It seems like only yesterday I was writing about the most valuable cards in Spider-Man, and now the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the next Universes Beyond set release, is upon us! Sets come out so rapidly nowadays that it's difficult to keep up. If you add in constant market fluctuations of card prices, and it's nearly impossible to know the valuable cards of every set without spending time deliberately researching it.

Luckily, I have you covered with this regular column, where I examine the most valuable cards coming out with each new set. This time around, it's Avatar: The Last Airbender I'll be scrutinizing, digging into the data to determine the cards you'll most want to open at your next Sealed or Draft event to recoup entry costs.

Without further delay, let's jump in with the top headliners of the set.

Legendary Creatures

Perhaps it's driven by Commander demand. Perhaps it's simply because they tend to be the most powerful. Whatever the reason, Avatar: The Last Airbender's most valuable card at launch is once again a legendary creature: Wan Shi Tong, Librarian.

This Blue legendary creature is currently pre-selling near $50! Is it worth that price tag?

You need to read all of these card's abilities and piece them all together to understand why Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is so powerful. An 1/1 flash, flying, vigilance creature isn't enough. Even the +1/+1 counters you get to place on the creature doesn't make the card all that strong. If the ability stopped there, you'd have to pay seven mana to make this a 6/6. That next sentence, however, that draws you half X cards (rounded down) upon entering, is incredibly powerful. Punishing your opponents for searching their library is also some tremendous upside in Commander, where tutors and fetch lands are ubiquitous.

Skipping down to the third and fourth most valuable cards at release, we have two more legendary creatures: The Wall of Ba Sing Se ($15) and Koh, the Face Stealer ($7).

The Walls of Ba Sing Se may just be one of the most valuable Walls ever printed. In fact, I ran a quick search, and currently this 0/30 Wall beats out Tree of Perdition, Wall of Opposition (a rare from Legends!), and Wall of Nets to be the most expensive wall ever. I guess Wizards of the Coast finally printed an exciting wall by making it an eight mana 0/30 creature that grants all your other permanents indestructible!

Koh, the Face Stealer currently isn't as expensive, but it definitely has its utility, particularly in Commander. While the creature is versatile and immediately affects the board upon entering, it doesn't stand out to me nearly as much as The Walls of Ba Sing Se. I expect the latter will drop further in price unless it finds a home somewhere in Standard.

The last legendary creature I want to touch on is Avatar Aang, which currently sells for around $10.

We don't see (without the) in a casting cost all that often. This four-mana 4/4 creature has both flying and firebending 2. In addition, whenever you waterbend, earthbend, firebend, or airbend (something that'll probably happen a good amount of the time in this set), you draw a card. If you can somehow manage to do all four abilities in the same turn, Avatar Aang transforms into Aang, Master of Elements. Short of an immediate removal spell, it's hard to see how you lose a game with this transformed creature in play.

A Badger and Some Artifacts

With the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the total number of badger creatures (not counting shapeshifters) will increase to a full dozen. We don't see badgers printed too frequently, though they have been around since Rysorian Badger back in Homelands. Notably, Avatar: The Last Airbender has introduced the new, most valuable badger creature in the game's history: Badgermole Cub ($40-$50)!

This adorable creature is currently preselling as the second most valuable card from the new set. How did a two-mana 2/2 "Grizzly Bears" become so valuable? Wizards of the Coast gave it earthbend 1 when it enters, meaning you get the 2/2 creature and you can animate a land and put a +1/+1 counter on the land.

That's nice and all, but it's that second ability that takes the cake, giving you extra mana whenever you tap a creature (including your new creature land) for mana. Thus, Badgermole Cub is like a two-mana hybrid of Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Nissa, Who Shakes the World. By the way, Badgermole Cub isn't legendary - its ability will stack if you have more than one out.

We already talked about the most valuable artifact in the set at release, The Walls of Ba Sing Se. Let's take a look at two more artifacts that are currently preselling for double digits: Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong ($10) and White Lotus Tile ($10).

The former is a six-mana legendary artifact with both an activated ability and a passive ability. The activated ability isn't very exciting: scry 2. That passive ability, however, lets you cast the top card of your library whenever you scry or surveil, is what makes the card so busted! You can patiently sift through your deck until something powerful is on top, and then pay 1 mana to scry 2, effectively allowing you to cast the top card for free. This combines nicely with the cycle of tutors that places the card on top of your library.

The latter has the word "lotus" in its name, so you know it's going to presell for an elevated price. In this case, White Lotus Tile is a four-mana artifact that enters tapped. When you tap it, you add X mana of any one color, where X is the greatest number of creatures you control that have a creature type in common. It seems limiting at first glance, but my mind again goes to Commander and all the creature typal themes players build in that format. Any time you have a deck with even a light typal theme, White Lotus Tile feels like an automatic include for effective mana ramp.

Rounding Out The Top 10

There are three more cards worth mentioning in order to round out the top 10 most valuable Avatar: The Last Airbender cards at release. Those three cards are Fated Firepower ($10), Appa, Steadfast Guardian ($8), and Redirect Lightning ($8, the only rare in the top 10).

Each of these cards carry that "wow" factor in its own way. Fated Firepower is an X Ted spell that adds to any damage you would deal to an opponent or permanent an opponent controls. We've seen enchantments like this before - they tend to be popular amongst the casual crowd.

Appa, Steadfast Guardian has a most bizarre type line: Legendary Creature - Bison Ally. Don't confuse this creature with a Bison who isn't an Ally. This one's on your side, I guess? Anyway, Appa, Steadfast Guardian is a 4 mana 3/4 flash, flying (a flying bison??) creature that airbends any number of target nonlad permanents you control. Then, when you cast those permanents again from exile, you get extra 1/1 white Ally creature tokens. This creates an interesting interaction and mini subgame of sorts.

Lastly, Redirect Lightning is a twist on an old school effect. For either or and five life, you can change the target of a spell or ability with a single target. These effects used to be hugely popular - I remember when Ice Age's Deflection was one of the most desirable cards of the set. Nowadays, however, this kind of effect is overshadowed a bit. As the most valuable rare in the set, the market is acting like this will be a breakthrough card. Time will tell if it has the impact on Standard that players are anticipating.

Wrapping It Up & Honorable Mention

As always, my focus with these value-oriented articles is on the normal, non-foil printings of the set. These are the rares and mythic rares you're most likely to open at your local game shop's prelease, release, and draft events. Should you crack any of the cards mentioned above, your entry cost will have been healthily subsidized by the contents of your pool.

That said, with new sets in the 2020s, there are special, hyper rare cards you could open from a collector booster that'll fetch you an even higher price tag. Avatar: The Last Airbender is no exception.

In addition to borderless cards, it looks like there are highly collectible, highly valuable neon ink foil versions of some cards in the set. Fire Lord Zuko and Aang, Swift Savior with this special finish has sold for north of $2000 already. There's also a version of Toph, the First Metalbender that will likely fetch a price in the same range.

Lastly, there's a raised foil version of Avatar Aang that hasn't technically sold on TCGplayer yet, but the two current sellers on the platform are asking $11,000. I don't expect the final price will settle that high, but you get the picture. Players love the idea of opening a four-figure or five-figure card in a booster pack, and Wizards of the Coast made sure to deliver yet again on this desire.

For those like me who aren't so lucky, let's stay focused on the valuable cards we actually can open from this set: a smattering of legendary creatures, some breakthrough artifacts, and an impressively powerful badger. It's a combination only Avatar: The Last Airbender could deliver!