While we’ll have to wait till next Tuesday for the set’s official debut, Wizards has decided to let a few Avatar: The Last Airbender spoilers slip early. Yesterday, we got to see a very nice reprint from the set’s Bonus Sheet. Today, we got an all-new MTG card in the form of Sozin’s Comet.
Sozin’s Comet plays a major role in the climax of Avatar, so its cardboard representation had to be flashy. In this respect, Wizards knocked it out of the park, with a truly wild design that pushes the boundaries in a new way. On top of that, it also brings back an unexpected, but welcome, older mechanic. If this card is setting the standard for the spoiler season to come, then we’re in for a treat.
Sozin’s Comet MTG
- Mana Value: 3RR
- Type: Sorcery
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Text: Each creature you control gains Firebending 5 until end of turn. (Whenever it attacks, add RRRRR. This mana lasts until end of combat.)
Foretell 2R (During your turn you may pay 2 and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its Foretell cost.)
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sozin’s Comet is a major event that hugely amplifies the Firebending capabilities of the show’s antagonists. Fittingly, it also pushes the boundaries of the new Firebending mechanic in Magic, too. We’ve seen a few cards with this ability so far, but they mostly sit in the Firebending 1-2 range, which means they generate one to two red mana on attack. Sozin’s Comet, by contrast, offers Firebending 5 to all of your attacking creatures for a turn.
The potential for mana generation here is absolutely insane. A single creature makes Comet a ritual effect that breaks even at a base level. With two creatures you’re up at 10 mana, and anything more than that is truly wild. In an Aggro or Token deck, it’s not unreasonable to expect 20-30 mana from this single card. As with all Firebending cards, however, that mana is only temporary. It lasts until the end of the combat it’s generated in, which pushes you towards spending it on instants or activated abilities.
Sozin’s Comet would be a spicy MTG card if its text ended there, but there’s more to it than that. It also features the Foretell mechanic, not seen in a mainline set since 2021’s Kaldheim. With this, you can split Comet’s cost into two installments, letting you cast it earlier in the game. This pairs particularly well with Haste creatures, since the mana you save can be spent on creatures that immediately attack and make you five mana.
Whether Foretell is going to be a wider returning mechanic in Avatar or just a cameo on this card is unclear at present. In either case, it’s a very fun mechanic that we’re very happy to see back in Standard.
All The Power In The World!
The big question with Sozin’s Comet is what to spend the copious amounts of mana it generates on. Fortunately, there are plenty of great ways to invest all that red that can easily end the game. Note that the following discussion is through the lens of the Commander format. As cool as Sozin’s Comet is, it feels far too slow and clunky for current Standard, never mind formats older than that.
Naturally, Sozin’s Comet plays well with instant-speed X spells. Being able to use all of the mana you generate is fantastic, especially since most red X spells deal damage in some way Comet Storm is a great pick here, and a massive flavor win to boot. With so much mana to spend, you can turn this into a one-sided board wipe or even take out a couple of weakened opponents outright. Fault Line is another great option, letting you take out the rest of the table if you’re ahead on life.
If you want to get a little tricky with Sozin’s Comet, Electrodominance is a great card to consider. This lets you cast a spell from your hand and ignore its timing restrictions, which is a roundabout way of casting sorceries with Comet mana. This opens up a huge range of possibilities in various colors, from Torment of Hailfire to Green Sun’s Zenith.
Getting a huge clump of red mana at once is also great with firebreathing effects. These show up on red creatures all the time, and tend to be pretty inconsequential. When you can pump a creature’s power into the high double-digits, however, things get scary fast. Some good options in this sphere are Captive Flame, which lets you pump your unblocked creatures specifically, and Inferno of the Star Mounts, which can take down an opponent from full life if you have just three attacking creatures under Comet.
Keeping The Fire Burning
Another great avenue to pursue with Sozin’s Comet is pairing it with MTG cards that let you save mana between steps and phases. Electro, Assaulting Battery is the most recent example, but we’ve seen a few of these over time. Ashling, Flame Dancer and Omnath, Locus of All offer a similar effect with different specifics.
With cards like these, the dynamic of Sozin’s Comet totally changes. No longer is it a quick, deadly burst of mana. Instead, it becomes an immediate savings fund you can spend as you please in the future. You can spend it on one big sorcery, as you could with Electrodominance, or spread it out over several big plays, like a set of Eldrazi titans.
Getting to keep a hold of the mana from Comet greatly opens up your potential for an immediate win, too. Using something like Doubling Cube will get you to eye-watering levels of mana quickly. Once you’re there, Comet Storm can take out the whole table at once. Alternatively, you can sink it all into Helix Pinnacle for a classier win in Gruul.
Sozin’s Comet is clearly an MTG card with a ton of potential. In terms of the cost-to-mana-generated ratio, it probably has the highest ceiling of any ritual spell we’ve seen so far. The challenge with it will be building a deck that can support going wide as well as a range of big mana outlets. With Firebending being a key theme of Avatar, however, I expect we’ll see more tools to support such a deck come next week.
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