With haste and the ability to tap and copy another nonlegendary creature you control, it turns ordinary creatures into immediate value engines
Even if you only lose one life, youre still saving one mana per card you cast - and that could lead to game-changing turns
With flash enablers like [[Leyline of Anticipation]], [[Valley Floodcaller]], or [[Vedalken Orrery]], things get even sillier you can copy any spell while Azula is attacking
Along with that, MTG Aetherdrift also introduces two new pre-con Commander decks but neither of these two decks has an immediately obvious tie-in to the sets racing theme
Persist reads: When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter. Because +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel out, you can create a loop with: Any free sacrifice outlet Two Persist creatures You need two because Long Fengs trigger requires a target as it goes on the stack before the Persist creature returns