There’s no shortage of love for Avatar: The Last Airbender, and after branching out to films, television shows, comics, and more, Aang and crew are coming to Magic: the Gathering.
Inspiration for the set comes from the original three books of the Avatar: The Last Airbender television show, as well as a few confirmed canon comic books. If you’re a fan of the expanded universe, you’ll have to wait.
Wizards of the Coast is going all in on the set, diving into not only some deep cuts from the Avatar universe but also some absolutely delightful flavor pieces from the series.
Keeping up with Aang and the gang can be hard, but we have all the dates you need to stay on the Avatar’s trail.
- Complete Card Image Gallery: November 7
- Prerelease Events: November 14 – 20
- MTG Arena Release: November 18
- Tabletop Release: November 21
- Magic World Championship 31: December 5–7
- Magic Spotlight: The Avatar: January 9–11, 2026
Team Avatar Cards
If you’re not familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender, the jist of it is that in a world where people can control one of four different elements of nature (air, earth, fire, and water), one person who master all four elements is known as the Avatar, and works to keep a balance between the powers and the people behind him. Aang, an airbender and the next in line to be the Avatar, runs away from his responsibilities and becomes trapped in an iceberg for 100 years. During that time, the Fire Nation began a war against the other nations, and that war is still ravaging the world when Aang finally wakes up.
When Aang wakes up, he realizes he can’t keep running from his status as the Avatar. Aang and his friends, Katara, Sokka, Toph and more, find themselves on the run from the Fire Nation while learning everything he can about the different elements and the people of the world.
Like other Universes Beyond sets, there are multiple iterations of each character, representing different stages in their journey. Generally, each subsequent card has the character gaining a color, moving up a rarity, and gaining more and more abilities.
The only character to master all four elements, Aang starts his journey as a mono white character, representing his origins as an Airbender, following his journey up to a four color master at the height of his powers in the show.
Aang, at the Crossroads represents him after he mastered Air, Water, and Earthbending, and is an incredible value piece at just five mana. Dual-faced cards are all over the place in this set, and flipping Aang is relatively easy; you just need to have another creature you control leave the battlefield.
The stalwart and dauntless Waterbender from the South Pole, and she shows off her mastery of waterbending throughout the show. While she and the other characters don’t gain access to other bending styles, they still gain access to new colors as they progress through the story, representing how they’ve been changed by their journey.
Katara, the Fearless represents her at her peak, and comes with a very powerful ability that helps support her fellow Allies. Anytime an Ally triggered ability of your triggers, you get an extra trigger. In a set filled with unique and powerful Ally creatures, Katara has the potential to be a major player in the game.
Brother of Katara and the only non-bender of Team Avatar, Sokka is a young man who has big aspirations of being a leader and warrior. He is unique among the heroes of the set in that he has a hybrid white and blue mana cost in Sokka, Lateral Strategist.
When he finally comes into his own as Sokka, Tenacious Tactician, he is a blue, red, and white Warrior Ally with both menace and prowess, who grants his fellow Allies the same abilities. Casting a noncreature spells gets you more 1/1 Ally tokens thanks to this Sokka, making him an all-star Commander for any spell slinger deck.
Toph might not have as many iterations as her fellow Team Avatar members, but that works since she doesn’t join the gang until much later in the show. Earthbending is one of the more impressive mechanics of the set, which we’ll dive into later, making both versions of Toph we see today a powerful card.
Perhaps one of the most impressive cards in the set, at least so far, is Toph, the First Metalbender. This red, green, and white Warrior Ally turns your nontoken artifact cards into lands, though they can’t tap for mana. With her earthbending ability, at the start of your end step you can turn one of them into a 0/0 creature with two +1/+1 counters on them, which is pretty darn good.
While they might have started as villains, Zuko and Iroh eventually become friends and allies of Team Avatar as they travel the world. The evolution of Zuko is shown in his two cards here, representing him at the start of the show as Zuko, Exiled Prince, and then at the end of the series with the healed Fire Lord Zuko. While not many characters get the black mana typing, Fire Lord Zuko does, making him rather unique in the set.
His beloved uncle, Iroh, Grand Lotus, is a green, blue, and red powerhouse, giving your instants and sorceries in your graveyard flashback on your turn, so long as they aren’t lessons. Lessons instead get flashback for just a single generic mana, which is incredible in a set with lots of valuable lessons.
Lessons first made their debut in Strixhaven: School of Mages, coming paired with the learn mechanic. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, they didn’t feel the need to include learn, wanting to keep the set fairly straightforward and not bogged down with extra mechanics.
The Villains of Avatar: The Last Airbender
The villains of Avatar are just as diverse as the heroes, though they do mainly come from the Fire Nation. Azula, Zuko’s sister, gets at least two cards representing her saga as she hunts both the Avatar and Zuko.
Her rare card depicts her as a blue and black creature, with firebending 2 to keep her roots as a firebender there. Azula’s abilities reflect her time in the Earth Kingdom, letting her opponent chose a nontoken creature they control, and then a nonland card from their graveyard. You can then cast cards exiled with Azula as if they had flash, and you can spend mana however you like to cast them, making her an interesting Grixis commander.
Since so much of each villains’ time in the show is spent hunting down the Avatar and friends, there is an emphasis on Clue tokens on the creatures, like with Azula, On The Hunt. It’s a pretty flavorful mechanic that gives them a bit of an extra power on the battlefield, keeping the advantage in their favor as much as they can.
Bending
Waterbending
Waterbending is a bit of an oddball mechanic in Avatar: The Last Airbender. You pay a cost for an effect, and you can tap artifacts and creatures to help pay for each, with each card you tap contributing one generic mana to the cost.
It is a mix of convoke and improvise, so it should be fairly familiar to most players. Waterbending Lesson for example is a four mana spell that lets you draw three cards, then if you don’t pay the waterbending cost of two generic mana, you have to discard a card. It is perhaps the ability with the most use in the set, since its potentially just a flat mana cost for most cards.
Firebending
Firebending is a bit of a niche mechanic, adding red mana equal to the firebending X value that doesn’t disappear between phases, at least until the end of combat.
This gives you a fairly narrow window to use that mana, making it good for paying for abilities and for casting instant spells. Fire Sages has a three mana ability that you can activate at anytime to put a +1/+1 counter on it, which is a pretty clear way to showcase the ability.
Airbending
Airbending is a fascinating ability that has a fair amount of potential to be used in a variety of ways. The way airbending works is that you pick a nonlnd permanent and exile it. So long as that card is in exile, you can cast it for two generic mana rather than its normal mana cost.
Appa, Steadfast Guardian lets you airbend any number of other nonland permanents you control when it comes into play. Then, casting a spell from exile gets you an extra 1/1 Ally creature token. You can use Appa as an emergency savior, like a mass and slow Restoration Angel for your board.
Earthbending
The mechanic with the most potential it seems, earthbending lets you take a land you control, transform it into a 0/0 creature, and then slap a few +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number associated with the mechanic. Badgermole Cub has earthbend 1 when it comes into play, turning a land into a 1/1 creature.
This little mythic then lets you add an extra green mana anytime you tap a creature for mana, making it a fantastic mana dork accelerator.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Special Treatments
There are a lot of fancy cards to collect in Avatar: The Last Airbender, perfect for the casual Avatar fan and hardcore Magic fans alike.
Full Art Appa Lands
Each land gets a full art treatment, complete with Appa flying across the skyline. These lands can be found in play boosters, collector boosters, and jumpstart boosters, and come in both a foil and nonfoil version.
On most of the cards you can even make out Aang and the crew on Appa’s back, which is a cute little addition for fans.
Borderless Field Notes
Coming back from Bloomburrow are the Borderless Field Note cards. This unique showcase style features artwork that looks like it came from a sketchbook of a researcher in the wild. The legendary Dragon Ran and Shaw is just one example of the treatment, with close up sketches of teeth, claws, and wings surrounding the art.
These cards are exclusively animals from the set, and can be found in both play and collector boosters.
Borderless Battle Pose
Inspired by the stylistic opening sequence of the show, the Borderless Battle Pose cards are special textiles and neon ink cards featuring various characters showing off their bending abilities.
The only card we have so far is Fire Lord Zuko, but it is bound to be a huge hit with collectors. These cards are only in collector boosters and are bound to have a low pull rate.
Borderless Elemental Frame Cards
Avatar: The Last Airbender gets a special frame to go with the set, a gold-fringed border that elevates the cards to a whole new level of prestige. The example we get is Iroh, Grand Lotus, depicting the talented firebender surrounded by swirls of fire.
There are 15 rare and 3 mythic rare cards that get this treatment, and they can come in both foil and nonfoil versions.
Partner Face Cards
One of the more styles to come in the set are the Partner Face Cards. Featuring scenes directly from the show, these cards are part of a bonus sheet of non-Standard cards. There are 61 cards in total, one for each episode of the show. At the bottom of each card is a little note telling you which Book and which episode the card is from.
They come in both foil and nonfoil versions, but the foils can only be found in collector boosters, while nonfoil are in both play and collectors.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Products
In addition to the play, collector, and Jumpstart boosters, you can also find bundles, scene kits, Starter Kits, and something new called the Commander Bundle.
Scene kits are returning from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and depict various scenes from the show. The two revealed are the Tea Time at Jasmine Dragon, and the Black Sun Invasion.
There is a notable lack of Commaner decks with Avatar, and the main reason for that the team behind Avatar wanted to focus on the Jumpstart set, as they felt that the quick games and smaller format fit the more lighthearted and whimsical nature of the show.
A Commander Bundle comes with nine play boosters, one collector booster, and five promo cards. Three of the cards are the same in every Bundle, a Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Swiftfoot Boots, with very cool original artwork for the cards. The other two cards have not been revealed, but will likely have a few different cards that could possibly fill in those slots.
Since Jumpstart is getting a special focus with the set, you can bet that there are going to be some powerful cards in it. With a plethora of mechanics to be found like experience counter, Shrines, landfall, and more, these cards are going to be a huge draw for players.
There are also several Avatar: The Last Airbender Secret Lair Drops expected to release with the main set. The first of them is the My Cabbages! Secret Lair, featuring the rather unfortunate cabbage merchant Cai from the Earth Kingdom. He has a bad habit of running into Team Avatar and having his cart and cabbages destroyed through their antics.
The Secret Lair has six cards in it, each one with new, cabbage-themed artwork. You get: Chain of Vapor, Meltdown, Natures Claim, Anguished Unmaking, and Putrefy.
Avatar On Arena
All of the main Avatar: The Last Airbender set is coming to Arena, no Through the Omenpaths confusion here, which is a nice change after the confusing Spider-Man release. Players will be treated to a special Ba Sing Se battlefield to duel on, a neat Appa companion you can purchase that has a special style that makes him feel like he’s straight out of an episode of the show, and new emotes with actual quotes and voice acting from the show.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is bound to be a hit, so if you’re looking to find out all there is to know about the set, make sure you’re following Hipsters for even more Magic coverage!