and the truth that it’s restricted to inexperienced creatures. So it was printed as soon as with Shadowmoor in 2008 and largely ignored for years. Its first style of notoriety got here in 2015, when a fabricated match consequence circulated on-line, falsely claiming {that a} Dramatic Entrance deck had performed an important position. However that hype didn’t final.
In 2023, an actual Trendy deck constructed round Dramatic Entrance and Atraxa, Grand Unifier surfaced through a preferred content material creator, triggering an explosive spike pushed by real demand and low provide. The value briefly skyrocketed earlier than settling again down in a matter of days.
Then, Dramatic Entrance resurfaced as a part of the Avatar: The Final Airbender Secret Lair Superdrop launched in November 2025, particularly the “Every little thing Modified” Drop. “Some energy burns vibrant and vanishes,” the Drop’s description reads. “Some hides in plain sight. And a few threatens to eat the world completely.” Different playing cards within the Drop depict iconic battles and moments from the present, however Bumi’s second could be one of the best: “Even Bumi, underestimated behind fun and a crown, revealed energy that nobody noticed coming.”
The cardboard options artwork from Eduardo Francesco depicting the second the place an unhinged-looking Bumi tosses off his heavy robes to disclose his chiseled bod. “Your closing take a look at is a duel,” it reads. “And as a particular deal with, you might select your opponent. Select properly!” It’s a direct quote from the present as Bumi brings out a bunch of scary-looking warriors. Aang, pondering he’s making the appropriate selection, factors at Bumi. That’s when the mad king makes his massive reveal.
Dramatic Entrance has at all times been much less about spectacle than notion, as a result of it solely works when the opponent believes they nonetheless have time. That was true in Shadowmoor, it was true when the cardboard briefly broke into the highlight years later, and it’s true now as Magic returns to Lorwyn-Shadowmoor with Lorwyn Eclipsed. The aircraft has modified, however the lesson hasn’t: Energy like Bumi’s doesn’t want an introduction. It simply wants the appropriate second to cease pretending.
