Magic: The Gathering’s crossover set centered on Avatar: The Last Airbender introduced one of the cleanest and impactful batches of new mechanics in a Universes Beyond set yet. Firebending creates temporary bursts of mana during combat, Waterbending lets you tap artifacts and creatures to activate abilities, Earthbending animates lands with little risk, and Airbending blinks permanents into exile so players can recast them for cheap. They’re flavorful and intuitive, which is perfect for a set based on an animated children’s show full of fan-favorite characters.
I’m desperate to see what Wizards of the Coast could do with the sequel series, The Legend of Korra. A Secret Lair Superdrop of two-dozen cards seems like a perfect way to showcase some of the characters and unique design aesthetic in Legend of Korra. Set about 70 years later, the sequel series shows how major advances in technology and bending have reshaped the world. Rather than a world divided into four cultures, the metropolis of Republic City is a melting pot full of retro-futurist technology that gives the show dieselpunk vibes.
It still feels like the same world, but one that’s grown tremendously generations later. A Secret Lair for Legend of Korra could reflect that by evolving the core bending mechanics in interesting ways, while still keeping focus on Lessons.
Could you reskin Aang with Korra art? Absolutely not. As characters, they couldn’t be more different — even if they’re both reincarnations of the same person. Korra pretty much mastered Water, Earth, and Fire by the time the series starts, but struggled for the entire first season with Air — Aang’s path was the opposite. I imagine her as a green-blue-red 4/2 with Haste, Firebending 1, Earthbending 1 whenever she attacks, and Waterbending 3 to add a +1/+1 to a target creature. Perhaps making her a 3/1 at a cost of a single green, blue, and red mana each is more fair. She could potentially Waterbend 2 to Earthbend 2. The important thing is to capture her early versatility and combat skill.
In the core Airbender set, Aang appears in about 10 different variations, so Korra should get several different versions, too. Perhaps one for each season of the show. Or maybe a more scattered assortment?
Book 2 Korra could lean into how she finally learns Airbending (there could even be a Korra that ONLY uses Airbending for that brief window after she had her powers stripped away). Book 3 Korra, where she’s arguably at her most powerful yet vulnerable form, could finally incorporate all four bendings and the Avatar State similar to the Avatar Aang card. That card’s transform feature works perfectly for Korra as well: Whenever you waterbend, earthbend, firebend, or airbend, draw a card. Then, if you’ve done all four this turn, transform Avatar Aang.
Of course, the show’s other heroes and villains need to appear as well. Lightningbending is far more common in the Korra era, and her companion Mako is capable of using it effectively, even serving as a lightningbender operator in a factory. Mako, Lightning Operator feels like a 3/2 with Firebending 1 that can tap to deal 1 damage to any target. His earthbender brother, Bolin, lacks finesse but makes up for it with instincts and raw power. Earthbending 2 whenever he attacks makes the most sense here.
Later in the series, Bolin also becomes one of the few earthbenders in the world to lavabend, so maybe he gets a transform feature: if you firebend and earthbend in the same term, transform him into Bolin, Earthen Inferno. Lavabending could quite simply just combine earthbending and firebending: target land becomes a creature with a counter on it and gets firebending 1.
Tenzin, Aang and Katara’s airbender son, could appear as a reskin of the Aang, the Last Airbender card for simplicity’s sake. Team Avatar’s ally Asami Sato, an engineer from an industrialist family, needs heavy interaction with artifacts, so there are plenty of opportunities for reskins here. Tidus, Blitzball Star might work, giving her an extra +1/+1 counter every time you play an artifact, and whenever she attacks, you tap a target creature. Asami often wields an electrified gauntlet to stun enemies, so the tap effect communicates that.
Speaking of that gauntlet, an entire Drop in this theoretical Superdrop could focus entirely on artifacts and equipment. The gauntlet could dish out stun counters on opposing creatures. The show is also full of new-age tech like tanks, mecha armor, and more that are easily adapted into Magic. Republic City itself could appear as something like one of the Towns from the Final Fantasy set, with an Adventure Sorcery to start.
Along with greater prevalence of lightningbending, the Korra era also has more bloodbending and metalbending. Police use spools of metal cables to swing around like Spider-Man and subdue criminals, which could be an equipment card with some kind of stun feature. The core Avatar set really only has Toph, the First Metalbender as an example of how metalbending might work, blurring the lines between lands and artifacts in potentially gamebreaking ways. That version of Toph makes all nontoken artifacts count as lands, essentially allowing the player to add +1/+1 counters to any nontoken artifact via earthbending. “Metalbending 1” could make a single artifact a land in addition to other types.
Another intriguing prospect here is a drop entirely dedicated to the sport of Pro-Bending with dedicated versions of Mako, Bolin, and Korra. (As a fun nod to the moment from the show when she accidentally earthbends in a match, maybe she can earthbend when she attacks but suffers a stun counter.) They could leverage Ally mechanics to communicate a sense of teamwork.
Lastly, we’d obviously have to represent the show’s villains, which present another interesting wrinkle in the Korra era: energybending. Oddly enough, the most advanced form of bending of all is probably the easiest to adapt into Magic’s framework. Aang develops the method toward the end of The Last Airbender to strip away a person’s ability to bend, which is how he ultimately defeats Fire Lord Ozai.
Amon, Anti-Bending Revolutionary could tap to remove all abilities from a target creature (his goal in season 1 is to eliminate bending altogether). Season 2’s Unalaq is a secret bloodbender, so he could have a typical “gain control of target creature for this turn” sort of effect. In season 3, anarchist Zaheer gains airbending after the Harmonic Convergence, so perhaps he transforms after he’s airbent. Season 3’s uber-powerful earthbending general Kuvira might have earthbending 1 and Amass, generating a weak soldier token and transforming a land into an earthbent creature every time she attacks.
The Avatar: The Last Airbender set somehow managed to introduce the four bending forms in an authentic way that functions really well within the greater framework of Magic. And certain cards already lay the groundwork for what could be a really compelling Legend of Korra expansion. A Superdrop could show how bending evolves spiritually, culturally, and mechanically. The structure is already there. The mechanics are already there. All Wizards needs to do now is…well, bend them.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
