Is the game of Magic: The Gathering under threat of being oversaturated with IP crossover releases, losing sight of its core player base and becoming the so-called “Fortnite of the tabletop”? Perhaps. But when these Universes Beyond sets nail the brief, make genuinely interesting use of a popular franchise, and successfully bring in new players, is that not good for the game overall? Of course! Two things can be true.
And for its part, Avatar: The Last Airbender makes a fascinating case for the function of Universes Beyond. Despite never having been hugely into it myself (sorry), this is a franchise with fans that simply love to engage with it in any way possible. It’s a world that’s captured the hearts and minds of folks of all ages and backgrounds, and inspired so much creativity and community. That spirit comes through relentlessly in this set, and it’s already evident that the ATLA community is rallying around it, from both inside and outside of MtG circles.
With a full complement of product offerings right out the gate, this is a tentpole releases for Universes Beyond, offering players the usual collection of Play Boosters, Collector Boosters and Bundles and supplementing that with a Commander’s Bundle, Prelease and Jumpstart Packs, Scene Boxes and a handy Beginner Box. It’s an open invitation for serious and casual players, collectors and fresh faces to find their perfect gateway into the game and into the world of The Last Airbender. I’m imagining that ATLA-heads are feeling the way I felt when the Final Fantasy gear dropped.
And like Final Fantasy, this franchise feels perfectly poised to inhabit the game of MtG. With diverse and interesting landscapes, a cast of memorable characters and, of course, the founding principles of manipulation of the elements, it’s an undeniable setup for a well-rounded Magic set.
The elements, and their subsequent bending at the hands of skilled professionals, are naturally the pin holding all of this together. The properties of air, water, earth and fire are represented by white, blue, green and red cards, respectively, and each has been given its own matching mechanic that attempts to bridge the vibe of ATLA’s various ‘benders with what MtG players expect from each colour trait.
Airbending, for example, sees players exile a target (its type and who controls it can change based on the card text), with the ability to re-cast that exiled card for a mana cost of 2. It is, as designer Chris Mooney puts it, a way of framing the Airbenders’ more passive style of engagement, and focus on delaying or evading the enemy while protecting their own. In play, it’s a useful way to quickly remove blockers to allow for a sneak attack, sweep important creatures out of the way of incoming danger or simply play the field. That’s a great synergy between inspiration and innovation, I reckon.
Earthbending and Firebending fare similarly, with the former seeing lands come to life as creatures in an updated take on the Awaken mechanic, while the latter is all about red mana creation through destruction – a very welcome and thematic step beyond what could have just been a “fire does damage” take on the element.
Waterbending is an odd one, essentially offering a number of unique abilities on cards that tend to have high mana costs, but can be paid in part or whole by tapping artifacts and creatures. It’s supposed to elicit the idea of water being malleable and coming in many forms, with Mooney admitting this was the trickier of the four core elements to translate to a fun concept for the game.
But that leaves one colour remaining, right? What about black-type players with no obvious equivalent element in Avatar to crib from? Here’s where things get interesting. In the ATLA set, black wears its typical ethos of inviting self-determinate, mercilessly powerful characters to dominate the field via nefarious and destructive means. It rallies characters like Joo Dee and Mai, alongside spirits and legends like Sozin and Koh, and deals in a lot of sacrifice and sleuthing that keen deckbuilders should look to pairing with the other elemental bending mechanics for some fun combos.
A heap of keywords and tokens also make a comeback, including Clue and Food tokens, plus the Exhaust and Flashback keywords, all featuring on cards that play on familiar ATLA characters, concepts and consequences.
As far as gameplay, this is without a doubt one of the most cohesive and well-implemented Universes Beyond sets, not only respecting and paying homage to the ideas and stories contained within The Last Airbender but offering some genuinely compelling play crafting for Magic veterans wanting something to really sink their teeth into. The flipside is that Avatar fans jumping in for the first time may feel intimated by the wealth of strategy on offer, but the Beginner Box and Jumpstart Packs will hopefully provide a comfortable enough ‘in’ for those folks.
And, all else failing, there’s a lot of fun to be had simply collecting this 400+ strong line-up of cards. There’s a huge dedication to the source material here, right down to the actual ‘Source Material’ cards which feature actual shots from episodes of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series – one card per episode for a total of 61 cards, making for a fun chase to complete the full run.
Scene cards offer a similar novelty, recreating the climactic showdowns at the end of each Book across an arrangement of multiple cards. On the upper end, you’ve got some sick Battle Pose cards with a very cool neon ink foil treatment, and that incredible raised foil Avatar Aang card that you and I have no hope of pulling. And then the usual gamut of treatments and some superb original art pull the whole thing together. It’s a gorgeous set all told, and it’s a great sign that the newly-arted stuff is just as exciting as the frames ripped right from the show.
Overall, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a mighty fine release in Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond line that should hopefully dispel some of the creeping sensation that the game is leaning too heavily on IP worship and not enough on its own storytelling merits. I’m sure we’re in for a future where only a select few of these crossovers land with the same confidence and success as this one, but for now there’s good eatin’ no matter which nation you hail from.
Magic: The Gathering – Avatar: The Last Airbender is available now in a range of products via leading retailers and local game stores.
Press kit for Magic: The Gathering – Avatar: The Last Airbender supplied by the publisher for coverage purposes
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