The latest MTG spoiler season has drawn to a close. We've now seen every single card in the Avatar the Last Airbender MTG set, so before it comes out next week, we thought we'd look at the biggest chase cards in this release, the gamechangers you should be crossing your fingers for if you plan on cracking packs.
It's safe to assume the raised foil Avatar Aang will be the most expensive MTG card in this set and that the Neon Ink treatment cards won't be far behind. But here we won't be worrying too much about variants, we'll be looking at the regular cards you can find outside of collector boosters.
Quick caveat before we begin: with the set not yet out, card prices are obviously going to change. Many will plummet in value (pre-release prices tend to be overestimated) and a few will likely turn out to have been undervalued. That's the main reason we're not dealing with exact figures here, just a straightforward list of very good cards.
8. Phoenix Fleet Airship
We're starting out with a vehicle card I suspect many missed during spoiler season - the Fire Nation airships are not exactly fan-favorite characters, after all. But if there's one thing Magic: The Gathering players love, it's exponential growth. These vehicles are super strong. Crew 1 makes it very easy to have at least a few of them active each turn, and you only actually have to sacrifice three permanents to turn the entire fleet into flying creatures.
7. Appa, Steadfast Guardian
Appa's looking resplendent and ready to invade the Fire Nation in his battle armor, and this card is going to be great in the 99 of a bunch of new Allies decks. He could also be interesting in blinking or 'cast from exile' Commander decks, thanks to his powerful airbending effect. There's lots of versatility here.
Airbending is a nice way to get more value out of your ETB triggers. But probably the best thing about the keyword is that it's also a nice easy way to retrigger powerful on-cast abilities. Time to use your sky bison to airbend an Eldrazi titan or two. Yip yip!
6. Fated Firepower
So much more interesting than the classic damage doubling/tripling enchantments that keep getting made, Fated Firepower lets you choose how much mana to invest and how much extra damage you deal. If you cast it for nine, it becomes a game-ending threat that your opponents must answer right away, but even at four or five mana it's fantastic for a bunch of popular red strategies. Whether you're playing pingers or goblins, you're going to want to consider adding this card to your deck.
5. Seismic Tutelage
Time for a quick diversion into the Jumpstart Avatar cards. We're mainly steering clear of this collection for this list, since their prices seem less predictable, and many of the rarest cards in the eternal set already seem to be dropping in value.
Seismic Tutelage seems to be going the other direction right now - remember what we said about Magic fans and exponential growth? This is an interesting card because unless you have extra combat steps it's just a worse version of Hydra's Growth. If you do have extra combat steps, though, this ends games. I'm going to put it in my Anzrag list and kill everyone with a mana dork.
4. Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong
If I had to guess Wizards of the Coast's favorite ATLA episode, I'd say Season 2: Episode 10, The Library, because its librarian, Wan Shi Tong, has several of the most powerful cards in this set. Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong is a great card in any deck that aims to ramp up to high mana cost cards, as it can cheat something out for you each and every turn.
It can trigger itself for one mana, so doesn't need anything else to function. But it goes super hard in any surveil or scrying deck that can make use of its power on other people's turns.
3. The Walls of Ba Sing Se
Speaking of high mana cost, colorless permanents that work well in a wide range of different decks, meet The Walls of Ba Sing Se, and yes they are tall, aren't they? This card steals the prize for Magic's highest toughness creature, making it a tantalizing choice for any defender decks that want to smack someone for 30 damage. Then on top of that - as if just an afterthought - it comes with Avacyn, Angel of Hope's ability (minus indestructibility for itself) and makes it accessible for any color. That's some wall.
2. Badgermole Cub
After Scythecat Cub, I was ready for this smol guy to be deceptively strong, and sure enough, that's exactly what it is. The little badgermole that could generates 3/3 of stats and ramps you, which will probably be good enough for Standard play, but it also doubles all mana-making creatures, allowing for some fast and furious ramping.
In Modern, this card can let you double dip on fetchlands. And don't ignore the fact that with multiple badgermoles the effect stacks! Earthbending seemed like the most inherently breakable of the bending abilities in this set, and Badgermole Cub is the card to do it!
1. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
I told you Wizards was a big fan of this owl! Wan Shi Tong is flexible and strong, and can fulfil many different roles in a deck. It can be a big beater or a two-mana value piece. You can flash it in to block, or use it as a card draw spell. And of course you can cast it at the last possible moment, intimidating your opponents and threatening a counterspell all the while. If this card isn't cEDH playable, you can feed me to a book-loving spirit beast.
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