Magic: The Gathering players love tribal strategies — who hasn’t built an elf deck at some point? — and Avatar: The Last Airbender is bringing back two popular examples that match the flavor of this new Universes Beyond set. “Ally” is a creature class introduced in Zendikar, which gets boosts as more creatures with the Ally subtype enter the battlefield. “Shrine,” on the other hand, is an enchantment subtype introduced in Champions of Kamigawa. While not exactly a creature tribe, Shrines also get more powerful as a player controls more of them.
While Shrines have appeared sporadically in recent sets, Ally has been much rarer, but that ends with Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the mechanic is heavily featured. Aang has to gather a lot of allies in his journey to restore balance to the world and the four nations, and there’s no better way to represent that in an Magic set.
After the big opening reveal for the set, Polygon has the exclusive to share one Ally and one Shrine card from the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender, which you can see below.
Teo is a beloved minor character from Avatar: The Last Airbender, a boy from the Earth Tribe who lived in the Northern Air Temple after his village was destroyed by a flood, which left him paraplegic. Thanks to his father’s prowess with mechanics, Teo can soar in the air with his glider, and he even challenges Aang to a flying contest. The card Teo, Sprited Glider reproduces Teo’s fondness for the skies and his tribe’s use of gliders by letting you loot whenever you attack with a flying creature, and you can also pump your team with +1/+1 counters in the process.
Speaking of Teo’s home, this is represented in the card Northern Air Temple. which drains your opponent’s life when entering, based on the number of Shrines you control. It also drains one more point of life anytime a Shrine enters the battlefield. This looks like a powerful card, considering its cheap cost and good enter the battlefield effect. A big weakness of Shrine strategies outside of Commander is that these cards are always Legendary, but Northern Air Temple can be great in combination with Sanctum of Stone Fangs, which drains every opponent at the beginning of your main phase.
At a time when Universes Beyond sets are garnering a lot of hate from fans, a beloved franchise like Avatar can be exactly what Magic: The Gathering needs. Spoiler season is already here, and the full set will be released on Nov. 21.
