Avatar: The Final Airbender has a magic system they repeatedly declare is not magic (although it clearly is), which is themed across the 4 parts. You would possibly assume that maps simply onto Magic: The Gathering—purple is hearth, blue is water, white is air, inexperienced is earth, you have obtained black left over so throw it on any leftover dangerous guys like these creepy Canyon Crawler insect issues, bish bash bosh, job’s an excellent’un. However the place the earlier Spider-Man crossover set was content material to wrap deep cuts from the Spider-Verse in current mechanics, Avatar is extra systemically bold, giving every taste of elemental bending its personal mechanic.
Which is an fascinating selection for a set you’d count on to be aimed toward youthful gamers, however I assume they figured if a 12-year-old can play Magic and make it by means of the filler episodes the place Aang and the gang trudge by means of a swamp or a city the place issues are a bit bizarre then they will positive as hell study some new guidelines.
Firebending looks as if an apparent one. Magic’s already obtained fireballs. However firebending is greater than only a spicy ranged assault—it is the one number of bending the place you needn’t have the component at hand. Whereas airbenders have it straightforward as a result of the component’s often throughout, within the present waterbenders have to hold a bottle simply in case and earthbenders can sometimes be defeated by reducing them off from the bottom. Firebenders in the meantime simply pull hearth out of nowhere.
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Waterbending, in the meantime, wants a supply. As an alternative of being free, waterbending results all have a value—however that value can come from a number of locations. In addition to tapping land, you may also faucet creatures and artifacts to pay for its results. And for the reason that present depicts waterbending as in a position to heal or hurt or freeze or do any variety of issues, Magic’s waterbending can likewise have different results like beautiful, card draw, swapping a creature’s stats, and so forth.
It jogs my memory of the best way Ishi Barasume describes her preventing type within the Forgotten Realms comedian: “We combat just like the river. Changeable. Malleable. At all times current, however all the time shifting—and a river flooding its banks will uproot the oak and drown the lion.”
Earthbenders flip the bottom right into a software, whether or not attacking with boulders or summoning a defend or molding it into a fast door to flee by means of. That is a neat match for Magic the place you are all the time drawing on land for mana, so the earthbending mechanic permits you to flip land into creatures. Whether or not you employ them for assault or protection is as much as you.
Whereas it is the identical thought because the awaken mechanic launched again within the Zendikar set, the draw back to awaken is that you could find yourself shedding the land playing cards it turns into creatures. Earthbending does not have that draw back—you’ll be able to carry these lands again from the graveyard or from exile. These boulders Toph rolls do not go away when she’s finished with them, in spite of everything. Land you earthbend additionally will get haste, which maps to the pace the present’s earthbenders show in battle, or in wrestling tournaments.
Lastly, airbending is all about agility, shoving enemies off-balance and scooting away from them. In Magic that interprets to a capability to exile playing cards that may then be introduced again for 2 mana. It is each a push and a dodge, concurrently in a position to knock enemies away from you and flip your personal creatures out of hazard. Probably the most thematic factor about it’s its rarity. It is proper there within the identify of the present—Aang is the final airbender, so airbending is the least widespread of the 4 results in Magic.
The place the Spider-Man crossover set was largely about placing characters from the Spider-Verse onto pretty typical Magic playing cards, the Avatar set makes use of its setting to encourage adjustments. It is an fascinating distinction, and despite the fact that I am not as thinking about Avatar as a property I’m extra thinking about how this set performs. The Universe Past units have been at their finest after they warp Magic in sudden methods, like Tales of Center-earth did with The Ring Tempts You and hobbits spraying a proliferation of meals tokens in all places. I am glad the Avatar set is a extra bold crossover, even when I am going to by no means like it as a lot because the Avatar Lovers do.
