Magic is bending in a way you’ve never quite seen before with our latest Universes Beyond collaboration: Magic: The Gathering® | Avatar: The Last Airbender™. You’ll be entering the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, and it’s your opportunity to master the elements alongside Aang and Katara, fight alongside Sokka, and do whatever it is Appa does alongside Appa. Grab some hot leaf juice, sit back, and explore the new and returning mechanics you’ll find in this exciting new card set.
Firebending
Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Specifically, you got all this mana you didn’t have before! Act fast, though, for its fire burns bright but not very long.
0136_MTGTLA_Main: Fire Sages
Firebending is a keyword that always includes a number. Whenever a creature you control with firebending attacks, you add that much red mana. You don’t lose this mana during that combat. Any of this mana you still have as combat ends will be lost. You won’t have it during your second main phase.
Often, as with Fire Sages, the creature with firebending will have another ability that gives you an easy way to spend that mana. You can spend that red mana anywhere you normally could, though, whether that’s on other abilities or even instants. Also, you’ll be able to spend that mana any time during combat, including before blockers are declared, after blockers are declared but before combat damage, or even after combat damage is dealt but before combat concludes.
Airbending
Sometimes during a battle, you need to move things out of harm’s way … or out of your way. Handed down from sky bison, the art of airbending is perfect if you’d like to say “bye, son” to something for a little while.
0010_MTGTLA_Main: Appa, Steadfast Guardian
Airbend is a keyword action. To airbend a permanent or a spell, you exile it. As long as that card remains exiled, its owner may cast it by paying rather than paying its mana cost. This doesn’t change when that card can be cast. If you airbend a creature that an opponent owns during your turn (notably something Appa can’t do unless you control that creature, but other cards can), they’ll usually have to wait until their next turn to cast it again.
Appa, Steadfast Guardian only lets you airbend nonland permanents, but it’s possible to airbend and exile a land card. If this happens, you can’t play that card. Airbend only lets you cast the exiled cards. Similarly, if you airbend a token, the token will end up not existing before you ever get the chance to cast it again. That’s rough, buddy.
If you’re casting a card after it was airbended into exile, you’re already paying an alternative cost rather than the mana cost, so you can’t use any other alternative costs that may apply. If the spell has in its mana cost (which you’re not paying), you have to choose 0 as the value of X.
Waterbending
If your thirst for victory is strong, waterbending is the quenchiest!
0065_MTGTLA_Main: North Pole Patrol
Waterbend is a cost and always includes an amount of mana that must be paid … somehow. More on that in a moment. Waterbend costs can appear as an additional cost to cast a spell, as part of an ability’s activation cost, or anywhere else you might be asked to pay mana.
To pay a waterbend cost, you can always just pay the requested mana. However, for each in that cost, you can tap an untapped artifact or creature you control rather than pay that mana. If you choose to tap a creature to help pay a waterbend cost, it can be one that just came under your control that turn.
For example, to activate North Pole Patrol’s last ability, you can simply tap North Pole Patrol and pay . You could also tap North Pole Patrol alongside another artifact or creature and pay . In the interest of being thorough, I’ll mention you could also tap North Pole Patrol, tap any combination of two artifacts and/or creatures, and pay . You could even tap North Pole Patrol and three other artifacts and/or creatures to pay no mana at all. Aren’t you glad the example card wasn’t waterbending ? What you can’t do is tap North Pole Patrol to help pay its waterbending cost, as you have to tap it to cover the in its activated ability.
Earthbending
If you want to take a more grounded approach to repeatedly punching your opponents, earthbending may be the ability for you.
0166_MTGTLA_Main: Badgermole
Earthbend is another keyword action that includes a number. When you earthbend, choose target land you control. As the earthbend ability resolves, that land becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that’s still a land. Then put +1/+1 counters on it equal to the earthbend number. Because the new creature land will have haste, you can feel free to earthbend lands that you just played. There is no summoning sickness in Ba Sing Se.
Sometimes, turning your lands into creatures is risky. If they leave the battlefield, you effectively lose a creature and the mana that land could have provided. Earthbend is much safer. When an earthbended land dies or is exiled, it returns to the battlefield tapped under your control. It won’t be a creature when it comes back, but you can always earthbend it again.
A few finer points about the return trip: “Your control” means whoever controlled the creature land as it died or was exiled. If an opponent borrows the land and it dies or is exiled under their control, they’ll get it when it comes back. Also, that delayed triggered ability doesn’t kick in until the original earthbend ability resolves. If the land leaves the battlefield in response to the ability that would originally earthbend it, it won’t come back at all.
Double-Faced Sagas
Double-faced Sagas return in this set, letting you relive the history of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe one chapter at a time. When the story is complete, the main character of the story appears on the battlefield, ready to dominate.
0117a_MTGTLA_Main: The Rise of Sozin
Sagas are a returning type of enchantment. Sagas have a number of triggered abilities called chapter abilities, each marked with a Roman numeral. Each Saga enters with a lore counter on it. This causes its first chapter ability to trigger. At the beginning of your first main phase, put a lore counter on each Saga you control. Adding a second lore counter causes the second chapter ability to trigger, and so on.
Eventually, you get to the last chapter ability. On most Sagas, after the last chapter ability resolves, the story is over and you sacrifice the Saga. But with Sagas like The Rise of Sozin, the last chapter is where the story really gets good. The third chapter ability has you exile the Saga and return it to the battlefield transformed under your control. You won’t get to the point where you sacrifice the Saga. Rather, the powerful creature on the card’s back face will enter and be yours to command.
Lesson
Opportunities to grow are all around us, whether that’s through our experiences, our companions, or even our failures. And sometimes lessons are conveniently printed on cards we can just throw into our decks.
0001_MTGTLA_Main: Aang’s Journey
Lesson is a returning subtype that appears on some instants and sorceries. Lesson doesn’t inherently have any special meaning. It’s there so other cards can find it and give it meaning, which is really sort of poetic if you think about it. Oh, hello, Aang!
0004_MTGTLA_Main: Aang, the Last Airbender
You may remember that Lessons previously appeared alongside the keyword action learn, which isn’t returning in this set. Rather, several cards in the set will reward you either for casting Lesson spells or having Lesson cards in your graveyard.
Exhaust
Exhaust abilities are returning on a small number of cards in this set, ready to give you a one-time boost to help you overcome your foes.
0104_MTGTLA_Main: Hog-Monkey
Exhaust abilities usually give you an easy way to remember they’ve been activated, such as putting counters on the permanent. If a permanent with an exhaust ability leaves the battlefield and returns, it’s a new object with a new instance of the exhaust ability, so that ability can be activated again.
Clues
The Gaang isn’t always the most subtle, and if you look closely, you can usually find signs of their adventures. The clues are everywhere.
0085_MTGTLA_Main: Azula, On the Hunt
Clues are a returning predefined token. A Clue token is a colorless artifact token with “, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.” Do you want more cards? Of course you do. But keep an eye out for cards that reward you specifically for drawing two or more cards in the same turn or for sacrificing permanents. Clues can help you with both.
In previous sets, Clues were associated with the investigate keyword action, but investigate isn’t returning here. The effects that create Clues just do so directly.
Shrines
The final returning subtype to talk about here is Shrine, an enchantment type that encourages you to control a lot of them.
0036_MTGTLA_Main: Southern Air Temple
These Shrines are all legendary, so there’s usually a limit on how many you can control at one time, but a clever tactician such as you (with such a sharp outfit!) can surely find a way around that.
Master the elements. Check out all the previews. Save the world. Easy, right? You can take on the world with the Gaang on November 21, 2025. Preorder Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender at your local game store, Amazon, TCGplayer, and elsewhere Magic is sold.
