Scoop: The Way Magic's Avatar Expansion Brings Back 2 Popular Tribal Gameplay Features

Magic: The Gathering enthusiasts often embrace tribal tactics — what player hasn't assembled a goblin deck at some point? — while this new ATLA Universes Beyond set brings back 2 beloved mechanics that fit perfectly to the flavor.

Reappearing Tribe-Supporting Abilities

The first mechanic, called "Allies," first introduced in a Zendikar which gives buffs whenever additional permanents bearing the Ally subtype come onto play.

On the other hand, "Shrine" represents another enchantment type that first appeared in Champions of Kamigawa. Although not creature-based tribe, these enchantments likewise become power as a player owns more of them in play.

A Comeback of Allies Ability

While Shrine cards have been shown up here and there across recent releases, Allies mechanic was much rarer — but that ends in Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which the mechanic gets prominently used.

Aang has to gather numerous allies during his quest to bring back balance across the world, and it's no better method to reflect that in an Magic set.

Exclusive Cards Showcase

After its initial set reveal, here is previews of one Allies and one Shrines cards in the new ATLA release.

Teo, Spirited Glider: A Fan-Favorite Figure

Teo stands as one beloved minor figure from ATLA, a boy of the Earth Tribe that resided in the Northern Air Temple after his home was ruined by a disaster, which rendered him unable to walk.

Due to his dad's skill in engineering, he is able to fly through the skies using his glider, even dares the Avatar in an aerial race.

This card Teo, Spirited Glider showcases Teo's love for the skies and his tribe's use of flying machines by letting you loot each time you attack using a flying creature, while additionally strengthening your team via counters at the same time.

Northern Air Temple: The Powerful Shrine

Speaking of Teo's home, it appears in a card named The Northern Air Temple, which reduces your opponent's life when coming into play, depending on how many of Shrines you control.

The card furthermore removes one more point anytime a Shrine enters the field.

This appears to be a powerful card, given the card's cheap cost and valuable enter the battlefield effect.

A big weakness of Shrine-based decks in formats besides EDH are that these cards are typically Legendary, but this card can be great in combination with another Shrine, that deals damage to all opponents during the start of your turn.

The Timely Crossover

Currently while Universes Beyond sets are garnering a lot of criticism from the community, a beloved franchise like Avatar can be precisely what MTG needs.

Preview period has begun, and all cards set to be released November 21st.

Kellie Johnson
Kellie Johnson

Elara Vance is a data engineer with over 8 years of experience in building scalable data pipelines and analytics platforms, passionate about sharing knowledge in the tech community.