Exclusive: The Way Magic: The Gathering's Avatar Expansion Revives Two Popular Tribal Gameplay Features

Magic: The Gathering fans frequently embrace tribal decks — who has not built a goblin strategy once or twice? — and this forthcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender Universes Beyond set is reintroducing 2 well-known examples that match seamlessly with its flavor.

Reappearing Tribal Mechanics

The initial mechanic, called "Ally," was debuted with a Zendikar and gives buffs each time additional permanents bearing the Ally type come onto the field.

On the other hand, "Shrines" is an enchantment-based type that originated with Champions of Kamigawa. While not a creature tribe, these enchantments also gain abilities when you owns more of them on the battlefield.

A Return of Allies Ability

While Shrines have shown up occasionally in newer releases, Allies subtype has been far less common — but that changes in ATLA, where the feature is central.

The protagonist Aang has to gather a lot of companions during the quest to bring back balance to the four nations, and it's no better way to show this in an Magic: The Gathering set.

Exclusive Card Preview

After its initial set announcement, below are previews at one Allies plus a Shrine cards from the new ATLA release.

Teo: A Beloved Figure

Teo is one popular supporting character in ATLA, a young man from Earth Kingdom that resided at the Northern Air Temple after his home was destroyed by a flood, an event that rendered him unable to walk.

Due to his father's expertise with engineering, Teo can soar in the air with his glider, and dares Aang in a flying contest.

This card Teo reproduces his love of the skies along with his tribe's use of gliders by letting the player loot whenever you attack with an airborne creature, and also pumping your creatures with +1/+1 counters at the same time.

The Temple Card: A Powerful Shrine

Regarding his home, it appears in the card Northern Air Temple, that drains an opponent's life total when coming into play, depending on how many of Shrines you have.

It furthermore drains an additional point anytime a Shrine enters the battlefield.

This appears to be a powerful card, given its cheap mana cost and valuable enter the battlefield ability.

A major weakness for Shrine strategies outside of Commander are the fact that these cards are typically Legendary, but this card can be great in combination with Sanctum of Stone Fangs, that drains every opponent during the start of your turn.

The Welcome Collaboration

At a time while Universes Beyond products are receiving a lot of hate from the community, an iconic series such as Avatar could be exactly what Magic: The Gathering needs.

Spoiler season has begun, and the full set will be released November 21st.