Last updated on December 22, 2025
Rocky Rebuke | Illustration by Hokyoung Kim
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the set that, I hope, takes the bad taste of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Universes Beyond in general out of MTG players’ mouths. This set is very creative and has MTG’s soul of a fantasy tale with elemental magic and powerful creatures, so it’s a great fit for the game.
Today, we cover the green section of this new, exciting set. Regarding Avatar lore, green is firmly tied to earthbending, so we get a lot of references to Bumi and Toph, earthbending masters who help Aang learn this important art. We also get references to the challenges Aang faces while learning how to earthbend, as well as the former Avatar Kyoshi, the last Avatar from the Earth nation.
With that in mind, let’s see what green has to offer in The Last Airbender.
What Are Green Cards in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Toph, the Blind Bandit | Illustration by Yueko
Green cards in Avatar: The Last Airbender (TLA) are all the cards with a green color identity, both from the main TLA set and Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal (TLE). I’m only evaluating mono-green cards, but some of these don’t necessarily have a mono-green color identity.
The main green mechanic in Avatar is earthbending, a novel way to turn a land into a creature with +1/+1 counters, and we should see plenty of support for the mechanic in green as well. Green Avatar cards also support other themes, like landfall, lessons, and the ally creature type.
Best Reprints and Bonus Sheet Cards
Before we get to the best new green cards in Avatar, let’s talk about reprints. Avatar: The Last Airbender is no exception to recent MTG sets, where we have plenty of powerful reprints. Normally, we evaluate the new cards along with the classic reprints and bonus sheet cards. But since these tend to be very powerful Eternal format staples, to the point of overshadowing the new cards, we'll take a separate look at these first.
#10. Beastmaster Ascension
Beastmaster Ascension can go off in decks that reliably attack with many creatures, and it can be game-breaking when all your creatures get +5/+5. Think Voja, Jaws of the Conclave or Jetmir, Nexus of Revels.
#9. Inspiring Call
In EDH decks built around +1/+1 counters, Inspiring Call is one of the best card draw spells in green, and it puts Harmonize and others to shame. Its best fit is decks with a commander that spreads +1/+1 counters around while going wide, like Voja, Jaws of the Conclave or The Wise Mothman. Having Ouroboroid around isn’t bad, either.
#8. Elemental Bond
Elemental Bond is an excellent way to get more card draw in green since most of your creatures have power 3 or greater. And 3 mana isn’t necessarily expensive in casual EDH, either. Here, the art depicts Aang learning earthbending from Toph, bonding with a new element, so to say.
#7. Rites of Flourishing
Rites of Flourishing is a classic group hug card that allows players to draw one more card and play one more land each turn. Of course, you’ll want to take advantage of this symmetrical effect by getting ahead on land and playing bigger stuff than your opponents, or simply looking like a nice guy that helps everyone else at the table.
#6. Heartbeat of Spring
Another classic group hug card depicts a happy day in Aang’s life, as you can imagine from the card art. Heartbeat of Spring is all about you having more to do with your mana than your opponents. If you respond to their 6-mana spell with your 10-mana one, you’re usually at an advantage.
#5. Obscuring Haze
Obscuring Haze has great value as a potentially free Fog effect that doesn’t prevent damage you deal with your creatures. This card can save your bacon during an enemy attack that would be lethal, exactly like Toph helps to save Aang and his friends in a moment of dire need. And depending on your blocks, your opponents will regret attacking you that turn.
#4. Return of the Wildspeaker
Return of the Wildspeaker has become a green staple card in EDH. You’ll either get a mass pump for your creatures or a mass card draw, all in a single instant speed green spell. The only time this card is actively bad is when you control few or no creatures, but then again, many green cards are bad in this situation. It’s interesting to have an earthbender like Toph in the card’s art, considering that earthbent lands are non-human creatures and thus benefit from the pump effect, or help to draw some cards due to their power.
#3. The Great Henge
The Great Henge is a broken card in decks that have medium-sized creatures, or decks that want to cheat big creatures into play. Don’t get fooled by the printed casting cost: This card often costs 3 or 4. Once you get bigger creatures and start drawing cards, this card goes off spectacularly.
#2. Heroic Intervention
It’s hard to see a green EDH deck that doesn’t running Heroic Intervention. The card is too powerful for 2 mana, and it’s one of the best tools green has at its disposal to survive wraths, protect its commander, and more. Aside from wraths that exile, this card should have you covered. In Avatar lore, this depicts Prince Zuko, a former enemy of Aang and his crew, when he helps them against his own family and is heroic for once.
#1. Worldly Tutor
This version of Worldly Tutor shows that Uncle Iroh is, indeed, the best tutor in the Avatar franchise, as he follows his nephew Zuko, who needs guidance badly, wherever he goes. We can consider this card the green Vampiric Tutor for creatures only. But considering that creatures are becoming more and more powerful in MTG, this card usually finds what green decks need. In singleton formats like Cube and Commander, the ability to find a specific card in your deck for only 1 mana is very strong.
#17. Elemental Teachings
Elemental Teachings puts a new spin on the traditional 4-mana card that fetches two lands. This card offers a little interaction with your opponents, Gifts Ungiven style, so you can get cards that matter in the graveyard, too, like Dakmor Salvage, or have a nice interaction with Life from the Loam or Crucible of Worlds.
#16. Tale of Katara and Toph
Tale of Katara and Toph is a nice addition to +1/+1 counter decks, go-wide decks, or decks that plan to use lots of mana dorks. Note that the card doesn’t care if you tap the creature to attack, for mana, or any activated abilities. Of course, this gets better with mechanics that tap creatures for resources, like convoke or waterbending.
#15. Kyoshi Island Plaza
Kyoshi Island Plaza is one of the new shrines in MTG, and it adds a very interesting effect to shrine decks that ramps you according to the number of shrines you control. It’s very specific to these decks, but powerful in those builds.
#14. Great Divide Guide
Hello, new 5-color fixing card. While Great Divide Guide is on the field, you get a nice Chromatic Lantern effect. It gets better when allies are around, but it’s also a 5-color mana dork by itself. In decks that can produce ally tokens, this kind old man produces you a ton of mana.
Shared Roots is your typical Rampant Growth, but I’m rating this card as a lesson for the additional synergies you can get from Avatar’s lessons-matter cards, the old learn cards from Strixhaven, and the next ones we hope to get in Secrets of Strixhaven. Just considering the amount of play Environmental Sciences saw the last time around, this card should do fine.
#12. The Legend of Kyoshi / Avatar Kyoshi
The Legend of Kyoshi is a very powerful saga if left unchecked, but my main gripe is that it’s heavily dependent on the first chapter. It’s not a good topdeck on an empty board. If you build around high-powered commanders or you have a lot of, say, 4/2 and 5/3 creatures in your deck, you’ll appreciate this card. Red-green or green-blue lands that deal with 4-power effects, cards in hands, or turning lands into creatures will want this powerful saga.
#11. Seismic Tutelage
Speaking of +1/+1 counters, Seismic Tutelage can be clunky as a 4-mana aura, but doubling the number of +1/+1 counters with just an attack has a lot of cool implications. I expect hydra decks to be fond of this one.
#10. Earthbender Ascension
I like that this card is essentially a riff on Civic Wayfinder, a solid card that’s seen play across the years in MTG. Earthbender Ascension is a little stronger than that, and these days, we have a lot of tools to trigger landfall, so it should get four counters in no time. This can be a ramp card of choice in enchantment-heavy decks.
#9. Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender
I don’t think this card is that good on a vacuum. Just casting Bumi, Eclectic Earthbender and earthbending 1 is a bad rate. But in decks that already thrive on using lands, this card is a powerhouse. Ashaya, Soul of the Wild is probably the greatest winner, since it has a multitude of land creatures at its disposal for Bumi to buff. That said, there are plenty of cards that spread +1/+1 counters around at more efficient rates, so I’d include this card only in these decks that allow your lands to attack.
#8. Origin of Metalbending
Origin of Metalbending is almost good enough to see play in main decks, in something like MTG Arena’s Standard best-of-one, or as a strong one-of card. But most of this card’s weight comes from being a good hybrid of Naturalize and a combat trick. Those abilities aren’t that good individually, but you can fetch it from your sideboard thanks to learn cards.
#7. The Cabbage Merchant
Poor Cabbage Merchant, always hit by some unexpected event and losing his cabbages on the way.
But The Cabbage Merchant from MTG is the real deal, and this card will generate you so much Food during a regular EDH game. You can even use the mana these Foods can generate to sacrifice one of them and net some life. And since you’re firmly in the Food business, you can profit from your “lost cabbages” by playing some lifegain or token sacrifice payoffs.
#6. The Earth King
Remember when this effect used to cost 5 mana in three colors? Yes, I’m referencing Bear's Companion. Just casting The Earth King and attacking with a big creature on the same turn already pays you off with a ramp effect, and the possibility of grabbing 2+ lands on the same turn isn’t that far-fetched either.
#5. Avatar Destiny
Avatar Destiny does a lot of powerful stuff that justifies being a 4-mana aura. First, you’ll turn a creature you control into a Lhurgoyf of sorts, and when it dies, you recover the aura, Rancor-style, but also you get to mill and reanimate a creature. The only bad scenario is if this card’s target is removed when the spell is on the stack.
#4. Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender
Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender is a nice reanimation target, or ramp payoff. You’ll immediately get an 8/8 land with haste, and this card is hard to remove right away due to hexproof. Considering that you earthbend 8, that’s 8 +1/+1 counters put onto a card, which combines with a lot of counters-matter stuff. Right now I’m only thinking about Simic Ascendancy.
#3. Toph, Earthbending Master
Toph, Earthbending Master is an experience counter factory. Each turn, you can easily get a counter or two, while you use those counters later to turn lands into giant threats. If the land dies, it comes right back into play to trigger landfall again, so that’s more profit for you. And if you don’t want to build around this card, you have great commanders like Meren of Clan Nel Toth that appreciate the extra experience counter influx.
#2. Hei Bai, Forest Guardian
Probably the second-best shrine commander compared to Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, Hei Bai, Forest Guardian is a powerful card nonetheless. You immediately gain a shrine when this card enters, which greatly increases the shrine deck’s velocity, and later, for each legendary enchantment (read: shrines and more) you control, you get a 1/1 evasive threat. It’s a solid value card, a build around, and a win condition.
#1. Badgermole Cub
Badgermole Cub is one of the most interesting and straight-up playable cards from Avatar. You get a 2/2 and a 1/1 right away, and the amount of mana from mana dorks is increased. This has explosive potential with cards that already do that, like Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, or with natural mana sinks, like Thrasios, Triton Hero. And I can see some Standard games where you have some Llanowar Elves in play and this card enters the battlefield, which lets your elves generate tons of mana to help cast something like Craterhoof Behemoth.
Wrap Up
Avatar Kyoshi, Earthbender | Illustration by Tetsuko
And that concludes the analysis on Avatar: The Last Airbender’s green cards, folks. While not as exciting as firebending, earthbending looks solid, and some of the green cards from this set carry their own weight and are bound to see play across multiple formats. And I expect lessons to be better than they look just because of the subtype and its synergies.
What are your favorite green/earthbending cards? Are you excited to try a new lands-matter commander deck with Avatar cards? Let me know in the comments section below, or over in the Draftsim Discord.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of the Avatar content.
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