Avatar: The Last Airbender is one heck of a set. In terms of power level, this set feels way more influential than FINAL FANTASY or Spiderman. Rather, it feels closer to Edge of Eternities or Tarkir: Dragonstorm. This is due to a couple key factors. Avatar is a set chock full of incredibly powerful cards, even at the uncommon and rare-level. This has made Sealed gameplay a bit underwhelming for me, as you can build your pool to the best of your ability but get got by an opposing deck with Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong, Avatar Aang, Ran and Shaw, and Bumi, Unleashed. If you're wondering, YES, an opponent in a Sealed RCQ had ALL of these cards against me. I at least made it to Game 3...

However, the Draft environment for this set has been a fun puzzle to solve. When the pack distribution is pretty equal across the board, I find myself gravitating to a lot of different archetypes - mainly Temur or Grixis-based Lessons decks. I think this set is pretty deep, and there are a lot of hidden card combos to know about in the drafting process. While you can just draft a ton of Azorius allies and Glider Staffs to have a consistent aggro deck, here are a couple fun and defensive cards that I've enjoyed drafting around in this set:

Boomerang Basics is such a flexible card that slots into any of the Lesson decks, while also having a lot of other unique applications. I've used this card at the base level of rebuying a Forecasting Fortune Teller for a bit of extra value all the way up to recasting a Cat-Gator to deal my opponent lethal.

Aside from the obvious targets, Boomerang Basics also can net you extra value out of some of your flexible cards. Take Team Avatar for example - you can cast this early on to get aggression in, and if you need to answer one of your opponent's bomb rares you can use Boomerang Basics to buy back a Terminate-effect. You can plan out two big swings by casting an Invasion Tactics twice in a row with this card, or just get your last opponent's card out of their hands by casting another Corrupt Court Official.

While I haven't seen it yet, I'm sure this card goes incredibly hard in the Shrines deck of this format, but for now it'll just be good at picking up the various uncommon Saga cards that appear in the set (I did use it to pick up The Legend of Kuruk in one draft though).

The possibilities are endless with this card, and it's one I like taking early in a draft due to how many interesting ways you can get some crazy value with this jacked up Unsummon.

Back two years ago when I drafted The Lord of the Rings, I played a ton of Abzan decks. While the fixing wasn't incredible in that format, I drafted a lot of Cycling creatures, like Troll of Khazad-dum and Generous Ent alongside Sam's Desperate Rescue. In this format your version of Sam's Desperate Rescue actually is an instant that you can kick for surprise reanimate! While the targeted creature comes back tapped (untapped would make this card too broken at uncommon) you can still get some great value here.

For example, casting a Zuko's Conviction on a Canyon Crawler can net you a food token, letting you survive a lethal attack while having a threat ready to go on the offensive. You can get back a Cat-Gator to deal some serious damage either to a creature or just your opponent's face, but I like the possibility of grabbing a Serpent of the Pass and casting it for out of nowhere.

Not every deck will want this card, but if you're a tri-color deck or more, I like including this card alongside your creatures with Basic Landcycling. In a similar vein, I also like True Ancestry for a lot of the same reasons.

While I haven't played a ton of Green decks in this format, I like Walltop Sentries for a few key reasons. The stats on this creature are pretty decent for its cost, and it blocks small Earthbending lands. I also like just having a few Reach creatures in my Green decks in this format, to ward off cards like Glider Kids and First-Time Flyer.

I've definitely played against this card in a number of scenarios where I've had to use a spot removal spell to just clear the way for my attackers, and even then it net my opponent some life. I also appreciate that this card isn't really an auto-include in any Gruul or Golgari decks per se, but rather it's a Simic card that plays into the UG/x Lesson archetype.

This card is supposed to be drafted as a defender, and it can definitely pair nicely with lessons like Octopus Form to stop a Lightning Strike or an Origin of Metalbending to blow out your opponent in combat.

June, as well as most of the other Clue-centric cards in the set, is an incredibly fun card to draft. I really like the Dimir Clue archetype in this set, and June is a great way to net value and get in unconditional damage off cards like Corrupt Court Official, Callous Inspector, or Merchant of Many Hats.

June also gives you ways out of removal spells like Path to Redemption and Honest Work. In general, I actually don't really like aura-based removal spells in this format, mainly due to how bad they line up against cards like June, or just Airbending in general. June gives you at least a way to get some extra value out of your creatures and some extra damage down the line.

Overall, I really like this card in the Dimir Clue archetype, especially when you draft her alongside cards like Knowledge Seeker, Messenger Hawk, and Foggy Swamp Spirit Keeper.

Barrels of Blasting Jelly is a card that I like a bit more in Sealed, but is still a great universal Draft card. Barrels of Blasting Jelly is a better Urn of Godfire that helps you filter your mana as a multicolored deck while acting as a decent removal spell.

I've found that a lot of cards in this set, especially rares, can snowball in value fast. Avatar Enthusiasts can grow to a pretty substantial threat in the right allies deck. Azula, on the Hunt is basically a Phyrexian Arena every combat. Fire Sages, if unanswered, can grow out of range of your damage-based removal at an alarming pace.

Overall, Barrels of Blasting Jelly is a card that plays better if you're playing different powerful cards that are double pipped, and is just another way to filter mana. At the same time, it's a removal spell that sits in play. While your opponent has knowledge of this, I at least like that if you need a way to cast all of your powerful cards, you get some insurance in a removal spell that can sit around - your opponent can't wait forever to cast their bombs.

While this is from a Sealed event, I like the deck construction here from Limited master DarkestMage, as he won a collector booster box in the most recent Arena Direct with a Barrels of Blasting Jelly deck:

7-1 for first box in Arena Direct
Rares + Jelly is a consistent combination pic.twitter.com/iZaBvpKU96

— Michael A Jacob (@Darkest_MAJ) November 29, 2025

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an extremely fun set to play, and while there are definitely games that come down to whose rare or mythic sticks, there is still an interesting puzzle to be had in the drafting process. There are lots of hidden card interactions and decks to build in this format, and I think with proper knowledge and experience you can navigate a given Draft to victory based on your card preferences.

I hope you're having a blast with this set and have too figured out some pretty insane underlooked card synergies.

-Roman Fusco