General (TLA/TLE) Avatar: The Last Airbender Testing/Includes Thread

[TrainmasterGT]

This is a testing/includes thread. Post pictures using /ci or a text list using /c with what cards you plan to include and what cards you plan to test.​

Main Cube:
Probable Includes:


Excited to Test:


Unstable Cubicrons:
Testing


Honestly, probably the best Universes Beyond set they've done. Avatar is a natural fit for Magic: The Gathering. The setting feels a lot like Tarkir, even being likely inspirations for some of the worldbuilding elements and factions (the dead Dragons being inspired by the Fire Nation hunting Dragons to extinction and the Jeskai clearly sharing design elements with the Airbenders being two good examples of this). As someone who loves Tarkir (in part because of Avatar: the Last Airbender), it's nice to see the world done justice. Mechanically speaking, I think this set has done an excellent job of bringing in keywords that match the flavor of the source material while also being fun for Magic. I'm particulalry excited for Firebending and Earthbending. Firebenders creating mana to help play your instant speed spells is exactly how I think the so-called "element of power" should work in Magic. Meanwhile, Earthbending finally cracks the "animate lands as creatures" mechanic that WOTC has been trying to make work for 20 years. If we ever return to Zendikar, I really hope Earthbending returns, but renamed Worldwake.

If I had to draw any criticisims of this set, I think the Ally mechanic was a poor choice. It clutters up the creature typelines without adding too much to the set. I understand it's supposed to represent the various people helping Team Avatar resist Fire Nation imperialism, but I think the Lesson mechanic did a much better job of showcasing people helping Aang on his journey to become a fully-fledged Avatar. The "allies matter" designs in this set are simply not compelling, and forced almost every card depicting one of the main characters to contain a type that will be superfluous in many use cases. Unfortunately, "Human Avatar Ally" is just not as compelling of a typeline as "Human Avatar." Additionally, I think the choice to have so many cards depicting the main characters feature either Ally or Lesson synergy has reduced the "excitement factor" that these cards can have. At best, they muddle clean designs like Iroh, Grand Lotus, and at worst, they make the cards almost entirely useless in most contexts, such as Katara, the Fearless. That said, I am very excited that we at least have an awesome card for Mai, who is one of my favorite characters in the show. She's basically a black Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which might actually be my favorite Magic card. I am a little sad her boyfriend Zuko didn't get a card of the same power level, although I think Zuko, Conflicted might be the single best top down design of this set this year this decade. Koh, the Face Stealer is a close second, in my opinion. I'm very excited to steal some faces!


While I think "the discourse" about UB which has toxified most Magic spaces recently has definitely blunted my desire to engage in discussions about Magic on the internet, I think the Avatar lineup is a truly praiseworthy pair of sets, and I hope they are able to carry this design quality into Lorwyn next year.

What are your plans for this set?
–GT

 

[Seeker]

This set's full of bangers. Assuming I'm going to keep having UB sets in my cube:

Yes:


Maybe:

 

[Mown]

Apparently only two colors. Redirect Lightning is a rare new Death's Shadow support piece, which is cool. I wish I could include Storm of Memories, but I don't think it would work out even with the storm support in my cube.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Wowee, big set. My 720 card Cube normally tries out 15-20 new cards every set, so with 30 new includes, this expansion is mathematically 50% better suited for my environment than the typical release.



The black cards are really the core here. Fire Nation Occupation and Obsessive Pursuit are huge cards for my list, and are going to fundamentally expand the color's capabilities in new and exciting ways. Easily some of my favorite cards of the year. Mai, Scornful Striker appeals to me on every level possible. Black gets a true Tireless Tracker equivalent in Raven Eagle. Phoenix Fleet Airship just makes me happy.

There are also a ton of cards I really really like that I haven't included here:

As a fan of modal reanimation, I'm amazed I haven't slotted in Zuko's Conviction yet, and Desperate Plea is sick as hell.

Katara, Waterbending Master is probably less appealing than my other 2mv looters, but I love the upside and what it's telegraphing to drafters.

Appa, Steadfast Guardian is probably better suited for my environment than Restoration Angel, but I don't think I want to make that specific swap.

Gran-Gran is great, even ignoring the Lesson text (or letting it stay there to complicate things).

Ty Lee, Chi Blocker is great but I'd feel silly including it when I'm not even playing Brazen Borrower at the moment.

Dai Li Indoctrination is a modal discard spell that feels more than good enough.

I like everything about Firebending Student. I'll be picking up that as well as The Legend of Roku, True Ancestry, Ba Sing Se, Earthshape, Seismic Sense, Bumi's Feast Lecture and Master's Guidance for my on-deck binder.

 

[Nanonox]

Never seen Avatar before, but the vibes are spot on for a Magic set, UB or not. Not the biggest fan of cartoonish art, but not a deal breaker.

This is for my Explosive Synergy Cube

Including



The 3/4 flying flash stat line has proven it's worth when it comes down to ambushing blockers or sneaking in surprise damage. What I appreciate about this one is that you can Airbend any number of nonland permanents. I play Balance, Cataclysm and Devastating Dreams so being able to protect your board proactively as well as defensively makes for good play patterns.



I've been liking the decent floor and high ceiling on Proft's Eidetic Memory and this strikes me as Black's variant. It's a cool reward for sacrificing many permanents (of any kind!) and another piece for the inevitable return of the Berserkers archetype.



Competitive rate for Earthbending that opens up fun plays with Wasteland, fetchlands, Lazotep Quarry and friends. It's also adds +1/+1 counter density making the theme more natural.



Not a fan of the Lesson text, but I absolutely love all the rest. Triggering off any spell is perfect for a Green card because of mana dorks and gives fodder for Red sacrifice if need be. Sacrifice an Earthbent land to Goblin Bombardment, ping for one and trigger landfall seems great!

Interested



Protection, life buffer and evasion makes this a very potent 1 mana play.



A cool take on Monastery Mentor type cards. It feels unique thanks to the tokens and the color, but I don't like that the tokens encourage you to cast spells during combat on your turn and the enchantment wants you to cast them during opponent's turn.



GY hate, evasion, reach, artifacts and leave the GY all rolled up in one card.



Annoying but not crippling hate bears are my favorite kind. Red doesn't have any currently, so I like the idea of adding it to the list of threats.



Big fan of utility lands as ways of sneaking in more than 23 playables in your deck. These aren't too difficult to sequence untapped and have effects that each color wants.

Maybe



Is this just a bad Parallax Wave? Maybe, but it still leaves plenty of space to be good. You get to push your advantage if you have a threat and trigger your ETBs again. So does the opponent though. Not a fan of this exiling itself as in control decks, recurring a wrath can be a winning line.



Suffers from Legolas's Quick Reflexes syndrome where I hate these full frame art styles. Sweet protection spell that can be played proactively though!



Another sweet reward for sacrificing anything. I'm going to need to prioritize my sacrifice payoffs, because I can't run them all and I want Black to do more than just be the sacrifice color.



While getting back a Marionette Master on the cheap won't be possible in this cube, Sacrificing your worst creature for their best one and sometimes getting a bonus dork is nice.



Not sure what to do with the extra mana. I am adding a bunch of Clues generators so that helps. I really enjoy cards that reward you based on their power and this one is competitively costed.



I might be massively overrating these because of the Earthbend mechanic, but they seem highly playable!

Spoiler: Cool cards for future reference

 

[Tetrinity]

My white section cares about both legendaries and Revolt triggers so this is almost definitely finding a space.



Worth testing, as I like having a mixture of sorcery- and instant-speed removal and it's about as close self-bounce is going to get to a flicker effect.



Love me some Clues. Making them into 3/1 flyers that can swing in then get sacrificed for value is *chef's kiss*.



Creepy art. Neat effect. It's like Pack Rat except it doesn't completely invalidate anything else your deck wanted to do.



Flexible recursion is always appreciated, and this one even does it at instant speed.



I'm obsessed with this card, as is everybody else if the current price is anything to go by. Hyper-flexible protection that would be a perfect fit for my Ultimate Usurper cube.



"We've got Embercleave at home"? Perhaps. Sometimes that one turn of double-strike is all you need.



Always happy to see maindeckable artifact and enchantment removal, and I think this just about gets there? Probably needs Learn support but worth a test without.



Hybrid Thrill of Possibility that doesn't get destroyed by countermagic, let's goooooo



Another cool hybrid that hits on a lot of relevant themes.



I made this exact custom card for Ultimate Usurper to work with flash and capitalise on the multiplayer aspect before deciding against running customs. Sweet.



Nice mana sink that gets more +1/+1 counters into play.



This gets absolutely nuts in Ultimate Usurper. Six mana per turn to spend on instants, political deals and leader assistance is no joke.

 

[Seeker]

Ty Lee, Chi Blocker is great but I'd feel silly including it when I'm not even playing Brazen Borrower at the moment.

Brazen Borrower is for sure on my never-cut-this list (power level reasons acceptable to cut it obviously) along with Bonecrusher Giant, that's wild to me. Like, sure, it's two colored pips, but the Adventure isn't!

 

[Brad]

Toph, Hardheaded Teacher
Not a fan of the Lesson text, but

I think anyone running this set should be considering Lessons. They're pretty juiced in this set and probably make for interesting drafting and this set introduced a whopping 49 of them. That said, I'm not totally sure that the payoffs are there. I definitely like Learn, but there's only a handful of good ones.

Set looks really cool. Might Universes Within a few cards.

 

[Nanonox]

My comment wasn't meant as a knock against the Lessons, a lot of them look really good. It's just that I am not currently running any and Toph would read cleaner if that text wasn't there (like Rydia, Summoner of Mists and the 2 sagas in my cube).

 

[ravnic]

I haven't been as hyped for a set (after spoilers) for quite a few years I think. Avatar: The Last Airbender is not only a masterpiece, it's world is also a perfect fit fot MtG. I don't mind the comic-ish art style on some cards, magic had this before (original Ravnica has quite a few comic-style artworks). And I am so so glad they got rid of the awful metallic UB frames before this set.

So, now here my first take on additions. Since I am still very busy adoring my newborn baby most of the day, I won't touch my cube for a few months probably, but I had found a few minutes to think about magic cards before (she came out a few days after full spoiler lol). Now I'm writing this on my way back to the hospital

Okay, back to topic:

The Core

My core cube are just 330 cards, refined for years, meant to be the essence of the Casual Champions Cube gameplay experience. Variety is brought in through the occasionals, so there are only a handful of cards in the core I would like to improve on at this point, so it's pretty impressive that TLA/TLE adds at least four cards.

Slamdunks:


All of my certain additions are hybrids. That makes sense as the hybrid section is the part I want to improve still the most.

Professor Zei is a perfect signpost heavy hybrid for my spell-madness theme.

Abandon Attachments is a super flexible hybrid spell that works well with madness but also so many other themes and color combinations. I also like the eleven word rules text.

Hei Bai is great. Works with creatures and artifacts, is a sac outlet that nonblack decks can utilize and the artwork is amazing.

Long Feng is also a perfect hybrid design. He works with the mostly black based (creature) sacrifice decks just as well as with the mostly green based loam decks.

Maybe/if I find space:


I am very omptimistic that I'll find a slot for Toph and/or Momo at least. Toph is a super cool landfall payoff and I could need one more card doing just that. Momo is an aggressive one-drop that works with blink/bounce, gains some life and is just never useless.

I am less optimistic of Messenger Hawk, but if I ever add a fourth hybrid per guild, it would have a good shot (I know, but I just like my spreadsheet aesthetics).

Occasionals

The Occasionals are a very different case. Cards just have to be "spicy" to make it in and I do updates more freely. But there are quite a few interesting occasionals in TLA/TLE.

Slamdunks:


Splashy tricks like this are perfect occasionals. I've heard this is expensive now, so I'll wait for it to become cheaper bit then certainly add it. Another upside of occasionals is, that it really doesn't matter when a few cards are missing.

Maybe:


All of these are cool and spicy enough ("spicy" =/= powerful) to make for nice occasionals. I really want to find a slot for Joo Dee, as her design is just dope as hell.

Art upgrade:


I actually just cut Bastion, but I might reconsider that decision now that a version with such heartbreaking art is available. Fists of Flame is imo also just an art upgrade, independent from being UB.