Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula | Art by Fahmi Fauzi

As we've come to expect, full sets featuring Universes Beyond properties are chock full of legendary creatures - often multiple versions of some characters - and it can get a bit overwhelming to pore over them all and latch onto ones you might want to build Commander decks around.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is no exception; but I'm here to help! I've got over 30 years experience playing multiplayer Magic, and nearly 18 years playing and writing about EDH/Commander. So I combed through the list and leveraged my expertise to highlight 15 new legends that stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of power, fun, or both.

Yip, yip. Let's go!

Avatar AangAvatar Aang

If you're a big fan of the source material and want to build a Team Avatar deck, Avatar AangAvatar Aang is a good choice to build around. Looking at the flip side you'll see he provides access to all five colors, so you can include most of your favorite characters.

He's got a built-in quest that mimics the journey Aang must go on, learning how to bend all four elements. The transform payoff is pretty sweet, with a static ability that provides a reduction for any spells you cast. But even better, at the beginning of each upkeep you can transform back, and if you do you gain four life, draw four cards, put four +1/+1 counters on him, and he deals four damage to each opponent. Huzzah!

It's a fun deckbuilding challenge balancing your cards to give you the opportunity to check off each of the bending abilities. Aang has firebuilding built in, so you can include plenty of cards in the 99 that let you do the other three. And oh yeah, each time you do one of the bending, you get to draw a card to help pull it all together!

Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian

Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian is both powerful and fun, and if you love playing value creatures that do cool things when they enter - who doesn't? - airbending is an awesome way to leverage those cards all over again.

I wrote an entire deck tech around Appa back in August, so if you're intrigued by the value or just want to play a flying Bison with flash, check it out!

Avatar Roku, FirebenderAvatar Roku, Firebender

It's a little weird that Avatar Roku, FirebenderAvatar Roku, Firebender has "Firebender" in its name but doesn't technically have the firebending ability. But who cares? What he has is even better: He adds a whopping whenever a player attacks - and that's any player, even your opponents.

Roku also has a built-in mana sink for that extra mana, giving a target creature +3/+0 for each three mana you spend. And that's any creature, so you get to mess with other players' combat steps by pumping up attackers, blockers, or one of each.

Mix in a bunch of extra attack spells and keep adding all over the place!

Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King

Ozai is the big bad of the Last Airbender TV show, and Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King does an excellent job of embodying that. For six mana you get a ton of abilities: a 7/7 with trample, firebending 4, and haste is a fantastic start, immediately knocking an opponent a third of the way to losing from commander damage.

Ozai also has an interesting static ability: "If you would lose unspent mana, that mana becomes red instead." This is a pretty nifty way to hang onto firebending mana that would otherwise go away at the end of combat, so you can use that mana after combat to cast some spells, activate abilities... or hang onto it, because if you have six or more unspent mana in your mana pool, Ozai gains flying and indestructible on top of everything else!

Red and black even have instant-speed mana spells so you could trick an opponent into thinking they can kill off Ozai when you have less than six mana and suddenly cast something like Battle HymnBattle Hymn or Burnt OfferingBurnt Offering!

Azula, Cunning UsurperAzula, Cunning Usurper

It's important to note, even though Azula, Cunning UsurperAzula, Cunning Usurper has firebending, she is not considered to have red in her color identity since the red mana is only in the reminder text. But the firebending works great with the rest of her abilities, letting you cast cards exiled with Azula as though they have flash, and using any color mana to cast them.

The slight downside to Azula, compared to other commanders that let you steal cards from your opponents to cast, is that target opponent gets to choose both a nontoken creature to exile, and a nonland card from their graveyard. I consider her ability to be a much more "video Commander"-friendly way to steal cards than others that can be awkward to resolve.

Commanders like this naturally scale to the power level of the pod you're playing in and makes each game a different experience!

Iroh, Grand LotusIroh, Grand Lotus

Iroh, Grand LotusIroh, Grand Lotus is a spectacular blend of flavor and cool design. Who better to lead a Lesson-heavy deck than Iroh, who handed out wisdom to any who'd listen for the entire duration of the series?

And the card is quite powerful too: During your turn each non-Lesson instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback equal to that card's mana cost, and each Lesson has flashback 1 - just one mana!

Even if you don't stuff the deck with every Lesson you can find in the Temur () color combination, flashing back powerful instant or sorcery spells is still amazing. Personally, I'm going to play a bunch of janky, high-mana instants that I can help pay for with firebending, like Elminster's SimulacrumElminster's Simulacrum, and run it back again from the graveyard.

Sokka and SukiSokka and Suki

There are tons of good Equipment deck commanders available in one and two colors, but if you want to stretch into three colors the options begin to dwindle. In the Jeskai () color combination you have Captain America, First AvengerCaptain America, First Avenger, which encourages Voltron-style, loading up one or two creatures with a bunch of Equipment.

Now there's Sokka and SukiSokka and Suki, which encourages you to "go wide" with Ally tokens, and you can pretty easily throw Equipment around depending on the battlefield state. Jeskai has a bunch of ways to make token creatures if you want to lean into that, but I'd mostly just run a pile of good Equipment and let Sokka and SukiSokka and Suki make Ally tokens for you.

Sokka, Tenacious TacticianSokka, Tenacious Tactician

Also in Jeskai is Sokka, Tenacious TacticianSokka, Tenacious Tactician, an eye-popping powerful card that wants you to cast noncreature spells to make Ally tokens, and throwing around prowess triggers like candy.

And oh yeah, your Ally creatures have menace and prowess! This is both an engine card and a win-condition, and I'm excited to see what people cook up with this at the helm.

The Fire Nation DrillThe Fire Nation Drill

In case you forgot, we can run legendary Vehicles as commanders now, and The Fire Nation DrillThe Fire Nation Drill is a pretty wild choice for a monoblack deck. It's a creature removal spell sitting in your command zone, and don't forget black has ways to reduce the power of a creature so you can sometimes pick off higher power creatures combined with something like Nowhere to RunNowhere to Run.

But what's really wild is the cool activated ability that mimics ShadowspearShadowspear: for one mana, permanents your opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. As a fan of interaction, I'd love to see that ability tacked onto more cards.

Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender

I love the character of Toph, and I'm thrilled that Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender is one of the coolest new designs in this set.

"Nontoken artifacts you control are lands in addition to their other types" is a wild ability, and notably being a land doesn't automatically grant it the ability to tap for mana (though there are ways to do that, such as Dryad of the Ilysian GroveDryad of the Ilysian Grove and the new Great Divide GuideGreat Divide Guide).

Of course, the idea is to earthbend one of your nontoken artifacts, maybe Ichor WellspringIchor Wellspring, and then sacrifice it and have it come back for even more value. I'm looking forward to sacrificing three or four artifacts with Toph on the battlefield to Famished WorldsireFamished Worldsire's devour land 3 ability!

Toph, Greatest EarthbenderToph, Greatest Earthbender

It makes sense that a character as badass as Toph would have multiple versions that are all awesome!

If you want to just play two colors for your earthbending Toph deck, Toph, Greatest EarthbenderToph, Greatest Earthbender is an excellent choice. Giving land creatures you control double strike is incredibly powerful and can lead to a really big punch out of nowhere.

Opponents will be highly motivated to destroy Toph, but she gets even better the more mana you use to cast her with commander tax, with that enters ability of earthbend X, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast her.

Aang and KataraAang and Katara

If you want a token-generating Bant () deck, Aang and KataraAang and Katara is an incredibly powerful choice.

Play them after you attack, and you'll get 1/1 Ally tokens for each creature that tapped to attack, and then each time you attack with them alongside your army, your army of token creatures will grow.

If you're a bit worried about overcommitting to the battlefield, you can toss in some Vehicles and tap creatures that way.

Yue, the Moon SpiritYue, the Moon Spirit

Yue, the Moon SpiritYue, the Moon Spirit has an incredibly powerful activated ability, letting you waterbend 5 to cast a noncreature spell from your hand without paying its mana cost -- wow! Thank goodness for the "noncreature" clause or deckbuilders would be way too tempted to jam all of the high-mana Eldrazi in the deck.

As it is, expect people to cheat out OmniscienceOmniscience or One with the MultiverseOne with the Multiverse and then be off to the races. Me, I'll probably play janky expensive Equipment cards in the deck since they can help pay the waterbend cost.

Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer

Fans of the TV show will remember that Koh was a scary adversary for Aang, and Koh, the Face StealerKoh, the Face Stealer captures that scariness in a powerful and fun way.

By the time you cast your six-mana commander, there will hopefully be a sweet creature on the battlefield you can exile and then pay a trivial one life to steal its activated or triggered abilities, until you end up exiling a more interesting creature in subsequent turns.

Which shouldn't be a problem since black has a lot of ways to kill interesting creatures.

The Unagi of Kyoshi IslandThe Unagi of Kyoshi Island

Control players love casting spells at instant speed, they love IslandIslands, and they love drawing cards, so they're going to love The Unagi of Kyoshi IslandThe Unagi of Kyoshi Island! This gives serious Consecrated SphinxConsecrated Sphinx vibes, but it's built in a way that gets more powerful the more greedy your opponents are.

Ward 4 is obnoxious as heck, but how about Ward - Waterbend 4? It's still going to force someone to commit resources to fight through it, but being able to tap creatures or artifacts is much easier to wiggle through it and probably makes it more fair -maybe. Flash means you can pick the optimal time to leverage its abilities.

If you're interested in deck techs for these or other legends from Avatar: The Last Airbender, EDHREC has a bunch of them you can check out right here.

More Avatar Reviews: