It’s time to get stuck into Avatar: The Last Airbender, the latest Magic set, which releases on November 21. It’s a big set, and there’s lots to talk about.
You can find other recent set reviews here:
Card Kingdom’s set review only cares about broadly relevant cards, because we want to maximize the usefulness of the cards in your collection. While some cards are excellent in Earthbending or Ally decks, unless they have broader appeal too? We don’t really feel it’s worth harping on about them, as you folks have probably already found them during deckbuilding. That’s the vibe. Got it? Great.
Let’s see what’s around the bend.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: WHITE
Airbender Ascension’s reward is giving you the better part of Teleportation Circle (flickering creatures) provided you get four quest counters. How easy is the quest? Is it worth waiting for? Well, having a creature enter is decidedly easy in white, especially when you have plenty of creatures that can summon forth tokens or act like Restoration Angel anyways. Add on the fact that for your two mana investment you also get to Airbend something? We’re onto a winner.
Appa, Steadfast Guardian is a way to protect your board from a wrath, and that’s the most common use case I can see for it. Getting to airbend your whole board is also kinda neat for setting up value from EtBs, but it also requires you to have a wide enough board to want to do this rather than Ephemerate.
The token production from casting spells from exile makes this a decidedly Boros white card, and is a nice bit of gravy on top of an already decent card.
It’s been a while since I last reviewed a white wrath that I want to seriously add to my rotation, and Avatar’s Wrath just might be one of my new faves. You get to keep your most important creature, and then everything is sent reeling into exile. This obviously gets worse the more EtB heavy opposing decks are (and the more they have high-end haymakers), but against most midrange decks and tokens decks it’ll do serious work, even buying you a turn where folks can’t redeploy those bodies.
The Legend of Yangchen // Avatar Yangchen is a solid saga, all told. It’s a semi-Council’s Judgment, stapled to Secret Rendevous, and then it’ll flip into a decent sized flyer that lets you get some free airbending action. At five mana you’re not going to get this flipped before turn 6 at the earliest, but that’s about when you’re confidently in second spell category anyways. Gets better when you have proliferate shenanigans, and because it airbends nonland permanents, is actually really good in a Sagas deck.
Momo, Friendly Flier is a slam dunk for any deck that wants a bunch of flyers – whether it’s Linvala, Shield of Seagate with general flyers, Choco, Seeker of Paradise, Kykar, Zephyr Awakener or just good old Giada Angels. A one drop cost reducer that can also wear Sword of the Animist and Mask of Memory is very, very good.
The set has some amazing Ally cards, and outside of Ally decks, they aren’t in that high demand. That said, if you’re wanting to build any form of Allies, South Pole Voyager, Suki, Courageous Rescuer and Hakoda, Selfless Commander are all really solid pickups.
United Front, on the other hand, is great even outside of Ally decks, as it’ll give you an insta-board while also buffing everything with +1/+1 counters. That makes it more than worth a look in tokens decks.
Top 5 White Common/Uncommons
- Airbender’s Reversal – Removal or protection, with Airbending providing card advantage on EtBs.
- Southern Air Temple – the “craterhoof” of Shrines decks, or something.
- Team Avatar – An exalted enchantment for one mana cheaper that can also be Channelled as removal? This is great.
- Enter the Avatar State – Drop indestructible from other tricks in favor of flying, lifelink and first strike? Yes please.
- Earth Kingdom Protectors – It’s the Selfless Savior of the set, for Ally decks.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: BLUE
The Legend of Kuruk should mostly be looked at through the lens of how happy you are to Scry 2 and draw a card twice for four mana. Most spell-slinger decks that care about noncreature spells and tokens want to be doing a little more than this for four mana, and I’m not sure just how many of them really want to wait around for this to flip and start giving tokens.
That said, you get tokens whenever you cast a spell with Avatar Kuruk, so if you’re going down the combo route with cards like Ornithopter or Memnite (or cost reducers) you can certainly take advantage of this generous trigger. At that point, getting that extra turn isn’t so difficult… and might be just what you need to win the game.
The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan is a fantastic pickup for Clues decks – and indeed most decks that do noncreature spellslinger. Getting temporary flying tokens is pretty amazing when it comes to blue’s on-damage card draw and treasure production capabilities.
Spirit Water Revival is, at base, a Divination. Are you happy to play Divination with Kicker? The answer is usually yes. The Kicker in this instance is Waterbend {6} to shuffle your yard into your library, draw seven, and have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game. This to me is a really attractive extra cost on top of the 1UU to cast it, and I can see it being roughly five mana and tapping some creatures to get this effect. I’d say that’s more than worth it.
Speaking of five mana to keep your hand full, The Unagi of Kyoshi Island is a sweet alternative to Consecrated Sphinx for lower power level decks. Asking opponents to pay an extra four mana (or tap down their board) to remove it is decent as far as Ward costs, and getting two cards whenever someone draws their second is excellent value. It’s also just a 5/5 for five, so I’m over the moon to play this one. Eel do well.
Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is the card everyone is talking about. Flash, Flying and Vigilance, {X} in the cost, draws cards, and then continues to draw cards when opponents search libraries? It’s the real deal. Hydroid Krasis who?
Waterbender Ascension gets quest counters whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player. If it has four or more counters, you then get to also draw a card. This is a pretty fine Coastal Piracy variant for two mana, but when you also take into account the fact that it has a repeatable Waterbend {4} on it of Rogue’s Passage, it really starts to look great. Almost as great as the artwork.
Yue, the Moon Spirit might look like she has a steep Waterbend cost for casting a spell for free from your hand, but you need to consider that in the decks that want this, you’re going to end up with dozens of artifact tokens like Clues, Food or Treasure, and/or Thopters, and it’s gonna end up decidedly easy to pull off. She’s amazing in Leonardo da Vinci decks, for starters.
Top 5 Blue Common/Uncommons
- The Spirit Oasis – All the card draw you could ever want for a Shrines deck.
- Ember Island Production – You care about making two tokens for five mana here, and making them non-legendary.
- Waterbending Scroll – Very easy to get down to either {1} or {0} mana to tap and draw.
- Crashing Wave – Tap down blockers to get in, and use summoning sick creatures to pay for it.
- Honest Work – It ain’t much, but it’s decent one mana removal.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: BLACK
Day of Black Sun is a really interesting wrath. Another one, in the same set? What a treat! This X spell lets you pick off progressively larger creatures, and is a solution to indestructible boards, as it removes abilities before going off. Incidentally, it also stops on-death abilities triggering too. Really nice wrath here.
Foggy Swamp Visions has amazing art – so many cards in the set do. For your base three mana, you’re doing exactly nothing. You also have to Waterbend {X}. When you do, you’re exiling creatures from yards, and making token copies out of them. The catch is, you lose them at the beginning of your next end step.
Getting around this drawback is what makes the card fun. In Rakdos you have haste; you can make token copies of those tokens in some decks; in others, you might End the Turn early using Obeka. You might only care about the EtBs, or fishing out two creatures for an unintended combo. Fun card.
Koh, the Face Stealer certainly a six-mana 6/6 worth of text on it. You’re essentially building up more and more abilities under a stack of abilities for Koh to choose from, and then changing “mode” by paying 1 life each time. Certainly a build-around, and almost certainly a combo-win oriented card. It’s just a good card.
Mai, Scornful Striker is such a powerhouse for two mana. Making everyone lose two life each time they cast a noncreature spell is really punishing for spellslinger or artifact/enchantress decks in particular. It’s also just solid in decks like The Lord of Pain or Kambal, Consul of Allocation. I also think it’ll be great in Rakdos aggro or Mardu Humans/Legendary decks that focus on creatures and utilize lifegain to keep topped up.
Obsessive Pursuit gives you a Clue each upkeep and when it enters for the paltry cost of 1 life. For a two mana enchantment, that does feel a little miserly. Good, then, that it has another mode. It can grow your attackers based on how much sacrificing you’re doing, and also grant lifelink if you sacrifice enough. To me, that’s enough to make this worth considering – and maybe even quite good.
Oh hey, it’s Scute Swarm but for… Blimps? Phoenix Fleet Airship gives black decks a somewhat slower version of Scute Swarm, but in the form of amassing a fleet of 4/4 Flyers that eventually don’t need crewing. A fine wincon, to be honest. Though most ways of getting extra copies of this in Commander are close to win conditions in their own right.
Raven Eagle is a nice way to keep chipping away at opposing life totals. It also gives you Clue tokens while keeping on top of graveyards. If you’re already in a deck that cares about flyers, or evasive creatures, or drawing cards on everyone else’s turn, then this is well worth a look. In Dimir, for example, combined with a Faerie Mastermind or Unagi of Kyoshi Island, right?
Top 5 Black Common/Uncommons
- Zuko’s Conviction – An instant speed way to put a creature from yard to hand that has Kicker, reanimate it? Hell yeah.
- Northern Air Temple – A slam dunk win condition for Shrines decks.
- Fire Navy Trebuchet – Good in walls decks or even lifegain/tokens/aristocrats kinda builds.
- June, Bounty Hunter – doesn’t take much to make her unblockable.
- Azula, on the Hunt – at worst, she draws a card every combat. With synergy, she snowballs.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: RED
It’s red quest counter time, and Firebender Ascension says hey, would you like to copy attack triggers? And hey, for your two mana, here’s a 2/2 Soldier with Firebending 1. Ultimately, this is a pretty cheap way to get up to doubling your attack triggers, but ends up more limited than Windcrag Siege or Isshin as it’s only for creatures. It’s still solid, but outside of mono-red I’d take those (and an extra combat) first.
The Last Agni Kai is secretly an amazing removal spell for equipment decks. It allows you to steamroll a smaller creature using your big buffs and then spend that extra red mana on equipment and equip costs. Is it useable elsewhere? Sure. Is it amazing for equipment decks? Hell yes.
The Legend of Roku is a pretty medium impulse draw enchantment in red, but when you flip it, it turns into Potential Man™. Eight mana to make a 4/4 with firebending 4 means you can snowball. If you also have ways to copy triggers, or generate a lot of firebending mana in combat and an aggravated assault, you might just win the game there and then. A powerful card, but gated somewhat by needing quite a bit of setup.
Finally, an alternative to Deflecting Swat that isn’t Bolt Bend, for one mana (ish). Five life is quite a lot to pay in today’s Commander metagame, but this feels costed just right as something that will cost life on crucial or early turns and otherwise just cost three mana. Great card. Red keeps winning.
Sozin’s Comet is an interesting one. Giving your whole board the ability to make red mana when attacking is the kind of thing that sets up Avatar Roku for sure. Otherwise? It can set up a great number of instant speed burn spells or abilities. Less flexible than Mana Geyser, but potentially more potent.
Wartime Protestors seems a little medium, but can potentially do a lot of work in Ally decks – largely thanks to those decks having access to Great Divide Guide and Cryptolith Rite. When you have mana dorks, giving them haste is very good. When you also make Ally tokens with one of the many engines or X spells available, giving them haste and a +1/+1 counter begins to be very good indeed.
Top 5 Red Common/Uncommons
- Crescent Island Temple – Hey, the Shrines cards in this set are all kinda cracked.
- Solstice Revelations – trigger cast triggers and get card advantage. Twice.
- Combustion Man – destroying a permanent in Red is rare, just like their face will be when they opt for damage instead.
- Jet’s Brainwashing – a Threaten effect with a viable alternate mode that also leaves a Clue behind? Deece.
- Fire Nation Attacks – it makes some tokens, it has Flashback. It’s fine.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: GREEN
Avatar Destiny reminds me of Next of Kin from SCC. While Next of Kin always felt like it had potential, it felt a little under par. Avatar Destiny, on the other hand, is pretty dang good. It provides a solid stat buff, and when that creature inevitably dies, you get to mill a bunch and reanimate something, and put the Aura back in hand. It obviously gets stronger the longer the game progresses.
Badgermole Cub is a pretty hot mana dork. It immediately doubles the mana you get from a land by earthbending onto it. And then, any mana dorks you have are immediately upgraded into double or even triple dorks. While this does look made for earthbending decks, the reality of the matter is that this is way more oriented into doubling mana dork mana in other builds. Really strong two-drop.
The Earth King makes a 4/4, and then gives you as many Rampant Growths as you have ferocious creatures when you attack. I like this in decks that snowball quickly, and decks that use creatures like Goreclaw or Surrak and Goreclaw. Ideally, you drop this once you have a few creatures already ready to attack.
Elemental Teachings is kind of a Fact or Fiction for lands. Is this better than straight up searching two lands with Hour of Promise? Yes, yes it is. The real question is if it’s better than Disorienting Choice, Omenpath Journey or Realms Uncharted. In some decks I think it might be, but you do need to be heavy on the graveyard recursion to get the most value.
Great Divide Guide is a crazy good mana dork. The fact it buffs Ally decks and fixes mana in other mana hungry decks means it’s going to be a popular card.
The Legend of Kyoshi is very generous for a six mana outlay. Six mana for a hand refill conditional on creature size is pretty average in green when it comes stapled to extra things. An Earthbend the turn after and then a 5/4 mana jock that also gives lands trample and hexproof? Wow, Avatar Kyoshi is pretty damn good.
Top 5 Green Common/Uncommons
- Kyoshi Island Plaza – It’s kinda like Harvest Season for Shrines, except you can keep going.
- Origin of Metalbending – A neat trick with flexibility.
- True Ancestry – A lesson that leaves you a Clue makes this worth a look over classic Regrowth.
- Raucous Audience – A dork that eventually taps for more mana that isn’t an Elf.
- Invasion Tactics – A little boost with a little card draw. Fun thematic card.
AVATAR SET REVIEW: MULTICOLOR, ARTIFACTS, LANDS
Aang, at the Crossroads is a weird amalgamation of an earthbend decks and a flicker deck. If you want to play Aang in three colors, it’s a good bet. It’s also a nice part of the color pie to be in for playing land creatures. Seems a very medium card.
Evaluating Aang, Swift Savior purely on the front side, a 2/3 flash flyer that airbends a spell or creature for three mana seems deece, especially in Flying Men decks and UW flicker control builds. It’s nice if you can flip it to get access to a good beater, but in all honesty, repeatedly having the front side to flicker at any point seems just fine.
Your “play all of the new set mechanics in a multicolor deck” card is here, and this time, it’s Avatar Aang. Flying and Firebending 2 is a pretty potent combo on a 4/4, and he also draws you cards for doing any of the bending activities. Once you do all four in a single turn (which is quite difficult without a lot of mana or perfect sequencing) you get access to the powerful Aang, Master of Elements. Or, you could just play Moonmist, I guess. Either way that WUBRG cost reduction is going to enable some disgusting combo lines.
Beifong’s Bounty Hunters is a solid mid-curve creature that gives you a lot of bang for your buck. In a deck like Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, this is providing a steady stream of backup riders for the Frog, or just sizable blockers. Golgari can do plenty with this.
Bumi, Unleashed is sweet, and in the earthbending decks, he’ll prove to be a menace. He’s big enough to get survive and get in, triggering the extra combats for your land creatures. Either way, he also untaps all your lands, which is way worth it.
One of the coolest Commanders in the set (and with banger artwork!), Fire Lord Azula proves that Grixis decks do indeed have all the fun. Azula copies any spell that you cast when attacking. Not limited to once per turn. Not limited to Instants, provided you have ways to get around that like High Fae Trickster or Vedalken Orrery. The sky is indeed the limit – that and your imagination. Destined to be one of the most fun cards in the set for sure.
Fire Lord Zuko is way more in on the Firebending thing. This Commander cares about flicker, impulse draw, and buffs. Once you get him going, he’ll provide plenty of mana. Just be sure to include plenty of things to do at instant speed in red, or you won’t have much to do. Goro-Goru, Disciple of Ryusei is a good place to start.
Iroh, Grand Lotus is a fun spellsling Commander, but requires quite a bit of set up. While he can handily helm the deck with all of the Lesson cards, it’s not really worth it, IMO. More of a Limited rare than a Commander all-star.
When it comes to Ally decks for this release, you’re either going for the Bant powerhouse that is Katara, the Fearless, and enjoying your double triggers, or you’re going for the Jeskai option in Sokka. Sokka is a lot more of a spellslinger Commander, to be honest, but could also be put to use with some amount of Equipment and Enchantments. Katara feels more on rails, but has a potentially better average deck – but I feel Sokka might have a higher ceiling.
Ozai, the Phoenix King allows you to keep mana in your pool that would otherwise empty – making him kind of like a Rakdos version of the original Omnath, except he also provides some mana from Firebending to get you going. As a hasty boi that is also indestructible and flying if you have unspent mana, I feel like Ozai can become quite the threat when built properly. This is one of the most exciting Commanders of the set to me.
Speaking of spellslinging fun, we get a Gruul deck to give it a go with too. Toph cares lets you fish out spells you’d much rather cast again from your yard. Whenever you do end up casting a spelling, you get to earthbend. Toph here does require some good deckbuilding and synergy, but can provide a pretty decent mid-bracket build. Also just solid recursion in Earthbend lists.
The other Toph – Toph the First Metalbender – is decidedly stronger. She makes all your nontoken artifacts lands, and can earthbend onto them. While your first instinct with this might be to see how you can break it (and you definitely can), she can also just be a great way to explore Naya artifacts with lands-matter as an adjacent theme.
Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong is really cool. Provided you bake in scry lands, surveil lands (and fetchlands to grab them on other folks’ turns), and other ways to Scry or Surveil at instant speed, you can multiply those free casts. Kenessos and the LotR Elf decks are gonna love this.
An eight-mana 0/30 is kind of a hard sell. When that same card is effectively a 30/30 in Walls decks, it start to get a lot better – especially granting indestructible to the rest of the board. It’s even pretty good in big-mana decks, as it provides a huge amount of defensibility to incoming attacks, and lets you attack quite freely too.
Of the land cycle, repeatable Earthbend on Ba Sing Se seems the strongest if you ask me. Earthbend is just really solid as a mechanic, as it’s very low risk.
Secret Tunnel is a sweet upgrade to Rogue’s Passage, and I love the intriguing text about itself not being able to be blocked – suggesting shenanigans in lands decks/earthbending decks. Either way, if you’re typal, it’s a lot better than Rogue’s Passage, and can be searched as a Cave, too, in niche circumstances.
Top 5 Other Common/Uncommons
- Energybending – It’s Manamorphose for a new generation. Easy to cast, replaces itself… it’s a Storm player’s dream.
- Dai Li Agents – A great win condition for +1/+1 decks, this big life drain trigger will win games.
- Bitter Work – It’s solid card draw for Gruul decks with an emergency “make me Ferocious” button.
- Bender’s Waterskin – What about a 3-mana rock that untaps on everyone’s turn?
- Tolls of War – I like this one a lot. Ally tokens are better than Servos from Hidden Stockpile in some decks.
END STEP
And that’s it – the Avatar: The Last Airbender Commander Set review, done. What a cool set. The mechanics are great, the art (bonus sheet aside) is absolute fire, and the vibe feels pretty good for someone who has never really watched the show. I’m excited to jam some of these cards. What are you excited about? Let us know on socials.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.