Avatar: The Last Airbender (TLA) Limited Set Review: Multicolor

As a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I think this is one of the best crossovers Magic has had, in terms of how well the IP transfers to the card game. The elemental “bending” abilities are all fun, and I look forward to seeing how they play out in limited. Let’s jump into breaking down some cards!

5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)

4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)

4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion’s Messenger)

3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)

3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)

2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)

2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)

1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)

1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)

0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)

0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)

Aang, Swift Savior // Aang and La, Ocean’s Fury

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This card is an absolute menace. Being able to airbend at instant speed (including spells) is incredibly powerful for a 2/3 flyer for 3.

Air Nomad Legacy

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This card is a powerhouse in a traditional Azorius flyers deck. It scales in power with the amount of flying creatures in your deck.

Cat-Owl

Rating: 1.5 // 5.0

This is 4 drop filler for the most part.

Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope

Rating: 4.0 // 5.0

This will likely threaten lethal the turn after you play it. It’s not amazing if you can’t attack, since you can only activate during your turn, but it is definitely a huge threat.

Sokka, Lateral Strategist

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

Assuming you have a turn 1/2 flyer, this should be able to get you a card fairly easily.

Azula, Cunning Usurper

Rating: 4.0 // 5.0

The value on Azula is insane if you get 2 free spells. If she dies immediately, you only get to kill their worst creature, which can be a bit rough.

Foggy Swamp Spirit Keeper

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

With 2+ copies, this is a card definitely worth building around. I’m still happy to put this in most any deck, even with very few ways to trigger it.

Hama, the Bloodbender

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This can be a bit incosistent, but you should be able to find a decent spell by the time you cast this.

Messenger Hawk

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This is a bit slow, but far from unplayable.

Cruel Administrator

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

It’s not difficult to have this enter as a 6/5 for 5 mana, and it should be able to attack somewhat freely the turn after.

Ozai, the Phoenix King

Rating: 4.0 // 5.0

If you have firebending 2 already in play, this attacks as a 7/7 flying, trample, indestructible.

Vindictive Warden

Rating: 1.5 // 5.0

This is a very average 3 drop.

Zhao, Ruthless Admiral

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This can make combat difficult for your opponents, especially if you have clues in play.

Zuko, Conflicted

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

You should come out on top with this creature. By the time you have to hand him over to your opponent, it will be turn 6, and will hopefully be a bit small by then. You can also easily find a way to sacrifice him before handing him over.

Bitter Work

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This set seems pretty fast, and there aren’t a lot of 4 power creatures that cost 4 or less. So you will likely end up on defense a good amount of the time with this. I could absolutely be wrong though :).

Bumi, Unleashed

Rating: 4.0 // 5.0

9/8 worth of stats for 5 mana is about all the convincing I need.

Earth Rumble Wrestlers

Rating: 1.5 // 5.0

A fine 4 drop, feels like filler.

Toph, Hardheaded Teacher

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This is a bit of a slow-burn for Gruul, but the value can’t be ignored, and will add up quickly.

Uncle Iroh

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

The stat line on this 3 drop are good for Gruul. The firebending and static ability aren’t incredibly impactful, but can be useful.

Earth Kingdom Soldier

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This is very similar to Basri's Acolyte. It’s much easier to cast, and costs 1 more for 1/1 more worth of power and toughness.

Earth King’s Lieutenant

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

33/49 of Selesnya creatures are allys. In addition, White has a good amount of ally tokens to put into play. This will be solid in most every Selesnya deck.

Suki, Kyoshi Warrior

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This is “we have Adeline, Resplendent Cathar at home.”. This is still a really solid Selesnya card.

White Lotus Reinforcements

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

Another Selesnya instance of pumping up smaller allys and tokens.

Hei Bai, Spirit of Balance

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

I’m not a huge believer in this card, but I’m also not sure how reliable the fodder in Orzhov will play out. It can attack as a 7/7 on turn 5, so I don’t want to write it off just yet.

Pretending Poxbearers

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

Solid filler for any Black or White deck.

Sandbender Scavengers

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

The power of this is completly tethered to the amount of sacrifice outlets, and sacrifice fodder your deck has.

Tolls of War

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This creates never ending sacrifice fodder by itself, at the rate of 1/turn. Once again, you do need the proper sac outlets to make it run.

Abandon Attachments

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

Izzet cares about lessons, and this is a really easy one to run.

Dragonfly Swarm

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

The quintessential Enigma Drake for Izzet. In multiples you can build your deck around these as win conditions.

Professor Zei, Anthropologist

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

This is a sick looter. The statline allows it to block most 1-2 drops, and it can return your best spell in the lategame.

Sokka, Bold Boomeranger

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

I think I’d be happy to play this just for the ETB trigger and 1/1 body. This provides a ton of value for Izzet.

Beifong’s Bounty Hunters

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

This thing accrues some sick value the longer it stays around. The floor being a 4/4 for 4 means there’s not really any opportunity cost your missing out on.

Dai Li Agents

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

5/6 worth of stats for 5 mana is good enough. The attack ability can absolutely do some work if you’re able to clear the path/get them through with a trick.

Earth Village Ruffians

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This seems fine to use as a tradeoff against an opposing 2-3 drop.

Long Feng, Grand Secretariat

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This seems a bit slow, but it should work well with all the earthbending Golgari wants to do.

Iroh, Tea Master

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

This card is a really deep card, and will be hard to navigate. At the end of the day, the trigger is a may, so you can always opt out if you don’t want to start going for “it”.

Jet, Freedom Fighter

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

This is a pretty sick version of Flametongue Kavu. It should be easy enough to shoot something for 3+, and the on death trigger is just a chefs kiss.

Sun Warriors

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

Even if you can’t start attacking with this guy, it still has a solid, passive threat.

Wandering Musicians

Rating: 1.5 // 5.0

As much as Boros wants this effect, I don’t want a 4 drop 2/5 in my deck.

Guru Pathik

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

The most likely candidate for a “free” card, is a lesson. There are very few non-rare sagas (2 to be exact), and shrines don’t seem all that exciting either. In short, you want to play this only with a high lesson count.

Hermitic Herbalist

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

This is one of the best non-rare mana dorks I’ve seen in quite sometime.

Platypus-Bear

Rating: 1.5 // 5.0

I’d only want to run this in decks that care about your graveyard.

The Lion-Turtle

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

I don’t think this is unplayable, but you certainly need a high lesson count.

Fire Lord Azula

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

This is pretty hard to make “work”. But if you have a good amount of spells to copy, it can get some crazy value.

Toph, the First Metalbender

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

The static ability is pretty irrelevant for the most part, but spitting out 2/2 worth of stats every end step is downright silly.

Aang, at the Crossroads // Aang, Destined Savior

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

If you are able to get the free creature and flip, that’s Magic, baby.

Katara, The Fearless

Rating: 2.5 // 5.0

There are a myriad of ally triggers this can work with. The strength really corresponds to which ones you have in your deck.

Fire Lord Zuko

Rating: 2.0 // 5.0

This is a lot less powerful than one would expect. It’s not strong enough to merit a splash (e.g. splash Black in a Boros deck).

Iroh, Grand Lotus

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

You only really need 1 lesson in your graveyard to get a good amount of value from this. If you’ve got 3+ lessons in your yard, this thing is an absolute powerhouse.

Sokka, Tenacious Tactician

Rating: 3.0 // 5.0

Providing “all” of your creatures with prowess and menace is incredibly threatening, and can end games out of no where.

Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements

Rating: 3.5 // 5.0

Assuming you can cast this, it’s incredibly easy to draw extra cards, including just attacking with Aang. It’s unlikely you can flip him, so the front side is what your banking on.

That’s it for Multicolor! I’ll be breaking down Colorless & Lands tomorrow! Until then.

Lose and Learn, Learn and Win!