At long last, MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender spoilers are due to start today. We’re hours away from the big Debut livestream and WeeklyMTG aftershow, which will unleash a new tide of spoilers. Thankfully, before then, a couple of cards have been revealed to whet our appetites, and they don’t disappoint.
Ty Lee, Chi Blocker
For three mana, Ty Lee, Chi Blocker can tap an opponent’s creature and keep it that way for as long as she’s on the field. This alone is a fairly useful ability, albeit one that doesn’t stop passive or non-tap abilities. If this were all Ty Lee did, there’d be no chance she’d see play, especially in Standard.
Thankfully, Ty Lee, Chi Blocker also boasts some pretty impressive additional abilities. For starters, having Flash allows her to be used on an opponent’s turn, denying a major threat as soon as it enters play. Alternatively, she can be dropped just before combat, making your opponent think twice about attacking.
On top of this, Ty Lee also has Prowess, which is admittedly needed to bump up her stats a little. Being a 2/1 to start with, Ty Lee is hardly a powerhouse in combat, but she could easily become a real threat. Whether you’re drawing cards with cantrip effects or piling on the pressure with burn, Prowess is always effective.
While Ty Lee, Chi Blocker does have a lot going for her, at three mana, she doesn’t exactly have a secure role in Standard. There’s a chance she could be used as a utility piece for Control and midrange decks; however, Azorius Control already has Beza, the Bounding Spring. Alternatively, Ty Lee could work for a more aggressive Izzet list, but at three mana, she’s hardly an aggro all-star.
Unfortunately, while Ty Lee should still see Commander play, there aren’t any fun blink shenanigans with this card. Upon flickering and picking a new target, only the latest chosen/tapped creature will stay down. While this will hurt the playability of Ty Lee, Chi Blocker, it’s not the biggest complaint about her.
A Flavor Fail?
Following her reveal, many MTG players took to social media to question multiple design decisions about Ty Lee. For starters, the decision to give her the Ally type line felt very unusual to some players. For most of her run in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ty Lee is an antagonist who actively pursues Team Avatar.
While she does switch sides later on, evidently, the first thought on players’ minds is that she’s not an Ally. Potentially, this oddity may be explained by Ty Lee getting multiple cards in the set, showing her progression throughout the story. Alternatively, this could have been done to lean into Ally synergies, for Limited or Commander.
As much as the typing on Ty Lee, Chi Blocker can be explained away, having her be a blue card is arguably more jarring. Being from the Fire Nation, some think that Ty Lee should be red and be designed around that color identity. For better or worse, Wizards has done things the other way around, as her chi blocking ability has defined her creation.
Essentially, tapping down a creature, with Flash no less, is a very blue-coded ability within MTG. Even for Universes Beyond sets, color pie breaks aren’t an option, so Ty Lee has to be blue. Beyond just fitting with Magic’s rules, this card actually provides a flavorful deep cut for those who know the franchise. If anything, Ty Lee’s mechanics are a fantastic representation of this peace-seeking character.
The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan
Thankfully, not all of the newly unveiled early MTG Avatar spoilers have such perplexing flavor. The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan being a blue Ally makes perfect sense given their position in the story. Beyond just having fitting flavor, this card also seems pretty compelling, at least for Commander.
In Standard, The Mechanist’s Clue production doesn’t really do enough, although maybe Affinity could use it in a pinch. If the archetype is relying on using this card, however, it’s probably not a tier one meta contender. Thankfully, in Commander, this card is significantly more playable, as Clue Tokens are significantly more valuable.
By providing a Clue Token each time you cast a noncreature spell, The Mechanist should provide plenty of value across a game. Getting to briefly animate artifact tokens as well further sweetens the deal, so he’s bound to see play. That said, Clue-focused archetypes aren’t the most popular in Commander, and The Mechanist isn’t the de facto best Clue generator.
More Spoilers Soon
Thankfully, should either Ty Lee or The Mechanist not be to your fancy, we’ll be seeing plenty more soon. The debut of the Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG set is just a few hours away, and the spoilers don’t stop after that. Since spoilers for the Avatar MTG set only last for a little over a week, it seems we’re in for a very busy spoiler season.
As always, no matter how busy it gets, we’ll be here to cover all the best and latest reveals. So, if you want to keep up to date on the Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG set, just watch this space!
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!