Master the elements with our mechanics guide for Avatar: The Last Airbender!
I’m more excited for Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender than any set in recent memory, so I can’t wait to get into the Limited Set Reviews (and start drafting the set). Before all that, though, we should take a look at the set mechanics and there are some sweet ones. Unsurprisingly, air, water, fire, and earthbending are all present — so let’s start there.
Airbending
Airbender’s Reversal
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uncommon
Airbending shows up the least of these abilities, which is no shock given that Aang is literally the last airbender. Airbending is a temporary way to get rid of an opponent’s creature or save your own, with the cost to replay them being minimal (there are some cards that airbend permanents, but most just target creatures). The presence of airbending means that bouncing creatures is more prevalent than normal, and that creatures with good enter-the-battlefield abilities gain a nice boost.
Firebending
Fire Lord Azula
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rare
Firebending is a very interesting ability. When a creature with firebending attacks, you gain red mana equal to its firebending, with some numbers getting pretty big. That mana lasts until the end of combat, but more importantly, not during your second main phase. So, if you want to make use of firebending, you need to find some instant-speed mana sinks. Those can be instants themselves, or activated abilities, and either way you will want a couple so you aren’t wasting your firebending mana often.
Waterbending
Benevolent River Spirit
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uncommon
Waterbending is a cost attached to some cards, and that cost can be paid with mana or by tapping creatures and/or artifacts (each one counting as one towards the waterbending cost). It rewards you for getting a bunch of cheap stuff onto the board, and there are some pretty strong waterbending cards to play once you do. I like the ramp-esque feel, and look forward to assembling all sorts of trinkets in order to waterbend successfully.
Earthbending
Earth Kingdom General
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Uncommon
Earthbending is one of the more aggressive abilities, as it makes your lands into creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. One really neat aspect of earthbending is that if the land dies or becomes exiled, it comes back tapped (and no longer as a creature). I think it was probably too un-fun to earthbend and get your lands blown up, so this plays out in a much more player-friendly way. This mechanic plays with counters, helps you go wide, and lets you pressure the opponent — it’s a good one.
Lessons
Elemental Teachings
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rare
Lessons are back, though they are fairly different than when we saw them in Strixhaven: School of Mages. The subtype Lesson appears on a bunch of spells, but doesn’t have any inherent abilities — there is no Learn mechanic like we saw earlier. Instead, Lessons are just solid cards that matter for other cards, like Bumi, King of Three Trials.
READ MORE ABOUT AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
There are a good amount of cards that care about Lessons (like Bumi does), and putting them in your deck is going to give you some additional benefits. They are also largely just good cards, so you can play them without synergies and they will play out just fine.
Clues
Raven Eagle
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rare
Clues are also back, which is not only great because Clues are a great way to draw cards, but also for any waterbenders out there. Clues help pay for waterbend costs, and you can even tap them to waterbend and then sacrifice them afterwards.
Double-Sided Sagas
The Legend of Kyoshi
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mythic
Double-faced Sagas return as well, and my biggest note here is that these were incredibly strong last time we saw them in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. These have the normal play pattern of a Saga (chapters move during your draw step), but when the Saga ends you just get a ridiculous creature instead of nothing. That’s a great deal, and you should play just about all of these if you’re able.
Allies
Suki, Courageous Rescuer
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rare
Allies are a cool callback from Zendikar, since the gang in the show finds plenty of them along the way. The Ally subtype is like Lesson — it doesn’t intrinsically do anything, but there are plenty of cards that care about Allies and reward you for playing them.
Shrines
Lastly, we have Shrines. These all care about how many Shrines you can assemble, making for a really fun Limited deck if you can snag a few.
Those are the mechanics in Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender, new and old — let’s see what some takeaways are:
- Firebending rewards good ways to use mana at instant speed, so mana sinks and expensive instants are at a premium.
- Waterbending gives you something to do with small creatures and artifacts, especially Clues — there’s definitely a ramp deck of some kind here.
- Allies care about types, so be aware when drafting if you have some Ally cards already.
- Double-faced Sagas are broken — draft them early and often.