Best Avatar: The Last Airbender Cards (Black & Red)

Avatar: The Last Airbender Is A Well-Designed Set

It’s always fun for me when I review a set, partially because, over time, I start to see intended interactions. How, at least in a closed environment, these cards are supposed to function. And the Avatar: The Last Airbender set is a great lesson in how deep and complex that process can be. Though there are too many variables with the standard card pool included to be sure, I’m already thinking of decks and combos that might show up in competitive play. I’m already looking forward to using some of them on my opponents. Especially if I can get a couple of the cards in the following list.

---

Boiling Rock Rioter

This card does so many things. It can power out spells during combat. It can ruin graveyard strategies for your opponent or keep up a stream of your creatures. Heck, it can even help dodge other people trying to mess with your graveyard. It’s so good, I almost expect all Ally decks to run it. 

Day of Black Sun

I don’t usually like when a set tries to introduce some cute board wipe. It’s never as good as just destroying all creatures. But this Avatar: The Last Airbender card has some solid uses. It makes sure that the creatures die (no indestructible) and that they don’t do anything when they die.

Mai, Scournful Striker

Instantly one of the best creatures in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s an Ally that’s good in combat and punishes people for using too much removal. Sure, it hits you too, but a deck of this and Boiling Rock Rioter can plan around that limitation.

Obsessive Pursuit

Ever since playing with Bitterblossom, I’ve loved cards that passively do something like this. This one is an interesting addition because it supports two different play styles, and I guess gives them a way to merge. A lot of cards in Avatar: The Last Airbender want you to draw a second card in a turn. I consider a lot of those cards kind of weak, but Obsessive Pursuit does make it much easier to activate them. So, that’s one plan. The other is a sacrifice deck. Any clues, treasures, tokens, etc. that you’re burning for other reasons now add something. Of the many cards on this list, this is one I will be shocked if it doesn’t get a ton of play.

Ozai’s Cruelty

If you’re reading these Avatar: The Last Airbender card reviews out of order (or with a good deal of time between them) you may not know from the first article that I have a special metric I’m using for Lesson cards. These lists assume that Learn cards are plentiful in some future set. And in that scenario, this is strong. The two life sometimes matters, but hitting two cards out of nowhere is the real reason to run this.

Combustion Technique

Okay, I know what I said in Ozai’s Cruelty, but this might see main deck play. It’s a solid instant-speed removal card that can scale for longer games. The exile effect is also a nice bonus.

Firebending Student

I wish this Avatar: The Last Airbender card had haste or ward, but it’s still a really strong choice in spell-heavy decks. I still think firebending is a really weak ability, but if it’s going to get some use anywhere, making it both feed back into the card it’s on (by the new spells cast triggering prowess) and scale with each card played beforehand (also because of prowess) is the best possible option.

Mai, Jaded Edge

This card isn’t going to be the main attacker in the decks that run it, but it does work well with firebending and just general spellslinging decks. A scaling double-striker is basically an ideal creature for any red aggro deck, and this is eventually that.

---

I see a potential future from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I see Ally aggro decks with weird little niche interactions. I see sacrifice decks based around clues. I see firebending decks that find some way to make the sudden influx of mana absolutely brutal. The options are expanding with each list. And the next one—tentatively scheduled for 11/10/25—is going to get into the abundant good green cards, including (finally) several earthbending cards. So, be there.  

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Lazarus Project Is Absolutely Incredible
• StuGo: An Absurd Cartoon
• Friday Fiction: Doorways to Wonder
• Thanksgiving Fiction: The Dancing Turkey
• The Fantastic 4: First Steps Is A Pleasant Surprise