Cards To Watch From Avatar: The Last Airbender
In the latest effort to bring more players to the game of Magic through Universes Beyond, we now have
Compared to, or perhaps due to the bitter taste left behind by,
From my own perspective, this success is largely based on how different cards embody what a Magic card should be, with unique flavour added from the IP. Mechanically speaking, the four new element bending abilities also feel intuitive and interesting to play with.
Writing this ahead of the prerelease week, and as we’re just wrapping up the previews, leaves a short amount of time to evaluate each card. With that in mind, there are plenty of considerations to be made against this set being Standard legal and how that will affect the metagame in the long run into next year.
For example,
Business End of the gAang
There are five Secret Lairs included with this release with a fairly broad selection of cards. However, this variety doesn’t really exceed expectations and could be considered one of the weaker utilizations of the product we’ve seen in recent memory. I expect the My Cabbages! Secret Lair will be the most popular, both in terms of card selection and due to the represented art and jokes.
All cards included are solid Commander staples, with a sprinkle of better quality cards, now with poorer art. The main outlier here is [card]Braid of Fire[/card], which has a rather limited number of prints and an ever-increasing price. With this being its second Secret Lair printing, the new art takes direct inspiration from the show, following the rest of the theatrical theme. Due to the difference in art direction from the previous iteration of Braid of Fire, the price will likely be lower in the long term, with the average coming close to the
Yip Yip
For this Universes Beyond release, we’re also getting an Eternal-only Jumpstart product. In the usual Jumpstart fashion, the themes are fleshed out but randomized to give a variety of outcomes and different lists of cards. Due to this randomness, there exists a disparity between the rare and mythics included in the individual packs.
As we’ve seen in previous cases with [card]Rev, Tithe Extractor[/card], and [card]Scythecat Cub[/card], the price of individual cards in these packs can drive the overall product price to an excessively high level.
With that in mind, there are a handful of cards that may see a similar effect in this release.
As far as Zuko, Firebending Master is concerned, it's a great use of the mechanic, blending the new firebending mana generation with the spellslinging angle it wants you to dive into.
Overall, the design is clean and feeds into itself without enforcing a specific building direction. Will this see play in Legacy, Modern, or Vintage? No. These formats are much too fast for this kind of setup. However, in Commander or even cEDH to some degree, I could see Zuko, Firebending Master, being a strong candidate.
I’m a Merciful Man
Avatar’s main set brings back several mechanics and changes that I’m beginning to appreciate more and more as I review them. First, the Ally matters cards are back, and with a much cleaner and straightforward design than we’ve previously seen. Aside from that, there are again more legendary creatures than anybody can account for - some better than others, of course.
[card]Mai, Scornful Striker[/card] is a great example of how this set isn’t holding back on the power. Notice how the trigger on Mai, Scornful Striker isn’t limited to once per turn, like we’ve seen popularized before. That attached to a well-costed first striker makes me wonder if we’ll be seeing more of Mai, Scornful Striker, now that the ViVi problem is resolved once and for all in Standard.
Another card that makes me wonder about combo potential, though for a costly five mana, is [card]Sozin's Comet[/card]. The potentially immediate refund, as well as the foretell casting cost, makes me wonder if Sozin’s Comet is like a [card]Seething Song[/card] or [card]Battle Hymn[/card] for a person with a larger plan. One way or another, if we throw in [card]Reiterate[/card] and a few creatures, then the payoffs could be rather sizable.
For the last card, and a side note from the main set, [card]White Lotus Tile[/card] will likely get picked up for a considerable number of typal decks, which are always floating around. It’s not the best of this sort of effect, with [card]Three Tree City[/card] being a stronger candidate, but it will still land in the $20 category until the circulation of product brings it lower.
From there, around the $12 mark seems reasonable for a month to two before rebounding upwards over time. On one hand, White Lotus Tile isn’t exactly the hardest name to justify reprinting, with lotus cards having a strong association with the Magic IP.
Beyond Expectations
As always with UB sets, my only recommendation is that you consider whether this is actually something for you. If yes, enjoy and have fun. If it isn’t, stay clear or just speculate on a smaller scale. Personally, I’m limiting myself to the Pre-release and nothing else. Like many other players, I’m shifting my focus to universes within and our return to Lorwyn.
Join me again next time as we go from A to Urza in 21 steps.
Read More:
Matt Grzechnik
Matt Grzechnik started playing Magic with the release of Dragon's Maze. Since then he has tried and experimented with all of the formats before discovering his love for EDH and Pauper. Piloting the same Jund deck for the last 10 years, he now tries to both understand and break Sealed as a format.