5 Best Hidden Gems from the MTG Avatar Set

Posted by Magic Madhouse on 21st Nov 2025

The Magic: the Gathering Avatar: the Last Airbender crossover has given us plenty of exciting, element bending new bomb cards. There’s the colour-pie controlling powerhouse Aang, Master of Elements, the spell copying mastermind Fire Lord Azula, and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, who is easily the most powerful owl in the game.

In all the hype, there are some fantastic cards from the set that have slipped beneath the radar. Maybe it’s because they don’t depict main characters, or maybe it’s because the community hasn’t yet caught onto their power. Whatever the case, this article is dedicated to shining the spotlight on some powerful hidden gems from Magic’s dive into the world of Avatar.

5. Aang, at the Crossroads

Given that he’s the main character, it’s unsurprising that there are plenty of cards depicting Aang in the new Avatar set. While Aang, Master of Elements has been attracting the lion’s share of attention, since it depicts Aang at the height of his power near the end of the series, there are plenty of other Aangs that are worth a discussing.

Aang, at the Crossroads depicts the young Avatar just after he has finished mastering earthbending. When this version of Aang enters the battlefield, he reveals the top five cards of your deck, allowing you to cast a creature from among them with a mana value of 4 or less. If you can hit something powerful with this like a Brightglass Gearhulk, or a Frenzied Baloth, or a then you can really begin building up a threatening board state quickly.

This card then transforms into Aang, Destined Savior who can animate your lands using his earthbending abilities, and ensure that they don’t tap when they attack. Rather than transforming though, a more interesting strategy might be to keep bringing Aang into and out of play either by using airbending cards, or spells like Ghostly Flicker and Momentary Blink. This will loop his ability repeatedly, allowing you to freely cast your cost four or lower creatures over and over again.

4. Phoenix Fleet Airship

At first glance, Phoenix Fleet Airship might appear unremarkable. A 4/4 Vehicle for four mana isn’t a terrific deal, even if the airship can fly. Of course, you get far more than just one Vehicle from this card.

During your end step, if you have sacrificed a permanent during your turn, then you create a token copy of Phoenix Fleet Airship. Since that token will also possess this ability, the size of your airship fleet will expand exponentially. Once you have eight or more airships, they stop being vehicles altogether and no can charge into combat without needing to be crewed.

You don’t even need to run this card in a dedicated sacrifice deck. Since there are plenty of cards, from fetch lands to Sakura Tribe Elder to anything that can generate treasure tokens that sacrifice themselves, and enable the airship.

3. Koh, the Face Stealer

Koh, the Face Stealer is a complex card, but an undeniably powerful one. When Koh enters play, it immediately exiles another creature, rendering it immediately and irrevocably dead. The creature goes into exile, though, rather than the graveyard, where it could be reanimated.

While Koh is in play, you can exile any creatures that would die. At any point, by paying one life, you can choose a creature that Koh has exiled and have it gain all of their activated and triggered abilities. This opens up a massive number of game breaking opportunities.

Maybe one of your opponents has an Esper Sentinel that they’re getting a lot of card draw from. Not only will Koh get rid of the sentinel, it will also ensure that now your opponents will all need to pay six mana to prevent you from drawing cards when they start casting noncreature spells.

You can also stop the game plans of certain decks strategies dead in their tracks. A sacrifice player won’t be able to burn you down if Koh devours their Zulaport Cutthroat, and a +1/+1 counter deck will no longer be able to slip damage through unblocked with their Champion of Lambholt gone. Not only that, but you can then steal these useful abilities for yourself.

Whatever the game state looks like, there will also be an interesting way to play Koh and to abuse their newfound effect for your gain.

2. Waterbender Ascension

Waterbender Ascension is a card from a cycle of other ascension cards, one for each element.

Firebender Ascension doubles the effectiveness of abilities that trigger when creatures attack, making it a natural fit in any deck full of firebenders.

Earthbender Ascension is a ramp spell that also comes with a 2/2 body, and later gains the ability to generate +1/+1 counters.

Airbender Ascension allows you to flicker your own creatures into and out of play, in order to repeat any powerful enter the battlefield abilities that they have.

So what sets Waterbender Ascension apart from its counterparts? Well, primarily, it’s the fact that it performs two incredibly useful functions. It both enables you to push through unblocked attacks, thanks to its waterbending effect, and rewards you when your attacks get through by letting you draw cards.

While this card requires quest counters to enable its effect, since you gain a counter every time one of your creatures damages an opponent in combat, they can be assembled quickly enough.

The low cost of this card, compared to other cards with comparable effects like Coastal Piracy or Reconnaissance Mission, makes it great in aggro decks. In formats with longer games, like Commander, aggressive decks can run out of steam as the turns go by. After you’ve filled your board with cheap creatures, you may find yourself relying on top decks in the hope that you can draw something that will help them break through. Waterbender Ascension ensures that this won’t happen, since it lets you draw a card every time one of your creatures hits the opponent.

1. The Legend of Kyoshi

The Legend of Kyoshi is a lot like the staple card, Return of the Wildspeaker, except that it trades the ability to buff up your board for the ability to generate two threatening creatures.

First of all, The Legend of Kyoshi draws you cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control. It’s not hard to draw three or four cards using this effect, which will make you happy. If you cast this when you’ve got something massive like Ghalta, Primal Hunger in play, though, you’ll be delighted.

On your next turn, you Earthbend X on equal to the number of cards in your hand. Since chapter 1 of this Saga drew you plenty of cards, and this ability resolves after your draw step, the land that you animated should end up being pretty powerful. The land also becomes an island, helping you fix your mana in a multi-colour deck. Don’t worry, though, this ability doesn’t stop you running The Legend of Kyoshi in a monogreen commander deck.

Finally, two turns after you’ve played it, The Legend of Kyoshi transforms into Avatar Kyoshi, a 5/4 that grants all of your lands (including the huge one that you animated last turn) hexproof and indestructible. Kyoshi herself is a 5/4 threat, but she can also be tapped down in order to generate mana equal to the power of the strongest creature that you control. Even if Kyoshi is the only creature you’ve got, that’s still five mana, ensuring that she’ll be able to bring out plenty of reinforcements.

Some Underrated Avatar Legends

So there we have five ace Avatar cards that you may have missed. These are far from the only unsung heroes in this crossover. Let us know about some of your favourites underrated cards in the Magic Madhouse Discord.

If you’re looking for a recap on the mechanics of the set, as well as a breakdown of the different products that are available, check out our Avatar: the Last Airbender overview.

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