Warning!

The decks you are about to see are mostly untested first drafts! They were played Wednesday on the early access Streamer Event on MTG Arena and are my first stabs at the new Avatar: the Last Airbender Standard format. Most are brews jam packed with Avatar cards, while there are also a few updates to previously established archetypes, but it's important to note that these are the first steps and not finished products! Use them as stepping stones for your own deck brewing process, but play them card for card at your own risk!

Avatar: the Last Airbender is a breath of fresh air.

It's no secret that Marvel's Spider-Man / Through the Omenpaths was a very poorly received set. Ill-conceived from the get go, as it was clearly meant to be a small Commander-style product that got very hastily expanded into a full Standard set, Spider-Man was a miss on virtually all fronts, and an indictment of the worst that Universes Beyond could be.

Thankfully, Avatar: the Last Airbender is here to clean up the mess!

Avatar is cut from the Final Fantasy cloth of Universes Beyond - it's clear a huge amount of time and care was put into this set, and the end result shows. Well thought out mechanics, fun card designs, flavor wins, Avatar has it all.

And Avatar also enters during an exciting time for Standard, as we've just seen the long-awaited exit of Vivi Ornitier from the format, which opens the doors for many new possible things. This means it's time to get brewing!

Today we are going to go over all ten decks I played as part of my Ten New Brews on YouTube and stream, briefly going over each list and my thoughts on how it was, giving it a letter grade, and talking about what kind of potential it has going forward. I played five games of best of one with each deck so the deck's record will also be included, but do note that these matches were played during the Early Access event not on the open ladder. My opponents were all other content creators also trying out all sorts of fun Avatar stuff.

Let's go!

Teach Me Gran-Gran | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (11)
• 3 Ran and Shaw
• 4 Dragonfly Swarm
• 4 Gran-Gran

• Instants (20)
• 2 Octopus Form
• 3 Abandon Attachments
• 3 It'll Quench Ya!
• 4 Combustion Technique
• 4 Firebending Lesson
• 4 Accumulate Wisdom

• Sorceries (6)
• 3 Boomerang Basics
• 3 Iroh's Demonstration

• Lands (23)
• 8 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 2 Cori Mountain Monastery
• 2 Thundering Falls
• 4 Riverpyre Verge
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: B?

Deck Potential: Higher Than It Looks

Standout Card: Accumulate Wisdom

We start with a deck that is essentially an Avatar: the Last Airbender Block Constructed deck - Lessons! Lessons return, although this time they aren't just cute wishboard cards. Unlike in Strixhaven, there are no Learn cards in Avatar, so lesson is essentially just a subtype to normal power level cards. And we've got some nice oncs!

Accumulate Wisdom is the huge standout here, as while Anticipate is pretty below the bar, Ancestral Recall is not! Between great removal like Combustion Technique, which is honestly and astoundingly good removal spell in the deck, and Firebending Lesson, there's certainly a critical mass of Lessons.

The creature suite is small but focused. Gran-Gran is a surprising standout, doing basically everything you could want while halving the cost of most of your spells. Dragonfly Swarm and Ran and Shaw both play excellent offense and defense, but more importantly also close out a game quickly.

All the tools feel like they're there, and despite the poor run in games it feels like there's definitely a deck here.

Bending Scam | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Exalted Sunborn
• 2 Haliya, Guided by Light
• 2 Momo, Friendly Flier
• 2 Peter Parker // Amazing Spider-Man
• 3 Aang, Swift Savior
• 3 Floodpits Drowner
• 3 Spyglass Siren
• 3 Voice of Victory
• 4 Quantum Riddler

• Sorceries (6)
• 3 Avatar's Wrath
• 3 Splash Portal

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Seam Rip
• 4 Airbender Ascension

• Lands (25)
• 4 Plains
• 5 Island
• 2 Abandoned Air Temple
• 2 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Starting Town

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: A

Deck Potential: High

Standout Card: Airbender Ascension

Each form of bending gets a mechanic and a color associated with it, and airbending is a pretty wild one.

The flexibility here is truly impressive, as airbending can either be used on your opponent's stuff like a sort of Unsummon or tempo effect, or on your own stuff to blink for value. Airbender Ascension was the peak of this, removing their creature on turn two to slow them down, then setting up to blink stuff later which was awesome.

And what better to blink than Quantum Riddler? Momo, Friendly Flier was another standout, and sneakily one of the better cards in the set, and Splash Portal completes the full scam package.

This deck was awesome and crushed, and has serious legs in some form or another.

Working Together | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (37)
• 2 Aang, at the Crossroads
• 2 Katara, the Fearless
• 2 Great Divide Guide
• 2 Hakoda, Selfless Commander
• 2 Mai, Scornful Striker
• 3 Wartime Protestors
• 4 Aang, Swift Savior
• 4 Earth King's Lieutenant
• 4 Earth Kingdom Protectors
• 4 Invasion Reinforcements
• 4 South Pole Voyager
• 4 Earthen Ally

• Lands (23)
• 2 Plains
• 1 Floodfarm Verge
• 1 Hushwood Verge
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 2 Breeding Pool
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop
• 4 Secluded Courtyard
• 4 Starting Town

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Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: B+

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Katara, the Fearless

Another Avatar Block Constructed deck! With almost zero allies in Standard before the release of Avatar, there needed to be a critical mass of good ones in the set, and early sources say we got there.

A good curve, card advantage, sizing over time, mana sinks... Allies pretty much have it all, in a deck that looks a lot like Modern Humans from back in the day. The 1-drop slot is a little light, but otherwise the deck is rife with tools.

However, what really makes the deck tick is the lands. You could theoretically build a Green/White version of the deck with a normal mana base, but having an astounding 16 lands that tap for any color is an incredible base to be able to branch out for all the powerful allies.

This is definitely the kind of deck that does really well in Early Access, as it's a fast and solid aggro deck, but it feels like there's something real here for all you aggro enjoyers.

Dead Zeppelin | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Lord Skitter, Sewer King
• 2 Sinkhole Surveyor
• 4 Greedy Freebooter
• 4 Infestation Sage
• 4 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel
• 4 Umbral Collar Zealot

• Instants (2)
• 2 Heartless Act

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Deadly Precision
• 4 Tragic Trajectory

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Obsessive Pursuit

• Artifacts (5)
• 2 Tarrian's Journal
• 3 Phoenix Fleet Airship

• Lands (24)
• 18 Swamp
• 2 Realm of Koh
• 4 Fountainport

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Phoenix Fleet Airship

Phoenix Fleet Airship looks like a silly card.

Making a copy of a four mana vehicle? Needing eight copies in play to meet a condition? This is a joke right? However, lost in the mix here is the fact that this is a four mana 4/4 flier with huge upside. The kind of sacrifice deck that Phoenix Fleet Airship fits into already wants to play a bunch of disposable 1/1s, meaning finding a crew is no trouble, and it is quite easy to get two Phoenix Fleet Airship basically on casting.

There's already quite the suite of great Black sacrifice cards in Standard, and Phoenix Fleet Airship fits in perfectly as a another way to actually pay you off for putting so many objectively bad cards in your deck.

This one was a big surprise.

Evil Doers | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Azula, Cunning Usurper
• 2 Marchesa, Dealer of Death
• 2 Ozai, the Phoenix King
• 4 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 4 Fire Lord Azula

• Instants (20)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Consult the Star Charts
• 1 Great Train Heist
• 1 Jeskai Revelation
• 1 Negate
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 2 Heartless Act
• 2 Mystical Teachings
• 3 Inevitable Defeat
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Firebending Lesson

• Lands (26)
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Shadowy Backstreet
• 1 Thundering Falls
• 2 Raucous Theater
• 2 Sacred Foundry
• 3 Bleachbone Verge
• 4 Blazemire Verge
• 4 Riverpyre Verge
• 4 Starting Town
• 4 Watery Grave

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Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: B

Deck Potential: Medium?

Standout Card: Fire Lord Azula

Speaking of a big surprise!

Copying Jeskai Revelation with Fire Lord Azula felt like a fun and powerful thing to do, but the real surprise was how good Fire Lord Azula was in general. Copying spells is a very potent ability, as even something like Lightning Helix or Inevitable Defeat was a huge swing.

Also surprising was how well the other Avatar villains played. The other Azula, Azula, Cunning Usurper was also an excellent midrange threat, with removal and card advantage both built into the package.

This deck looks silly, but there may be something exciting here.

Shuffle Plz | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Iroh, Grand Lotus
• 2 Ran and Shaw
• 2 The Lion-Turtle
• 3 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
• 4 Magmatic Hellkite

• Instants (8)
• 4 Accumulate Wisdom
• 4 Firebending Lesson

• Sorceries (16)
• 2 Iroh's Demonstration
• 2 Seismic Sense
• 4 Combustion Technique
• 4 Price of Freedom
• 4 Shared Roots

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Hedge Maze
• 2 Riverpyre Verge
• 2 Thornspire Verge
• 3 Commercial District
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Stomping Ground

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: D

Deck Potential: Low

Standout Card: Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

There's always a meme deck in the bunch.

The idea here was to force our opponent to shuffle with Price of Freedom, Magmatic Hellkite, and Field of Ruin to get extra draws off of Wan Shi Tong, Librarian. There's also the upside of maybe your opponent has a greedy mana base with only one basic land. This sorta worked, but would definitely only be really exciting in a format full of greedy mana bases.

The deck also had a lesson package, which provided some ramp and played pretty well, and gave Price of Freedom some extra synergy above and beyond the text of the card which was nice.

All and all though, this was just a silly one.

Fire Dudes | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
• 2 Arabella, Abandoned Doll
• 2 Delney, Streetwise Lookout
• 2 Kellan, Daring Traveler
• 2 Suki, Courageous Rescuer
• 4 Descendant of Storms
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Lightstall Inquisitor
• 4 Stadium Headliner
• 4 Voice of Victory

• Instants (5)
• 2 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 3 Torch the Tower

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Firebender Ascension

• Lands (21)
• 3 Plains
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Abandoned Air Temple
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Sunbillow Verge

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C-

Deck Potential: Low to Medium

Standout Card: Firebender Ascension

This was an odd one.

This is typically the kind of deck that crushes during Early Access, as streamlined aggro beats up on new brews, but then tends to falter in the "real world" against tuned and powerful decks. This was not the case.

The core idea is cool, and Firebender Ascension was fairly impressive, but the deck felt wholly too fair. This is definitely one I would like to give another shot with some tuning though.

Ride The Wind | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior
• 2 Kitesail Larcenist
• 2 Mockingbird
• 2 Plumecreed Escort
• 2 Sage of the Skies
• 3 Aang, Swift Savior
• 3 Quantum Riddler
• 4 Healer's Hawk
• 4 Momo, Friendly Flier
• 4 Spyglass Siren

• Instants (2)
• 2 Get Lost

• Enchantments (8)
• 2 Seam Rip
• 2 Unable to Scream
• 4 Air Nomad Legacy

• Lands (23)
• 4 Plains
• 6 Island
• 1 Abandoned Air Temple
• 2 Restless Anchorage
• 2 Starting Town
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Multiversal Passage

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: C

Deck Potential: Low to Medium

Standout Card: Momo, Friendly Flier

There's a bit of a Blue/White fliers theme in Avatar, spearheaded by Momo, Friendly Flier and Air Nomad Legacy.

Momo, Friendly Flier is just a phenomenal card, giving White a super Llanowar Elves with flying and a buff ability. Momo is a card that is going to be explored widely as it has huge potential. Less exciting was Air Nomad Legacy, as we're just not in a place anymore in Magic where Glorious Anthem is a playable Standard card any more.

However, Aang, Swift Savior is also excellent, so there's some good here. When it comes down to it, if you're looking for a good Azorius deck, the airbending deck from above felt like a better option.

Swamp Thing | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (29)
• 2 Aftermath Analyst
• 2 Chupacabra Echo
• 2 Icetill Explorer
• 3 Vein Ripper
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Molt Tender
• 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 4 Seedship Broodtender
• 4 Town Greeter

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Foggy Swamp Visions
• 4 Quag Feast

• Lands (23)
• 6 Forest
• 5 Swamp
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Underground Mortuary
• 4 Wastewood Verge

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Foggy Swamp Visions

Everyone loves a big graveyard deck right? This deck had some pretty big structural issues, but still managed to go 4-1.

The idea here is simple; put a bunch of creatures in your graveyard alongside Vein Ripper, cast Foggy Swamp Visions, and then win at the end of turn when they all die. Vein Ripper is super nice because at 6 mana it is very castable, which helps against graveyard hate.

However, the deck definitely wasn't built correctly.

The deck likely wants a fourth Vein Ripper, and definitely wants a pair of Harvester of Misery to double as an early removal spell that also helps you clear the entire board on your combo turn to ensure that you've got enough Vein Ripper triggers.

It needs work, but this was a fun one.

Stellar Cartography | TLA Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Summon: Bahamut
• 2 Anticausal Vestige
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 4 PuPu UFO

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ugin, Eye of the Storms

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Day of Judgment

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Seam Rip
• 3 Aang's Iceberg

• Artifacts (13)
• 2 Hedron Archive
• 2 The Irencrag
• 2 White Auracite
• 3 Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong
• 4 Mazemind Tome

• Lands (26)
• 14 Plains
• 4 Adventurer's Inn
• 4 Arid Archway
• 4 Conduit Pylons

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong

This deck had a simple question to ask - how good is Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong?

Turns out it's a pretty good card! There are a lot of random scry and surveil triggers to be had, but perhaps the best was just having a Mazemind Tome in play ready to tap and scry. This is a big deal when many of the payoffs in the deck cost seven, giving you a big play on six mana too.

Make no mistake however, this is an Ugin, Eye of the Storms deck through and through, and it did a really good job at controlling the board and going over the top of what our opponents were doing.

Airbending Into The Future

There's a lot to unpack in Avatar: the Last Airbender, as it is a well-designed set with tons of interplay between the various mechanics.

I didn't even touch on one of the best cards in the set, Badgermole Cube (although I do in a video right here on CoolStuffInc.com!), and there's also some big combo potential with Appa, Steadfast Guardian and various airbending effects.

It's safe to say we've got a lot to do before Lorywn Eclipsed!