Exclusive: How Magic: The Gathering's Avatar: The Last Airbender Expansion Revives 2 Popular Tribal Gameplay Features

Magic: The Gathering players frequently embrace tribal strategies — who hasn't constructed an elf strategy before? — while the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender Universes Beyond set is reintroducing two popular mechanics that match seamlessly to its setting.

Returning Tribal Abilities

The initial ability, called "Ally," first debuted with the Zendikar set and gives buffs whenever more permanents bearing this type enter play.

Alternatively, "Shrine" is an enchantment subtype that originated with Champions of Kamigawa. Although not a creature tribal theme, these enchantments also become strength as you has additional Shrines in play.

A Comeback of Allies Ability

While Shrine cards have been appeared sporadically in newer sets, the Ally subtype has been seldom seen — but that ends with ATLA, in which the mechanic gets heavily featured.

The protagonist Aang must recruit many friends on his quest to bring back balance across the world, and there's no better method to show this in a Magic set.

Exclusive Card Showcase

After the first card announcement, below is previews of an Allies and one Shrines card from the upcoming ATLA release.

Teo, Spirited Glider: A Beloved Figure

This character is a cherished minor figure from Avatar: The Last Airbender, a boy from the Earth Tribe that resided at an Air Temple following his village was ruined by a disaster, which rendered him unable to walk.

Because of his father's expertise with mechanics, he is able to fly through the skies using his glider, and dares the Avatar to a flying race.

The card Teo, Spirited Glider reproduces Teo's fondness of flying and the Earth Tribe's reliance of gliders by letting you loot whenever you attack using a flying creature, and additionally boosting your creatures with counters at the same time.

Northern Air Temple: A Strong Shrine

Regarding his dwelling, it is represented as the card Northern Air Temple, which drains an opponent's life total upon coming into play, based on how many Shrine cards you have.

The card furthermore drains one more life whenever a Shrine enters the field.

It appears to be an impactful addition, given the card's low mana cost and valuable enter the battlefield ability.

A big weakness of Shrine decks outside of Commander are the fact that these cards are always Legendary, however Northern Air Temple is great when paired with another Shrine, that deals damage to all opponents during the start of your turn.

The Welcome Collaboration

At a time when Universes Beyond products are garnering a lot of hate from fans, an iconic series such as Avatar could be precisely what MTG needs.

Preview period is already here, and the full set set to be launched November 21st.