The 22 Best Avatar: The Last Airbender Commanders Ranked

Promotional Avatar Art | Illustration by Alex Dos Diaz

Magic has grown increasingly Commander-centric, a trend exacerbated by Universes Beyond sets. After all, other IPs are loaded with iconic, fan-favorite characters that need multiple legendary creatures to properly capture their importance to the narrative.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is no different, with commanders at almost all rarities and power levels. Whether you want to highlight your favorite character or just find a new legend to brew around, there must be something for you—after all, Avatar has over 100 commanders.

How Many Commanders Are There in Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Hei Bai, Forest Guardian | Illustration by Tapioca

Avatar: The Last Airbender (TLA) and Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal (TLE) contain 118 new commanders. This would have been exceptional at one point, but it seems to be the new normal with Universes Beyond sets—it's roughly equivalent to Marvel's Spider-Man (only 98 commanders, but that was a special small set). Final Fantasy surpassed TLE with 215 commanders, but that includes a Commander set, which Avatar doesn’t have. It seems reasonable to assume 100-ish commanders from future Universes Beyond sets.

Of TLA's 118 commanders, a meager six are reprints, found exclusively in the bonus sheet, leaving us with 112 new cards. The number is so high partially because prominent characters received multiple cards at varying rarities—for example, there are eight Aangs, seven Kataras, five Tophs, etc. Some characters even got French vanilla cards, like Sokka, Wolf Cove's Protector. This list only includes the best of them—we don't need to go over why the French vanilla cards or the Limited signposts aren't viable commanders. It also includes some of the reprints as appropriate so you can get a sense of how Avatar: The Last Airbender stacks up against existing commanders.

#22. Avatar Aang / Aang, Master of Elements

Avatar Aang is TLA's obligatory 5-color commander that lets you throw all your favorite Avatar cards into one semi-cohesive deck. It's fine. These commanders are inherently boring because they weren't designed to be interesting commanders, they were designed to be a signpost card for Block Commander. Avatar Aang will be great in that very narrow archetype and useless outside of it.

#21. Zuko, Firebending Master

I'm generally suspicious of the mono-colored experience counter commanders from TLE. The archetype often relies on a critical mass of experience counter cards from other colors to function, which the TLE cards lose. But I can get behind Zuko, Firebending Master. At the very least, it has a high ceiling as a 2-mana creature with no cap on how much mana it can produce. It's likely still better in the 99 of Kelsien, the Plague than alone, but it could be a fun Voltron build around.

#20. Yue, the Moon Spirit

Yue, the Moon Spirit cheats on the cost of noncreature spells and potentially makes them cost nothing if you have enough creatures and artifacts. Five mana or less for cards like Omniscience and Portal to Phyrexia sounds like a fine deal, even if you need a haste enabler. The key to make this work will be cards like Kelpie Guide to untap Yue and use it multiple times in a turn.

#19. Iroh, Grand Lotus

I'm on the fence about Iroh, Grand Lotus. On the one hand, it's an incredible card advantage engine for all manner of spellslinger decks, from storm decks that want Past in Flames on a stick to decks that want to chain big spells like Time Warp and Aminatou's Augury. But it's a 6-mana creature with no immediate impact on the board, and it's clearly strong enough for your opponents to prioritize removing it. Iroh costs enough mana that you need it to survive a turn cycle, which might be too much to ask for.

#18. Bumi, Unleashed

Bumi, Unleashed has lots of text but we care about only one line: Untap all lands you control. The extra combat is nice and all, and there’s a potential infinite combo if you can make Bumi into a land (Ashaya, Soul of the Wild comes to mind), but untapping your lands is the reason to run Bumi. Doubling your access to Magic's most important resource gives you a great chance to pull off a win. Imagine beating the player who spends 12 mana on turn 6!

#17. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

I'm confident that Wan Shi Tong, Librarian will become a Commander staple; after all, it's just an Archivist of Oghma you're happy to play on turn 2 or turn 8. It even has merit as a commander: Access to this effect turn 2 every game when your opponents cast Rampant Growth and crack fetch lands offers a lot of card draw. You give up impact from the command zone since Wan Shi Tong won't win the game, but a cheap commander that scales up once it’s caught in the inevitable board wipe has great potential.

#16. Fire Lord Ozai

It's important to note that Fire Lord Ozai is a Rakdos commander (); its red mana symbol is in the ability, not in reminder text like cards with firebending.

And it's a pretty interesting sacrifice commander. Most sacrifice commanders encourage you to sacrifice many small creatures, so those that reward you for going big are interesting. Unlike firebending cards, you retain the mana so you can throw a Yargle under the bus to get out a Crackle with Power, or you can pour mana into Ozai's activated ability, which interacts with cast-from-exile synergies.

#15. Katara, Water Tribe's Hope

Katara, Water Tribe's Hope has a great finishing ability for a token deck. It's a shame the base creature costs so much mana, but you can flicker it to build your board and win with the waterbending ability, alongside white's ample token support like Mondrak, Glory Dominus. This is far from exceptional, but it’s Katara's best solo card for EDH.

#14. The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan

Tacking Clues onto every noncreature spell you cast makes The Mechanist, Aerial Artisan some of the most consistent Clue production we've ever seen in the command zone, and mono-blue has the tools to break it. Cards like Thought Monitor and Urza, Lord High Artificer provide resources for the midgame, until Cyberdrive Awakener and Tangletrove Kelp close things out. Overall, The Mechanist feels like an upgrade to Sai, Master Thopterist.

#13. Long Feng, Grand Secretariat

Long Feng, Grand Secretariat has potential specifically as a combo commander. Its ability counts tokens, so cards like Basking Broodscale, Herd Baloth, and Scurry Oak that create tokens when +1/+1 counters are placed on them can go infinite with this and a sacrifice outlet (though the Broodscale needs no help). It also plays nicely with cards from Modern Horizons 3 that trigger when counters are placed on them like Evolution Witness and Fetid Gargantua.

#12. Azula, Cunning Usurper

Azula, Cunning Usurper gives theft decks an exceptional new commander that steals and kills threats in one go. Because you cast whatever creatures Azula swipes, you don't need to worry about giving it back if your opponent removes Azula like you would with Mind Control variants, and the enters ability means your opponents are always two-for-one'd at best. Azula wants to be paired with flicker effects like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling so you can cast a spell, then flicker Azula to line up another threat.

#11. Aang, at the Crossroads / Aang, Destined Savior

Cards that care about land creatures aren't the strongest due to a lack of support. That makes Aang, Destined Savior relatively unexciting since you only make one land creature a turn, but the front of the card is more interesting. Flickering Aang, at the Crossroads to spew creatures seems like a decent start to a deck, especially with mass-flicker cards like Eerie Interlude and Hide on the Ceiling to flicker Aang and all your goodies.

#10. Aang and Katara

Aang and Katara is extremely cute and reasonably powerful. This won't win a cEDH tournament, but I like how it combines airbending and waterbending, or at least what those mechanics care about, into a couples' card. This might be the best convoke commander since you can cast spells for little to no mana, then flicker Aang and Katara to build an even bigger board to convoke bigger spells.

#9. Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors (Captain Sisay)

Captain Sisay has been power-crept as a legends commander, mostly by 5-color options like Jodah, the Unifier and Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, but a repeatable tutor on a stick still puts in good work. If you want to build something more synergistic and disruptive without resorting to the most popular, pushed legends commanders, Sisay is still worth playing.

#8. Hei Bai, Forest Guardian

The math on Hei Bai, Forest Guardian looks promising. The average mana value of a shrine as of The Last Airbender is about 3.3, so you generally get 7 mana worth of permanents into play for 4 mana. Its primary competition is Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, but I prefer Hei Bai. The Go-Shintai makes your shrines perform better but does nothing if you don't draw them. Hei Bai cuts right to your deck's primary value engine and puts them into play. Since Hei Bai and its tokens aren't enchantments themselves, it also gives the deck resiliency against mass-enchantment destruction.

#7. The Monstrous Serpent (Koma, Cosmos Serpent)

Koma, Cosmos Serpent is a fierce Simic commander () that makes excellent use of Commander's four players to make Koma's Coils. Putting 12 power and toughness into play each turn cycle overwhelms the table swiftly, especially when it comes about in a manner that triggers Elemental Bond and similar effects four times. Since the Coils protect Koma from most removal, your opponents basically need to be in black to force a sacrifice, or in white to exile it. As far as Simic beasts in the command zone go, Koma is one of the best.

#6. Joo Dee, Public Servant (Sakashima of a Thousand Faces)

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces always plays backup to whatever partner you choose to go with it, but what a backup! It commonly goes with commanders like Krark, the Thumbless or Vial Smasher the Fierce that have strong triggered abilities to double, but most decks are happy to have access to blue.

#5. Sokka and Suki

Sokka and Suki‘s two abilities essentially amount to giving your equipment living weapon. You save a lot of mana when you skip the equip cost, whether you put the equipment on the token or the commander. Jeskai () is a perfect wedge: The meaningful equipment support is Boros (), and throwing in blue for additional artifact synergy only makes things better.

#4. Sokka, Tenacious Tactician

When looking at Sokka, Tenacious Tactician, it's reasonable to compare it to Kykar, Wind's Fury because they have identical mana costs and similar abilities. While Kykar is overall stronger, Sokka diverges from it with a much more aggressive identity due to menace and prowess. You can flood the board then win with a flurry of mass pump spells that boost your team several times over. This looks like a great choice for players who want to play Kykar but don't want the baggage of a well-known, powerful commander.

#3. Fire Lord Zuko

Fire Lord Zuko is an extremely promising cast-from-exile commander due to the addition of white and +1/+1 counter synergy. Cast-from-exile decks are inherently strong because their mechanics rely on drawing cards. Adding board pressure lets you kill your opponents fast enough to make use of those resources and overwhelm them, or you can outvalue your opponents with the built-in flicker synergy.

#2. Toph, the First Metalbender

Landfall is one of Magic's most powerful mechanics, one that offers tokens and card advantage and damage and more just for taking the most basic game action. So how could we make it better? Mash it up with the strongest card type!

Toph, the First Metalbender dares to ask what could happen when green meets artifacts, and the result is explosive landfall triggers from cheap artifacts like Urza's Bauble and Mox Amber. You could go pure value or try your hand at a combo-centric deck that replicates the Eggs strategy with cards like Second Sunrise.

#1. Fire Lord Azula

Fire Lord Azula boasts incredible flexibility, as befits a genius combatant. A spellslinger-storm deck comes to mind quickly, one that wins at instant speed by casting instants like Dark Ritual and Frantic Search to rip through your deck and generate immense sums of mana. But you could go for a more casual, Voltron-style deck that asks how many copies of Monstrous Rage and Dreadmaw's Ire it takes to win a game of Magic. Or you could take it even further with cards like Etali, Primal Storm that use combat to cast spells. Importantly, Azula is still attacking during the end of combat step, when triggered abilities related to combat damage from cards like Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion and Buster Sword go off. Oh, and it goes infinite with copy spells and magecraft….

The sheer variety of build paths and the unique style of a card that needs to be in combat but doesn't care about damage makes Fire Lord Azula the most interesting commander in the entire set.

Wrap Up

Toph, the First Metalbender | Illustration by Eilene Cherie

While there are many duds in Avatar: The Last Airbender due to legendary bloat that makes random uncommons legendary, it has some real winners. The best among them are 3-color legends like Fire Lord Azula and Sokka, Tenacious Tactician that are both powerful and flexible, so you can build them however you like. More of the legends in this set feel like support cards than build arounds, but I still enjoy many of the designs.

Which Avatar: The Last Airbender commanders are your favorite? Are you planning to build around any of them? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!