Spoiler Highlight: Avatar Lands on Competitive Formats

The previews for hyperlink (Avatar: The Last Airbender) have come to an end, and following a pattern on Universes Beyond started in the Magic collaboration with The Lord of the Rings, the set brings a new cycle of monocolored utility lands, reminiscent of the lands from the original Innistrad block, where all of them have an activated ability in addition to generating mana.

Historically, the Innistrad utility lands saw play in Standard and Modern for many years with cards like Desolate Lighthouse, Moorland Haunt, and Gavony Township, which were eventually phased out by power creep, and also Slayers’ Stronghold, which remains a relevant piece alongside Primeval Titan.

The new lands are a bit more conditional, as they require a basic land in play to enter untapped, but they compensate for this "loss" by generating colored mana and having activation costs of only one color, which facilitates their usability in some archetypes without making them "too free" in any list, like the Channel Lands.

Below, we provide a specific analysis for each of them for the main competitive formats of Magic: The Gathering.

Abandoned Air Temple seems to be the best of the cycle for Standard and Pioneer. Its activated ability adds +1/+1 counters to each creature of its controller, making it an essential piece for aggressive go wide archetypes or Midrange decks that care about board presence and creatures in play.

For Standard, decks like Azorius Aggro using cheap one-drops, Warden of the Inner Sky, and Cosmogrand Zenith are examples of strategies that easily benefit from the new white land, since a 2/2 or 3/3 Spyglass Siren already does an impressive job of pressuring the board even in longer games.

The same can be said of other Midrange decks that also run Cosmogrand Zenith such as Orzhov Bounce, and even an Azorius Bounce list might show up after the Banlist and the release of Avatar running Boomerang Basics and Aang, Swift Savior.

In Pioneer, decks like Humans and Boros Convoke already run Shefet Dunes to increase pressure on the battlefield for one turn, and Abandoned Air Temple is almost a free upgrade for this type of effect, guaranteeing more permanent power on the board that should also benefit strategies like Selesnya Company, Angels, and other Aggro decks.

We also cannot disregard strategies with Raffine, Scheming Seer and some potential legends and Hatebears, similar to how the archetype behaved in the previous Standard seasons.

Modern has some archetypes that can benefit from the land, from those that already run Gavony Township for some reason to the possibility of including it in the flexible slots of Boros Energy as another way to increase pressure on the board with the tokens from Ocelot Pride and Voice of Victory.

Energy can also be the home of Abandoned Air Temple in Legacy, where archetypes like Death & Taxes may also be interested in the card as part of their flexible slots, since it generates and has a relatively easy condition to enable in monocolored lists.

Agna Qel’a has the same effect as Desolate Lighthouse with a less restrictive cost. Lighthouse was, for years, a recurring one-of in Jeskai Control/Jeskai Tempo/Izzet Twin lists in Modern and also had its moment of glory in Standard.

With fewer restrictions and given the low probability of Proft’s Eidetic Memory also receiving a ban, Agna Qel’a should find a sure home in the Izzet Midrange decks that remain relevant after the banlist, in addition to also serving most of the more reactive two-color archetypes, and may even deserve a slot in lists like Jeskai Oculus and Jeskai Control.

Izzet Phoenix in Pioneer may also want this card as a utility one-of, a trait it will share with Azorius Control. Other strategies, however, should treat the new land as too reactive or slow for their game plans, unless they have interactions with looting effects.

For other formats, Agna Qel’a seems slow and too fair. Decks like Dimir Oculus or Reanimator already have better enablers in Modern, and the necessary concessions in Legacy make it redundant and even dangerous to use in the format.

In other times, Realm of Koh would be a win condition in some hard control list crammed with interaction and sources of card advantage. While that option still exists, it's likely that this card will be transformed into another attrition tool for Midrange lists.

We shouldn't underestimate the potential of a land that creates tokens that, in theory, cannot be easily blocked and generate more food for Fountainport or interactions with effects that require creatures. Furthermore, its ability can be activated at instant speed, allowing for reactive play and, if necessary, putting another point of recurring damage into play.

A potential staple for Orzhov Ketramose in both Standard and Pioneer, a useful tool for Mono Black Midrange in both formats, and it wouldn't be surprising if it complemented Hive of the Eye-Tyrant in the utility lands slot in Pioneer.

Realm of Koh might also deserve some testing in Modern due to the constant stream of difficult-to-block tokens, but the specific archetype it fits into is a bit difficult to predict because we're talking about five mana to activate it, and no sufficiently reactive archetype exists in the current Metagame that can accommodate that cost without having better cards.

The card is also a possible win condition for Lands Control and Smallpox lists in Legacy, where recurring access to Life From the Loam can guarantee resilience and the necessary mana for this card to function — except that there is another land in the cycle that may be more beneficial for these archetypes.

Fire Nation Palace is difficult to evaluate because the Firebending ability is mechanically unique in several aspects: in essence, we are paying three mana to add four that are only available during combat and, therefore, can only be used on instant spells, cards with Flash, and activated abilities.

The Firebending mechanic has an interaction with Electro, Assaulting Battery, where Fire Nation Palace provides extra red mana each turn while also working to accumulate resources to deal damage to the opponent if Electro is destroyed, but cards like Soulstone Sanctuary and Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance are also good cards enabled by the temporary "ramp".

Of all the lands in the cycle, this one seems the weakest based on the specifications of the Firebending ability, which needs to be properly tested. There doesn't seem to be a home for Fire Nation Palace in eternal formats currently, but the land might surprise in Standard or Pioneer.

Ba Sing Se seems like the kind of card that decks like Amulet Titan in Modern or Lands in Legacy would want to test for possible interactions with other cards. Transforming Urza’s Saga to return it to the game when the third chapter triggers or using a fetch land as pseudo-ramp seem like lines that deserve attention in eternal formats.

Cards that require sacrificing lands or creatures could also benefit from this type of effect, and as we mentioned with Realm of Koh, there has been a resurgence of Smallpox decks in Legacy recently, where Ba Sing Se seems like a more effective card in securing threats while generating value.

In Standard, this card could also function as a slow and alternative win condition for green archetypes, especially if there are more interactions with +1/+1 counters in future sets.

Of all the unique Avatar mechanics, Earthbending is probably the easiest to break. It wouldn't be surprising if a card with this ability became a staple in multiple formats—and among them, Ba Sing Se seems the easiest to find a place in non-rotating environments.

That's all for today!

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Thank you for reading!