Magic Designer Says This Underrated Avatar MTG Commander Deserves More Play

The most popular Commanders in Magic: The Gathering tend to make everything around them easier. The Ur-Dragon makes dragons cheaper, draws extra cards, and cheats permanents onto the board. Edgar Markov buffs all of your vampires while spawning even more. Others, like Vivi Ornitier or Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed, frequently ping opponents for damage while offering other potent benefits. The common thread is that the Commanders players love self-sustaining engines that offer steady value. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had building and playing Commander, however, happens when I find an overlooked option and make a deck that surprises everyone at the table.

Especially with so many Universes Beyond sets, which are chock-full of legendary creatures you can use as your Commander, a lot of potential options fade into obscurity. Venat, Heart of Hydaelyn from Final Fantasy is one such sleeper, with a simple but effective toolkit in mono-white I’ve had a lot of fun playing. That led me to asking the lead designer on the Avatar: The Last Airbender set, Chris Mooney, about which member of Team Avatar deserves more play.

“Among the lesser played legends, my pick for a sleeper would be Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope,” Mooney (they/them) told Polygon via email. They previously explained in a design blog for the set that each core Avatar character received three distinct cards to represent their identity across the three books (or seasons) of the show. Each iteration picks up an additional color over time to help convey their growth.

Mono-colored uncommon versions — like Katara, Bending Prodigy — show a character at the start of their journey. Water Tribe’s Hope represents Katara in Book Two: Earth (the second season), though the art by Toraji seems to depict her during the fire nation’s siege of the northern water tribe. For a cost of five mana (two colorless, one white, and two blue), Katara is a 3/3 with vigilance who creates a 1/1 ally creature token upon entering. But she also boasts a powerful waterbending ability with a flexible X mana cost. For any amount of mana, creatures you control get a base power and toughness of X/X, and you can help pay for X by tapping artifacts and creatures you control.

For Mooney, this version of Katara is arguably even more formidable than her three-color version.

“While the three-color Katara (Katara, the Fearless) represents her supportive role on the team, we designed Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope to represent her as an extremely dangerous combat threat,” Mooney said. “Those are both really important parts of her character in the show that we wanted to capture. Her ability is based on a card Mirror Entity, a favorite of mine from my childhood.”

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Mirror Entity is a changeling creature from 2007’s original Lorwyn set that has a similar version of Katara’s bottom ability. Katara’s waterbending version, however, is a vast improvement since it allows you to tap some of your permanents to help pay the cost. (The new card also adds a restriction that X can’t be zero, which sounds unnecessary on the surface but can lead to some powerful combos with Mirror Entity.)

The end result is, according to Mooney, an explosive card when played in the right strategies.

“While Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope is not the strongest Commander to cast early, casting her in the mid- to late-game with a developed board state can often kill players out of nowhere, given you can activate her ability immediately,” they said, pointing out that focusing on blue and white tokens is a viable strategy in Commander.

Fittingly, some of the best cards to build a Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope deck also come from the Avatar set. South Pole Voyager gives you a benefit whenever an ally creature you control enters, whereas others like Suki, Courageous Rescuer generate ally tokens for you. Blink effects like Waterbender’s Restoration can also re-trigger Katara’s first ability. Non-Avatar instants like Secure the Wastes and Grand Crescendo are a must here since they let you create large numbers of non-ally 1/1 creature tokens. The more creatures you have in play, the more potentially powerful Katara’s ability becomes. The strategy is deceptively simple: flood the board with an army of small creatures, and then use Katara’s waterbending ability for a temporary buff that can do heavy damage.

Image: Wizards of the Coast

You might be tempted to put a lot of waterbenders in your Katara deck, but that’s not the best choice. Whereas earthbending consistently transforms lands into creatures and firebending always generates more red mana for big turns, waterbending embraces its flavorful identity as “the element of change.” As such, it was deliberately designed as an “input” mechanic with various outputs depending on the cards it’s featured on.

“​​The act of tapping and untapping felt like the tidal push and pull that inspires waterbending movements,” Mooney wrote in a design blog about the set. “The show features many moments where waterbenders need to get creative with their water sources, and the ability to split up a cost between mana, creatures, and artifacts captured the flexibility we were looking for.”

For example, Crashing Wave lets you tap your opponents’ creatures and give them stun counters. Secret of Bloodbending allows you to control an opponent during their next combat. Waterbending has various other useful effects that don’t necessarily synergize directly with Katara’s burst effect, but if you’re aiming for flavor, they can still help disorient your opponents long enough for you to execute your big finish. Plus, if you’re building a big board of creatures for Katara, you’ll have plenty of waterbending fuel at your disposal to play these other big splashy spells.

Image: Wizards of the Coast

According to data from EDHREC, Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope is currently ranked the 1,448th most popular Commander. Why does she remain so overlooked? Compare Katara to Fire Lord Azula, which is the 12th most popular. Every time Azula attacks, she generates two red mana and copies any spell cast while she’s attacking. It’s straightforward and hugely powerful. Mooney said they always expected Azula to become popular based on her design, but admitted Wizards wasn’t prepared for just how popular she’s become.

“Players generally gravitate towards commanders that provide value over time,” Mooney said. “Many of the most popular Commanders are engines that generate turn-over-turn card advantage.”

That’s certainly the case with Azula, but Katara, Water Tribe’s Hope emphasizes a strategy that’s much less flashy. With enough early-game tricks to keep you safe and weak creature tokens that flood the board over time, however, a strong Katara deck can feel like a tsunami that eventually wipes out opponents with ease. If you love the fantasy of playing Magic like a super-powerful waterbender, then there’s no better choice.