EnergybendingEnergybending | Art by Hisashi Momose

The new Avatar: The Last Airbender set has arrived and it's already shaping up to be one of the most flavorful sets ever made. From the familiar faces of Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko, all the way to Sparky Sparky Boom man and Zuko's Hawk, this set is full from top to bottom references to what is certainly one of the most beloved shows of a generation.

Yet the world of Avatar isn't just familiar faces, but also its incredibly unique power system that WOTC has done a fantastic job translating into our favorite game.

Let's dive into the mechanics of Avatar: The Last Airbender to see what's new, what's returning, and how it all works.

Waterbending

Waterbending is where we'll start as we gauge just how much Avatar has a home in Magic. Just like how Uncle Iroh taught Zuko, waterbenders are all about the push and pull of the forces around them to manipulate and control the flow of the game.

Finding its home in blue and white , waterbending is used to pay the cost of either an activated ability or additional cost of a spell by tapping your creatures or artifacts. So instead of having to pay and of just mana for The Painted LadyThe Painted Lady we can pay and tap three Clues and two creatures for this awesome 4/5.

Have a big board state full of some fragile creatures that you'll never block with anyway? Put them to good use by making Giant KoiGiant Koi an unblockable game ender!

Now lets look at what options we have for paying these waterbending costs. Clues are a well featured token in this set, and they also get to sacrifice and draw a card without having to be tapped like Treasures do.

Creatures are only as plentiful as you make them, as every noncreature spell we use is one less creature in our deck to pay these costs with. However, since waterbending is an ability, creatures that still have summoning sickness can be tapped to pay these costs! So no waiting around to pay the costs on Katara, Bending ProdigyKatara, Bending Prodigy, tap her and five other creatures, artifacts, or lands to start drawing cards the moment she comes out.

Pay for Crashing WaveCrashing Wave plus some creature taps to open up your opponents' defenses, then spend the rest of your mana making Flexible WaterbenderFlexible Waterbender hit harder!

I should also note that waterbending is an instant-speed ability. Want to make use of Water Tribe RallierWater Tribe Rallier's ability but you're being attacked by some 10/10? Declare the Rallier as a blocker, and then tap it and four other things before damage is dealt to get maximum value! Tapped out of mana but need to use the counter spell in your hand? Well just activate Yue, the Moon SpiritYue, the Moon Spirit in response to your opponent's spell by tapping five little goobers instead!

The Unagi of Kyoshi IslandThe Unagi of Kyoshi Island even has waterbend as its ward cost, making it even harder to get rid of as it continuously draws you more and more cards. Waterbender AscensionWaterbender Ascension lets you make a creature unlockable like old Thassa, God of the SeaThassa, God of the Sea, and Aang, Swift SaviorAang, Swift Savior can be transformed into his back half Aang and La, Ocean's Fury after you attack with flying, so you smash in with a 5/5 instead of the original 2/3!

Waterbending has incredible applications in more than just The Last Airbender since just about any token deck would love to be able to use its multitudes of creatures for more than sitting there waiting for combat. The Secret of BloodbendingSecret of Bloodbending is a strong and thematic game ender for these mono-blue decks as a reference for the most powerful usage of waterbending that we saw in the show.

Keep an eye out for Spirit Water RevivalSpirit Water Revival completely refilling the caster's hand and be absolutely horrified by Foggy Swamp VisionsFoggy Swamp Visions because that card is just unfair!

If you're looking for the best Commander to represent the Water Tribe then look no further than Katara, Water Tribe's HopeKatara, Water Tribe's Hope, as she's truly able to make the best showing of this mechanic that controls the flow of the game.

Last thing to note here, I love that each of the bendings have their very own Avatar that exemplifies their upper limits and The Legend of KurukThe Legend of Kuruk is no exception!

Earthbending

Bending the very earth itself is Bitter WorkBitter Work to say the least, and it was among the hardest things for Aang, the titular last airbender, to learn. Which make sense, as even in the Magic version of earthbending, it's a hard and unrelenting bending style that will overwhelm the unprepared.

Luckily we can just look at the many versions of Toph to get a firm grip on how to become an Earthbending MasterEarthbending Master!

Earthbending X has you turn a land you control into a 0/0 with haste and put X +1/+1 counters on it. We've seen a mechanic like this before in Battle for Zendikar with awaken, which was a pretty good representation of the very land rising up to fight against a worldworld-devouringdevouring force, but the issue with making your lands creatures is that once you lose them, you've gone backwards on the very resources you need to play the game.

So luckily WOTC clearly learned from that and added an extra line of text to earthbending: When the land-turned-creature gets destroyed or exiled, put it back into play as its regular self tapped. Now we're not going backwards in value at all if our opponent deals with our creatures, meaning this mechanic is going to be far more popular than awaken ever was.

Earthbending is present on both creature and noncreature spells, meaning that there'll be tons of opportunities to expand your battlefield. This means that the number of active threats that you're able to put out against your opponents are potentially rivaling token decks while still staying in Gruul ().

Land rampLand ramp ends up seeming like creature tutors when you have an avenue for earthbending your lands. Earth RumbleEarth Rumble is a fight spell that you'd find in any deck, but it animates a land for you as well, while Dai Li IndoctrinationDai Li Indoctrination is the regular DuressDuress card of the set, but with the added option of earthbend 2.

We've seen +1/+1 counter-based mechanics in just about every set in existence, so it's going to be very easy to find a lot of support for it both inside and outside of the set. Although, we are blessed with having cards like BadgermoleBadgermole and Earthbending StudentEarthbending Student act as both creature producers as well as lords giving abilities to your earthen army.

Earth Kingdom GeneralEarth Kingdom General and Solid GroundSolid Ground are each just waiting to give extra +1/+1 counters on every single earthbending trigger you resolve. Most of these cards are creatures on their own as well, meaning you're getting two for the price of one! Or you can just keep adding counters to one specific land to make it geographically huge!

We shouldn't forget that these earthbended lands still lands, and with any mention of lands, we have to look into how it works with landfall; which by the way, it's perfect with it!

Say you have TannukTannuk, out when you first put a land like Rumble ArenaRumble Arena into play. You get to deal one damage to your foes, and then later you'd earthbend it, turning it into a creature with vigilance. Now if Rumble Arena gets destroyed or exiled, it'll be placed back into play under your control tapped, meaning you'll get yet another landfall trigger from Tannuk!

There is so much that can be delved into with the fact these lands never truly die and instead just come back into play, but that will be an article for another day. For now, just understand that this rockslide very quickly turns into an avalanche.

The greatest of the earthbenders are certainly among the many different versions of Toph. While Toph, Hardheaded TeacherToph, Hardheaded Teacher is my personal favorite, Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender has been an iconic piece of combo potential since her reveal (which you should check out in Owain Robert's deck tech).

Bumi, UnleashedBumi, Unleashed is certainly going to be the card that ends games for any standard earthbend list, while Toph, Earthbending MasterToph, Earthbending Master will lead to the largest pieces of land being flung at your foes consistently in Commander.

Lastly, don't forget that MDFCs that die on the land side will return face up on the permanent side, which sound pretty awesome with cards like Disciple of FreyaliseDisciple of Freyalise

Avatar Kyoshi, EarthbenderAvatar Kyoshi, Earthbender also gets her very own card to earthbend 8 at the start of combat on your turn; yet she also gets an additional chance to show earthbending's power with The Legend of KyoshiThe Legend of Kyoshi

Firebending

The Fire Nation is the enemy in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and has many iconic characters who all share the power to firebend. In fact, no other bending styles have quite as many as firebending, and therefore it's up to Magic to somehow make a solid unifying mechanic while also making cards that represent characters with very different personalities; hence why it shows up in with a splash of .

I don't know how long it took for Wizards to figure it out, but they surpassed absolutely all metrics, despite being able to describe firebending in just one sentence! When a creature with firebending X attacks, add X to their mana pool that stays there until the end of combat. That's it. Short, simple, and sweet, right?

As a rule in Magic, mana leaves your pool when steps and phases end. So if you were to end up with extra mana at the end of your main phase, you don't get to keep that mana just floating there until you use it. Yet firebending is different. You produce the mana, and then it stays throughout the entire combat step, which is comprised of four different phases. So to really look at the extent of firebending and what it allows, we need to look at the combat step specifically and break it down.

Beginning of Combat

Not much happens here for firebending other than Iroh, Dragon of the WestIroh, Dragon of the West. However, this will be the last time you can add firebending to someone like with Fire Nation PalaceFire Nation Palace and Fire Nation TurretFire Nation Turret

Declare Attacks

Now you attack with Firebending creatures and add all that mana to your pool. What do we get with all of it? Instant-speed spells are usually the immediate payoff of free mana in red, and that's no different here. Use a burn spell to open up a path for you and your forces to get through, or activate an ability that would render your creatures unblockable.

If you have any other "on attack" triggers that have a cost requirement, like Descendant of StormsDescendant of Storms we'd have some free mana to pay into them. Remember we're doing this after declaring attacks but before defenders, so we'd be leaving a lot of room for our opponents to respond, so time this wisely.

Declare Defenders

Now it's time for your opponents to declare how they'll defend. Once they lock in which creatures they'll engage and which ones they'll let through, its time for you to use the bulk of this free firebending mana to play some combat tricks.

You could use this mana on literal combat trick cards like Fists of FlameFists of Flame or Overwhelming VictoryOverwhelming Victory, adding power to your creatures and changing up your opponent's math. Or you could use it on firebreathingfirebreathing abilities like on Ran and ShawRan and Shaw and Cavalier of FlameCavalier of Flame.

NinjutsuNinjutsu and the upcoming sneaksneak ability from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can be paid for at this time too, since things will now be officially "unblocked."

Damage Dealt

Now that damage is dealt, combat is about to end, and we want to make sure we spend the rest of this free mana. The best way to spend it would be on any "whenever this creature deals combat damage" triggers you have that require more mana from you. Think Pyrewild ShamanPyrewild Shaman or Thunderblade ChargeThunderblade Charge for the very few examples of this.

Post Combat

The combat phase is finally over, and all that free firebending mana leaves your pool. You pretty much go back to playing Magic as normal, as nothing really carries over, and unlike the previous bending styles we talked about, firebending doesn't necessarily require much attention outside of the combat step.

That is, unless you use some craft tricks to keep any extra mana in your pool beyond the combat step, which is very possible and honestly should be expected in just about every firebending deck.

Firebending being restricted to your combat step actually makes it the most complex mechanic out of the entire set. Earthbending isn't very subtle in how it's slowly but surely amassing a hard-hitting board state. Waterbending, while being very sneaky and blue, is rather linear in its approach to dealing with things - i.e., draw, tap, counter things.

Firebending, however, can be used for incredibly variable surprises, all the way from simply extra mana to crack Clues with, all the way up to Fated FirepowerFated Firepower and Sun WarriorsSun Warriors each being massive mana sinks that just appear out of nowhere. Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault and Hellkite ChargerHellkite Charger could simply be paid for thanks to Sozin's CometSozin's Comet, leading to infinite attacks in Commander on a dime.

Fire Lord AzulaFire Lord Azula will spend her free mana for double spells, while Fire Lord ZukoFire Lord Zuko has the ability to grow his firebending amount over time to cast far bigger and flashier things. Iroh, Grand LotusIroh, Grand Lotus will recast his entire yard with just a few firebenders at his back, and Ozai, the Phoenix KingOzai, the Phoenix King just wants to be a massive mana battery.

Suffice it to say, your choice for commanders is both varied and flavorful!

Much like earthbending, firebending gets two versions of Roku that push the mechanic far and beyond what should be possible. Yet even more than that, they get access to The Rise of SozinThe Rise of Sozin or Fire Lord OzaiFire Lord Ozai who both specialize in the utilization of firebended mana!

Airbending

Onto the fourth and final of the brand new mechanics in The Last Airbender: airbending. Despite the wealth of characters that the rest of the bending styles get, in a show called The Last Airbender we shouldn't be too shocked to see Aang's or Appa's face on every single one of these cards. Yet if I'm being honest, if airbending was as brokenly good as it is in Magic with just two characters, I could see why the Fire Nation was scared of them!

To airbend, one simply exiles a card, and that card remains castable by its controller for the low low price of . No matter how much the card normally costs, just is all you need to cast it from exile. And unlike the plot and foretell mechanics, which also cast their spells from exile, you don't need to wait until the following turn with airbending.

I wasn't joking when I mentioned that there are few cards with airbending in the set; with just 14 cards, you would think that perhaps this makes it a little underpowered. You'd be wrong, of course, because an ability like this, where the mechanic itself is quite literally either removal or a cheat code to cast high cost spells for , has to be treated with utmost care as to not make it too good.

Let me paint this picture for you: Restricted Office // Lecture HallRestricted Office // Lecture Hall costs on one side and on the other, with the obvious goal unlocking the lower MV side first and then the other side later. But if we use Aang, the Last AirbenderAang, the Last Airbender's enter trigger on this permanent, it gets exiled and we can pay just to recast it with the Lecture Hall side unlocked instead.

Same with, say, Quantum RiddlerQuantum Riddler, when you cast it for its warp cost. Swing with an Appa, Loyal Sky BisonAppa, Loyal Sky Bison and airbend it, and lo and behold you're casting it from exile for just and it's sticking around.

Let's not forget that casting things from exile was a pretty rare thing up until a few years ago, so there's actually quite a bit of support from the past few years that loves when you do so. Vega, the WatcherVega, the Watcher, Ranar the Ever-WatchfulRanar the Ever-Watchful, and even the brand new Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian each give you a bonus on top of casting things for just .

Building a pseudo blink deck with these new cards will only give us an easy path to building a strong deck!

Monk GyatsoMonk Gyatso is downright horrifying in application! Just looking at that text box and imagining the decks that will be full of cost Equipment like ShukoShuko, and having spell cost reduction effects like Semblance AnvilSemblance Anvil take the cost to . Like wow! That's just soo strong! So he's clearly my pick for the best airbending commander that you should pick up as soon as you can!

However, it's still very true as it has been for every bending style in that its signature Avatar, Yangchen, gives us the the most consistent offensive use of this incredible power.

Lessons

Lessons make a return in The Last Airbender as the show is very heavy on the characters growing up after learning about themselves and the world around them. It is a kids' show, after all, and a dang good one at that.

Lessons were originally introduced back in Strixhaven and they'll most likely return in Secrets of Strixhaven next year as well. To really make use of their unique gameplay, they were paired with the learn mechanic, which doesn't exist in The Last Airbender. So in this set, Lessons are just types of instants and sorceries that some cards, like Uncle IrohUncle Iroh, care about. Basically just noncreature typal cards and bonuses, which is pretty cool!

If you're looking for your master and commander for a Lessons.dec though, Iroh, Grand LotusIroh, Grand Lotus is your go-to.

Allies

Allies are also making a return in this set. The Ally type signifies a group of individuals that are bound to help each other out whenever they meet. Just like in the show itself, where the Gaang meets everyone from Earth Kingdom orphans to Fire Nation defectors who help them out, even if just for that episode.

Allies are the most common type other than Humans in this set, and there are a lot of abilities that reference them. White Lotus ReinforcementsWhite Lotus Reinforcements serves as a lord, Suki, Kyoshi WarriorSuki, Kyoshi Warrior is a cool token maker for Allies and even gets in on the Ally game with Pretending PoxbearersPretending Poxbearers and Boiling Rock RioterBoiling Rock Rioter.

Though this isn't technically a mechanic, there are several cards that have triggered effects involving Allies. The long and short of it is looking at the type line of any creature you see and checking if it's an Ally or not, which there is a much higher chance that it will be. If there's something else on the field that cares for Allies, then awesome, you get yourself an extra boost on top of the card you were already planning on playing. If there isn't anything on the board specifically calling out Allies or anything of the sort, then proceed as normal.

Conclusion

There we have it! The mechanical overview for Avatar: The Last Airbender is complete and now you're ready to take on the Fire Nation - or perhaps you want to rule it yourself?

Wizards of the Coast has done another bang-up job in bringing an outside IP into our beloved game. I am certainly the target audience for this set, as a pretty big fan of Avatar, but I still think that this set is so inventive and fun that it will cause some pretty big cross pollination between the two fandoms.

Which of the bending styles is your favorite? I'm in love with waterbending because it's just such a blue trickster mechanic that fits me to a T, while I'm utterly afraid of airbending's ability to cheat anything!

Which one do you think is the best one of the bunch? Tell us down below and be on the look out for some Commander deck techs on all your favorite characters here.

YIP YIP!