I recently took the time to rank every Mythic Rare from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Alongside the main release, though, came a handful of additional releases, but most importantly was the Jumpstart booster release that accompanied the set.

This extension of the Jumpstart product line gave newer players a fun way to experience Magic: The Gathering in a simple and accessible way. Best of all, though, it brings with it its own set of unique cards to talk about.

Technically, Avatar: The Last Airbender Jumpstart is part of the Avatar Eternal Legal Cards set. However, that set also includes the all-Mythic 61 card Source Material Cards subset. As such, it's better to focus on these Jumpstart cards rather than the whole Eternal Legal Cards set in its entirety.

Thankfully these means that we have a rather short entry in the Mythic Rankings series of articles. Only 11 Mythic Rares are in this set and I'm going to go over each and every one. As they're all Legendary Creatures, prepare for a lot more Commander coverage than usual here.

Let's get ready to jump in and start ranking.

11. Avatar Roku, Firebender

One critical element of most Jumpstart releases is that they tend to lean to the more simplistic side to appeal to less experienced players. While these sets can and do feature some intensely powerful cards historically, some of the designs can reflect this simplistic nature.

Avatar Roku, Firebender is a great representation of this. There isn't much to the card apart from encouraging attacking and buffing up one of your creatures a few times - assuming you don't have spells to cast, of course.

This leads to Roku feeling a bit underwhelming and one-note compared to most of the other cards on this list. It's unfortunate because his main set counterpart rocks.

10. Zuko, Firebending Master

Zuko, Firebending Master is a bit similar to Avatar Roku, Firebender. Both create lots of Red mana via essentially Firebending, but they do it in different ways.

In Roku's case, it occurs whenever any player attacks, but it's a fixed amount. There's some advantages to this in that you can play a political game, but I'm a bit more fond of Zuko here.

This card encourages you to really build around him. If you can play enough mid-Combat spells, you can generate far more mana. Additionally, it's not hard to Proliferate your experience counters, making the card all the more potent.

These bottom two options are a bit interchangeable depending on your preference, so pick your poison on which you enjoy more.

9. Azula, Ruthless Firebender

The thing about both Avatar Roku, Firebender and Zuko, Firebending Master is that they require you to have things to do with your mana.

Instead of those engaging build-arounds, Azula, Ruthless Firebender encourages you to make your opponents discard cards and get stronger for doing so. There's a lot of ways you can play into this with mass discard effects as well as your typical options of Megrim, Liliana's Caress, and Waste Not.

Past the build-around factor, Azula is little more than a giant beater, but hey - sometimes that alone gets the job done.

8. Sokka, Swordmaster

Sokka, Swordmaster is in a weird spot for one simple reason: Ally decks are at their best when you have access to multiple colors.

Thanks to the fact that there are only so many Ally cards period, having an Allies-matter Commander be Mono-White feels really weird. As a result, while the card seems to encourage being a build-around, it's almost better in the 99 of another deck.

Regardless, Sokka makes it trivial to cast Equipment with even just two or three Allies, which is a great deal. Even if it's not great having a Mono-White Ally commander, the juice is worth the squeeze enough here for me to like it well enough.

7. Wan Shi Tong, All-Knowing

Of all the Legendary Creatures on this list, Wan Shi Tong, All-Knowing is by far the most unique to have at the helm of a Commander deck.

Taking advantage of cards that put opponents' permanents into their library is such a cool and interesting way to build a deck. Moreover, getting to make a bunch of small and hard to block creatures makes it all the more fun.

As such, it might seem a bit odd to have him on the lower half of this list. However, the problem with Wan Shi Tong is that the majority of spells that put cards back into the library tend to be basically Draft chaff. You know, the kind of card that makes for a so-so Limited effect but is definitely not good enough for Competitive Constructed or even Casual Commander play.

Furthermore, there really aren't all that many of these spells, making it surprisingly difficult to make a deck around him. It's a fun idea that makes for an awesome design, but it's hard to utilize in practice.

6. Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender

Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender plays into some similar space to Avatar Roku, Firebender in that she is fairly one note. The benefit to her, however, is that her one note ability is massively impactful in any game she comes down in.

Getting a 8/8 every turn in addition to the 6/6 you get from Kyoshi herself is huge. In just a few turns, she'll generate you a fierce army that's difficult to contend with. You can get even crazier with it if you can take additional combat phases, getting your big army faster.

I wouldn't recommend putting Kyoshi in your Command Zone anytime soon, but she's a guaranteed house in any other deck's 99.

5. Aang, Airbending Master

Aang, Airbending Master is another card where he is arguably better in the 99 of a Commander deck rather than being your actual commander.

Airbending abilities are few and far between, meaning there isn't much you can do to make a thematic deck. Instead, your best bet is to take a much more general flicker (temporary exile) or bounce (return to hand) approach.

In both cases, you're best off taking advantage of a Multicolored card like Roon of the Hidden Realm. Even if you wanted to stay Mono-White, there's stiff competition from Preston, the Vanisher. That allows you to make small copies of creatures while Aang lets you make a small army of Allies. Both are good, but they simultaneously feel best as support pieces for a bigger strategy, like the aforementioned Roon.

4. Katara, Waterbending Master

Speaking of top-notch Commander support cards, Katara, Waterbending Master is quite possibly one of the best. A glorified super-looter is unlikely to be what you want as a commander unless you're solely using it to dig to a combo to take down opponents fast in a Bracket 4 or cEDH deck.

In the 99, though, you can use Katara to support another commander with a far more unique effect. There, the intense amount of card selection can decimate opponents. This has made Katara, Waterbending Master a simple, effective tool. As a result, she goes for a pretty hefty chunk of change.

3. Fire Lord Ozai

Fire Lord Ozai is a little bit of everything. He's a great sacrifice outlet that encourages you to play high power creatures and he lets you steal stuff from your opponents' libraries as well. All of that is a top notch set of angles for you to approach when building a deck with or around him.

Best of all, thanks to the wording not relying on the Firebending text that would treat him as a Mono-Black commander, Fire Lord Ozai is instead Rakdos colors (Black-Red). That allows you some really solid flexibility, especially if you also happen to play other Firebending creatures in the same deck.

2. Hei Bai, Forest Guardian

Go-Shintai of Life's Origin has become easily one of the most popular commanders in recent memory. It sits comfortably within EDHREC's top 100 commanders thanks to the fact that players just love playing with Shrines.

Hei Bai, Forest Guardian leans into the same space, which has also made him a fairly popular commander in his own right. It ultimately boils down to which you prefer: making more Shrine tokens to make your normal Shrines stronger or making an army of 1/1s for every Shrine you control. There are also the flavor considerations, as Hei Bai is a fan favorite character from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

As of now, most people seem to prefer Go-Shintai of Life's Origin. Honestly, though, it's best to play them together and perhaps alternate between which one you're feeling from game to game. Nevertheless, it is easily one of the biggest cards of the set.

1. Toph, Earthbending Master

Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender is a massive threat that gives you one massive creature every turn. Her big drawback, though, is that it's a bit difficult to get her out when she costs eight mana.

By contrast, Toph, Earthbending Master allows you to start building an army in the earliest turns of the game. The creatures she makes won't be as big as Kyoshi, but you'll get there eventually and even in small numbers, it's an incredibly impactful ability.

This has made Toph, Earthbending Master easily the most expensive card of this set of Mythic Rares and the best option both as a commander or in the 99 of any deck that can play her. As such, I can't think of any card more fitting of the top slot than her.

Paige Smith

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