The new MTG Powerhouse is already included in several formats - and it's almost sold out

Magic: The Gathering enters a new era, like his Avatar: The Last Airbender the set officially came out a few days ago, and several formats are now changing, both due to new cards and the November 10th bans. Magic: The Gathering it hit Standard the hardest and completely killed the infamous Izzet Cauldron deck that dominated all tournaments. Now that the Avatar set is available, the meta for each format is inevitably reshaping, and some cards are already proving to be extremely powerful—perhaps even a little too much. The most notable example right now is the Badgermole Cub, but others can be made for other mythic rares such as Wan Shi Tong, the librarian.

It makes sense for Magic: The Gathering Mythic rares are some of the best cards in the set. While rarity doesn't always equal value or power, Wan Shin Tong, the librarian, has plenty of both. This creature is an excellent example of card design done right, as it can be used with great success in most formats, is a dramatic game changer when played, and is already the centerpiece of many combos, but it is sold out almost everywhere and you may struggle to find it.

It's time to welcome one of MTG's most broken blue cards ever

There are several reasons why Wan Shi Tong, the Librarian, is such a powerful card across formats. These are;

With the exception of Standard, which doesn't have many teacher abilities, Wan Shi Tong can be played successfully in most formats and anytime in response to a teacher trigger to immediately get a +1/+1 counter and allow you to draw a card.
- Wan Shi Tong is OP in Commander and cEDH because the turn cycle has four players, so multiple tutors will be used before your next turn, charging the creature up a lot. As such, it can easily be replaced or added to Archivist of Oghma decks and is another strength for cEDH's strongest and most consistent deck: Blue Farm.
Wan Shi Tong, the Librarian, can be extremely powerful as a draw engine in control and combo decks like Dimir Mill in Modern or Dimir Tempo in Timeless.
- It can be used in combination with the notorious OP Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar to help boost his card draw abilities. It can also be a mana sink in longer games or landfall decks.
It allows for some incredible combos with otherwise not very competitive cards like Scheming Symmetry and Archive Trap.
Can be played as a response MTG's fetch also lands, meaning it scales up and acts as a fetch machine for the basic teacher abilities that come with most decks in the game as well.
- Wan Shi Tong's ability also incorporates powerful basics such as crop rotation, forcing opponents to think twice about playing a certain card or following a given strategy.
Wan Shi Tong, the librarian, can become a kind of stax next to extremely powerful cards like him MTG's Rhystic Study, Smothering Ten Commandments, Orcish Bowmasters and more.
- Cards like Path to Exile are commonly used for removal, but they double as a boost for Wan Shi Tong if they force the opponent(s) to search their library.
Since it's a blue card, it's easy to have interaction and counterspells like Force of Negation, Fierce Guardianship if your commander is Wan Shi Tong, and Flare of Denial in your deck. It also goes well with the recent Edge of Eternities Quantum Riddler card.

MTG decks using Wan Shi Tong, the Librarian

As you can imagine, Librarian Wan Shi Tong feels perfectly at home in Commander thanks to his upgrades and use of his teacher abilities. This might seem like the perfect place to use Wan Shi Tong as a commander, but in 99 it might be even better. For example, it can be taught by Sisay, Captain Weatherlight, to power itself and be readily available at all times. It can also synergize with Tymna the Weaver for Blue Farm decks to quickly increase the number of cards you can draw.

Additionally, the popular Play to Win MTG podcast gave Wan Shi Tong the Librarian a 4.9/5 and a 5/5 from Dillan and Cam.

According to mtgtop8.com data for the last 2 weeks for competitive decks, Wan Shi Tong records the following numbers:

About 2.5% usage in modern decks
Approximately 0.5% inclusion in Vintage packs
Approximately 22.6% usage in cEDH packages

This is all the more impressive considering that Wan Shi Tong, The Librarian came out three days ago on November 21st.

Why Wan Shi Tong, the librarian, probably won't be banned in modern times

Additionally, while it's too early and seems unlikely given how many OP cards the format contains, some are speculating that Wan Shi Tong, the Librarian, may be banned in Modern in the long run. With cards like Psychic Frog, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Fatal Push, Force of Negation, Lightning Bolt, Urza's Saga, and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury all still playable in the No Limit format, the discussion of banning Wan Shi Tong may be premature, if at all warranted.

MTG's Wan Shi Tong, the librarian, is virtually impossible to obtain

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is already one of the most expensive cards in the Avatar set, averaging $50-$60.

There are currently a few copies selling for $70 on TCGPlayer, but they are very hard to find elsewhere.
At the time of writing, there are also six copies available on Card Kingdom for $60. Copies of the borderless version of Wan Shi Tong are mostly sold out everywhere, and this also applies to the foil version.
Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is out of stock on CoolStuffInc.
9 copies of Wan Shi Tong, Librarian are available from Star City Games for $65 each.

As a result, the card is currently mostly unobtainable unless players are willing to shell out a few extra bucks for each copy. This may be less of an issue for commander decks MTGas they only need one copy of the card, but fans of other formats may already be out of luck.