Everyone has their dream Universes Beyond crossover, and for me, it’s Magic: The Gathering and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The fantasy elements combined with brilliant characters and a well-crafted story seem like the perfect canvas for Magic to paint upon. Unfortunately for Avatar fans, however, we still have quite a way to go before this set hits store shelves. The Avatar: The Last Airbender MTG set won’t be released until November 21st.
Considering this, it’s quite shocking that we’re already getting a spoiler, ahead of any Spider-Man main set cards, no less! Avatar Aang has arrived, and he looks really powerful! Too bad we can’t totally understand what he does yet.
Avatar Aang
Avatar Aang is a bit hard to assess because we don’t know what a bunch of keywords on the card mean. Firebending, Waterbending, Airbending, and Earthbending are all incredibly flavorful calls to the show, considering that these are the four main powers/nations. That said, we have absolutely no idea what any of that does in the context of MTG.
Even then, however, Aang is a four-colored card, which probably means Firebending is doing some lifting here. It appears that Aang should be able to draw a card each turn while gaining an additional upside, likely when attacking. Should you manage to do all four types of bending in a turn, things get really good.
Aang, Master of All Elements is a Fist of Suns on a stick, but it does even more. Should you choose to turn Aang back into his front side, you get to swing life totals by eight, draw four cards, and grow Aang. There are powerful incentives to keeping Aang in his Avatar state, but transforming him back also grants a massive advantage. Should you get to flip Aang, you should win the game, ideally.
So Aang refills your entire hand, reduces the cost of everything by WUBRG, adds immense pressure to the board, and, at worst, likely draws a card every turn. Sure, Aang’s mana value is a bit restrictive, but as long as Bending isn’t a difficult feat to accomplish, this card will likely be great. Considering he is the centerpiece of the crossover, it makes a lot of sense.
Notably, the artwork above only appears in Raised Foil and is exclusively available in Collector Booster packs.
Still a Long Way to Wait
Sadly, this is the first and last Avatar: The Last Airbender spoilers we’ll be receiving for quite some time. Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that Airbending, Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending will remain a mystery until the first look for the set. That is scheduled to occur on August 12th.
Until then, Avatar Aang’s capabilities will be shrouded in a bit of mystery, but the payoff is certainly there. If you’re hungry for more before then, there’s a lot going on in the MTG universe. From new Edge of Eternities spoilers to a massive Commander rules change, MagicCon: Las Vegas really pulled out the stops this year.
