Scoop: How Magic: The Gathering's Avatar: The Last Airbender Expansion Reintroduces 2 Popular Tribal Gameplay Features

Magic: The Gathering fans consistently embrace tribe-based strategies — what player hasn't assembled a goblin deck before? — and the new Avatar: The Last Airbender Universes Beyond set brings back 2 popular mechanics that align perfectly to its theme.

Returning Tribe-Supporting Abilities

The first mechanic, named "Allies," first debuted with a Zendikar and grants bonuses each time additional creatures bearing the Ally subtype enter the battlefield.

On the other hand, "Shrine" is an enchantment type which originated with Kamigawa. Although not creature-based tribal theme, Shrines also become strength as you owns additional of them on the battlefield.

The Return for Allies Ability

Although Shrines have appeared sporadically across newer sets, Allies mechanic has been much rarer — until this ends with Avatar: The Last Airbender, where this mechanic gets prominently used.

Aang has to gather numerous friends on his quest to restore peace to the world, so it's no more fitting method to represent that through a Magic expansion.

Exclusive Cards Preview

After its initial set announcement, below are previews of one Allies and a Shrine cards from the new Avatar: The Last Airbender release.

Teo, Spirited Glider: A Beloved Figure

Teo is one popular supporting character from ATLA, a young man from the Earth Tribe that lived at the Northern Air Temple after his home was destroyed in a flood, an event that rendered him paraplegic.

Because of his dad's skill in engineering, he can glide through the skies with his glider, even dares the Avatar to a flying race.

The card Teo, Spirited Glider represents his passion for the skies along with his tribe's use of gliders through letting the player draw and discard whenever a player attacks using a flying unit, and also pumping your creatures via +1/+1 counters at the same time.

Northern Air Temple: A Powerful Shrine Enchantment

Regarding his home, it is represented as a card named The Northern Air Temple, which drains an opponent's life total when coming into the battlefield, depending on the number of Shrines you have.

It also drains an additional life anytime another Shrine comes onto the field.

This appears to be a strong addition, considering the card's cheap cost plus good ETB effect.

One big weakness of Shrine strategies in formats besides Commander are that these cards are typically Legendary, but this card can be effective in combination with Sanctum of Stone Fangs, that drains every opponent during the start of your main phase.

The Timely Crossover

Currently while crossover sets are receiving a lot of hate by the community, an iconic series like Avatar: The Last Airbender can be exactly just what MTG requires.

Spoiler season has begun, with all cards set to be launched on Nov. 21.