What was the MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender release date? Magic: The Gathering's Avatar set arrived on November 21, 2025, and was the final Standard release of 2025. Based only on Nickelodeon's original series The Last Airbender, it followed the adventures of Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph in their mission to defeat Fire Lord Ozai. This guide will fill you in on the main cards, mechanics, and products that came out with this MTG set.
For more details on this and the other big Magic events of this year and next, you should also check our complete MTG release schedule.
MTG Avatar the Last Airbender mechanics
There are a whopping eight mechanics or mechanical themes in the Avatar the Last Airbender set: four new, and four returning.
Allies are back, a creature type representing a group banding together under a common cause. Originally connected to Zendikar, we haven't seen this tribe make a proper comeback in years!
Shrines are another oldie but goldie making a return. This subcategory of enchantment cards typically have stronger effects the more other shrines you have in play.
Sagas were first introduced in 2018's Dominaria, but have become a regular mechanic in several sets since. In Avatar the Last Airbender, sagas are used to tell the stories of heroes and villains that lived long before the series began. They're double-sided cards that transform from saga enchantments into legendary creatures.
Lessons are the final returning mechanic - though there may only be a few of these. And there aren't actually any Learn cards, making this more of a plant for the upcoming Strixhaven set than anything else.
Along with the returning mechanics, Each category of bending also has its own keyword with a different effect:
Airbending exiles a card, but lets its owner cast it for two mana less - a kind of blink that could also serve as temporary removal.
Firebending creates temporary red mana during combat, giving you a sudden burst of extra fuel for instant-speed shenanigans. Fire Lord Zuko is a particularly potent example - load him up with some counters and he'll give you a firestorm's worth of red mana every single attack.
Waterbending creatures have expensive abilities that you can make cheaper by tapping your other guys. Katara, Water Tribe's Hope, for instance, resets all your creatures' power and toughness to X, where X is the number of other artifacts and creatures you tap to power it. Tokens, ahoy!
Earthbending turns lands into creatures with +1/+1 counters. But they're safe from removal, coming back into play as their regular non-creature-y selves.
MTG Avatar the Last Airbender products
For the second set in a row, this a Magic release without Commander precon decks. It seems Wizards is making good on its aim not to flood the market.
Instead of a dedicated deck, Wizards released a 'Commander's Bundle'. This package comes with nine Play Boosters and one Collector Booster, thirty basic lands, a click-wheel, and five promo cards - presumably featuring key EDH staples, or the set's best MTG commanders.
Avatar The Last Airbender is also we got 2025's Jumpstart product. This is the good kind of Jumpstart, by the way, not the bad, with 46 different themes available. In case you're not familiar with this game mode, you pick up two packs, and smash them together for an instant randomized deck.
There's also a Beginner Box, which comes with 10 Jumpstart boosters, two of which are designed to give a tutorial game for brand new players. The team working on Avatar have certainly gone in hard on making this set suitable for newbies.
The last interesting item that came out with this set are a couple of scene boxes. These each contain six borderless cards that together form a complete collage. Both feature Appa prominently, but otherwise they couldn't be more different. One shows the characters chilling at Iroh's tea shop, the other shows the doomed assault on the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun.
MTG Avatar the Last Airbender bonus sheet
Avatar the Last Airbender was accompanied by the boringly named Partner Source Material mini-set - 61 classic MTG cards given new art taken from animation cells from the original Avatar animated series. There's one card for each episode, and you've got a chance of finding one of these bonus sheet cards in place of a token or advert in regular Play boosters.
There are some rare cards, like Cruel Tutor, and Commander staples, like Heroic Intervention or Eladamri's Call, on the bonus sheet. But the art is… well, it wasn't designed to be used on Magic cards. Staff writer Tim Linward wrote a whole article dunking on it.
MTG Avatar the Last Airbender Secret Lair superdrop
The MTG Avatar the Last Airbender Secret Lair Superdrop went live on November 17, 9 am PT / 12 noon ET / 4pm GMT. There are five drops in total, each one costing $29.99 in non-foil, $39.99 in foil.
The first is My Cabbages!, which has a bunch of removal spells featuring The Cabbage Merchant's stock getting ruined.
Then there's Everything Changed, which features some of the most epic moments from the show (and blows the bonus sheet out of the water).
A more peaceful lair is A Lot to Learn, which features Aang at various stages on his spiritual journey. Serra Ascendant is the clear money card in this particular drop.
The elemental frames return for the One With The Elements lair. Even though you get more cards in this one the value is very low, though the excellent artwork and well-chosen story moments help make up for it.
Then there's the Ember Island Players, which features… you guessed it, scenes of the Ember Island Players.
If you enjoyed the Avatar MTG set hype with us in the Magic: The Gathering discussion on Wargamer's Discord community - I promise that the Fire Nation won't attack.
For more Magic: The Gathering news, check out our guide to Edge of Eternities, with all the latest details and card spoilers - or read our guide to the best MTG commanders in the format.