Reveal: The Way Magic's Avatar: The Last Airbender Expansion Reintroduces Two Fan-Favorite Tribe-Focused Mechanics

Magic: The Gathering fans frequently adopt tribe-based decks — what player has not assembled a goblin deck once or twice? — while the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender Universes Beyond release brings back two beloved mechanics that align perfectly with the theme.

Reappearing Tribal Abilities

The first ability, named "Allies," first debuted in the Zendikar set and provides buffs whenever additional creatures with this type come onto play.

Alternatively, "Shrine" is an enchantment-based subtype that originated in Champions of Kamigawa. While not creature-based tribe, Shrines also gain abilities when you has additional of them in play.

The Comeback for Allies Ability

While Shrines have shown up occasionally across recent sets, Allies subtype has been far less common — but this ends in ATLA, in which the feature gets heavily featured.

Aang has to recruit a lot of allies on his journey to restore balance across the world, and there's no more fitting method to reflect this in an Magic set.

Revealed Cards Preview

After the first set announcement, below is previews of an Allies plus one Shrines cards in the upcoming ATLA set.

Teo: The Fan-Favorite Figure

Teo is a popular minor figure in Avatar: The Last Airbender, a young man from Earth Kingdom that lived at the Northern Air Temple after his village was destroyed in a flood, an event that rendered him paraplegic.

Due to his dad's expertise in engineering, Teo can glide through the skies with a flying device, and dares the Avatar in a flying race.

This card Teo, Spirited Glider showcases Teo's fondness for the skies along with his tribe's reliance of gliders through allowing you draw and discard each time a player attacks with a flying unit, and additionally strengthening your creatures with +1/+1 counters in the process.

Northern Air Temple: A Strong Shrine

Speaking of Teo's home, it is represented as the card The Northern Air Temple, which reduces an opponent's life when entering the battlefield, based on the number of Shrines you have.

The card also drains an additional life whenever another Shrine enters the field.

This looks like a strong addition, given the card's cheap cost plus valuable enter the battlefield ability.

One major weakness for Shrine-based strategies in formats besides Commander is the fact that Shrines are always Legendary, however Northern Air Temple can be effective in combination with Sanctum of Stone Fangs, which deals damage to all opponents at the beginning of your turn.

The Timely Collaboration

Currently when crossover products are receiving a lot of backlash from fans, an iconic franchise such as Avatar could be precisely just what MTG requires.

Spoiler season has begun, and the full set will be launched on Nov. 21.