It has been a huge year forMagic: The Gathering. The popular card game has branched out into other popular IPs, such asFinal Fantasy, which quickly became thebest-selling MTG set ever. The momentum isn’t slowing down anytime soon, as more special sets are coming this year, including a Spider-Man set in September and, of course, anAvatar: The Last Airbenderone, which will release on November 21.
TheupcomingMTG Avatarsetwill include all four bending elements from the show: water, earth, wind, and fire, and the Avatar Aang card will be able to use all of them. Other popular characters will be present as well, like Katara, Prince Zuko, and more. However,I think theMTGAvatarset has one major problem, and it’s allMagic’s fault, notAvatar’s.
Magic’s Avatar Universes Beyond Set Doesn’t Fit As Well As Others
There Are Four Avatar Elements & Five Magic Elements
The four elements fromAvatarare also represented inMTG, butMTGhas a fifth element that Avatar doesn’t have: black. The traditionalMTGcolors usually focus on different playstyles, like red decks being focused on oppressive aggression and blue decks being focused on counterspells and control. Black mana decks are typically focused on discarding the opponent’s hand and sacrificing personal resources for advantages.
With onlyfour elements inAvatar, the new set doesn’t seem to fit as well as other potential sets, sinceit seems like every card will be limited to the four major elements. It seems like a missed opportunity to potentially not include bloodbending or other subcategories of bending that would have worked with black mana.
Magic’s Rigid Systems Don’t Benefit Universes Beyond
Years Of Structure
The Universes Beyond sets are really neat, butthey don’t fit into the established elements system ofMTGas well as they could. We’re potentially seeing a shake-up with the aforementioned Avatar Aang card having access to all mana types except black, but it seems the focus is on making the cards as faithful to their source materials as possible, instead of folding them intoMagic’s established structure, which is something a lot of fans will appreciate.
TheFinal Fantasyset has gotten a lot of fansinterested inMTGfor the first time, so the Universes Beyond sets do have a market and a place in the game. Though some sets will certainly fit better than others, so the new card sets leave something to be desired for long-timeMagic: The Gatheringplayers. Still, the cards are neat, and it’s great to seeAvatar: The Last Airbenderbeing spotlighted in 2025.
