Iroh, Grand LotusIroh, Grand Lotus | Art by Fahmi Fauzi

From the Skyscrapers of New York, now to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the four elements were in balance...until the Fire Nation attacked.

Unfortunately, once again, there aren't any Minotaurs featured in this set. But there are still plenty of new cards that can assist Minotaur typal strategies.

For those new to my reviews, I analyze cards from the perspective of Minotaur typal and how they can be used in the various sub strategies available, those currently being Aggressive Combat, Discard, and Magar Big Spells. Each has their own nuances, but all broadly rely on the same core Minotaur typal backbone.

So with that, lets hunt down the Avatar and take a ride on Appa as we delve into Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Mai, Scornful StrikerMai, Scornful Striker

Let's start things off with an unorthodox card. To many, Mai might not look like a creature that would play well among Minotaurs. She's not a Minotaur, for one, nor does she bestow keywords or improve combat effectiveness. What she does do is slot in with MogisMogis decks.

Mogis, God of Slaughter, the god of the Minotaurs, gives each player on their turn a choice to sacrifice a creature or lose two life. So its not uncommon to build Mogis around these punishing effects.

You can play Mai in that kind of deck and she should work pretty well. But I think she'll also work well among a Minotaur typal Mogis lists.

As someone that has a KambalKambal deck, I know all too well how much people are willing to hurt themselves to play their noncreature spells. Which only makes the Minotaur's job easier.

Phoenix Fleet AirshipPhoenix Fleet Airship

I'll be honest, for Commander this is a strictly casual card. Given Rakdos' () lack of mana ramp the Airship is a little on the slow side. If we assume we were to play it on curve it won't be until turn six or seven that it becomes threatening.

However, what interests me is the potential the Airships pose when in play. Despite what I just said, this become a kill-on-sight card because of its exponential growth. If we sacrifice a single permanent on our turn, the Airships double and become even harder to remove. This isn't too hard for us to set up given the sacrifice sub-theme Minotaurs have or all the ways we can generate Treasure tokens.

Then there's the fact these Airships are Vehicles that need to be crewed; this allows them to dodge most board wipes until we have eight Airships on the field, giving us the opportunity to bide our time and to make some political deals on the table.

But what most excites me is that this will give Minotaurs a consistent amount of flying creatures to defend ourselves, as cows don't naturally fly and few have reach.

Fated FirepowerFated Firepower

When I do these set reviews, I'm always on the prowl for new cards that boost the effectiveness of combat for Minotaurs. And for this set, I believe that is found with Fated Firepower.

The backbone of Minotaur typal is formed with our Minotaur lordsMinotaur lords; these serve to bestow keywords on all Minotaurs, but some also have an anthem effectanthem effect. Fated Firepower to me is like a super anthem, where it gets more powerful the more mana you invest in it.

But more than that, it also acts as a combat trick, as we can flash it in after blockers are declared, catching opponents off guard and decimating what defenses they put in front of us.

Given that Fated Firepower always requires three red mana, I really only see this being efficient when the X costs is three or higher. This means, however, we have to invest a lot of mana into this effect, so its only going to matter late in the game, perhaps as finisher. But because of that, it might come too late to matter.

The Last Agni KaiThe Last Agni Kai

Fight spells in red aren't unheard of, but they aren't exactly common either, especially for two mana. What sets this apart, and what interests me, is that The Last Agni Kai generates red mana.

I've mentioned already that Rakdos colored decks struggle with ramp, so its common to be behind in mana even if you hit all your land drops. So attaching mana generation with removal is just the thing Minotaurs need to keep up.

But this also creates a complexity when using the card. Do you use it to remove a mana dork and get a lot of mana, or do you remove an obstacle that's holding us back from attacking? And it's this kind of versatile design that makes cards like these interesting in Minotaurs.

And I say from personal experience, sometimes all you need to make an effective play is that one bit of extra mana.

Smellerbee, Rebel FighterSmellerbee, Rebel Fighter

Now this is what what I like to see for more typal. Though she's a little expensive at four mana, Smellerbee is everything we need all in one package. She gives a good defensive body while also giving all our creature haste. This alone is key to enabling our Minotaur strategies and is good redundancy. With Smellerbee, each Minotaur we play or token we create with SethronSethron can jump into the fray and keep the pressure up.

But what really makes her an interesting card for Minotaur decks is her final line of text. Whenever we attack, we pitch our hand, and draw up to the number of attacking creatures. This reminds me of Anje's RavagerAnje's Ravager, but here we can draw more cards the more aggressive we are.

This kind of effect is really important for the Discard Minotaur decks to guarantee our payoffs. If we have Glint-Horn BuccaneerGlint-Horn Buccaneer in play, we're just going to melt people with the amount cards we're churning through, in addition to the combat damage.

Sozin's CometSozin's Comet

I wasn't immediately impressed when I first saw this card. Sure, giving every creature we control firebending 5 seems insane, but then the reminder text that this mana only exists during combat makes this a lot more restrictive and useless if we don't have an outlet for all the mana. However, it has a very unique edge case for Minotaur decks.

We could use this in conjunction with Fated Firepower as we discussed previously, but the real home it will have is with Sethron, Hurloon GeneralSethron, Hurloon General. For three mana Sethron will give our Minotaurs +1 power as well as haste and menace. So if we attack with just three creatures we generate 15 mana, allowing us to activate Sethron five times. This would give our Minotaurs +5 power for an overall additional 15 damage.

This only gets more insane with the more Minotaurs we attack with. And since Sethron gives our Minotaurs menace it's very likely we're going to annihilate the opponent we're attacking.

Zhao, the Moon SlayerZhao, the Moon Slayer

Zhao looks like a fun way to be annoying in the opening turns of a game. This is an effect that I would normally expect to see on a white card like with Archon of EmeriaArchon of Emeria. Then we have the fact that Zhao costs two mana, which means we can play him nearly immediately and slow down most multicolor decks.

Then if we really wanted we could pay seven mana to make Zhao become like a Magus of the MoonMagus of the Moon. I don't think I would ever do that, given the cost, but at least the option is there to threaten the table if things are getting out of hand.

Now this also means we would have to modify our land base to be less impacted ourselves. However, that won't often be a huge problem as Minotaur decks' mana bases skews toward red. So we can get away with running a lot of Swamps and then have our dual lands give us the red mana.

White Lotus TileWhite Lotus Tile

This card seems insane. A mana rock that scales with the amount of creatures you control of the same type is huge for Minotaurs. Now I won't be naïve here, obviously this is more powerful in typal decks like Elves or Humans as it's easier to generate a big ball of tokens. However, I also see this as a trap.

If we're board wiped the White Lotus Tile will do absolutely nothing. Meaning it's an expensive mana rock we can't use when we need it most, to create a lot of mana so we can rebuild. So while I will try to use this, I suspect it's just going to be a win-more card that is simultaneously too slow and too hard to make consistent use of.

Conclusion

And with that balance has returned to the four elements and Aang's journey comes to an end. While I'm not a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I was really impressed by how Magic managed to represent this world. A lot of the problems I had with the Spider-Man set I didn't find here, and restores some small faith in what Universes Beyond can offer Magic.

Thankfully with the next set we're returning to the Universes Within with a long awaited return to Lorwyn.

Until next time, be sure to check out the other set reviews found on EDHREC for a broader analysis on everything Avatar: The Last Airbender has to offer.