Powerfully Villainous Card Becomes Most Popular Avatar Commander

Last updated on December 1, 2025

Azula Always Lies | Illustration by Robin Har

Not too long ago we did an analysis of just how many Universes Beyond commanders are sneaking into EDHREC's Top 100 Commanders list, and we found that roughly a fifth of the list was occupied by UB legends. There's some recency bias there since EDHREC only tracks decklists from the last two years, but it's also undeniable proof that UB has had a profound impact on the game, and Commander in general.

After Marvel's Spider-Man failed to put any top commanders on the list, Avatar: The Last Airbender looks like it'll represent a return to form with not one, but two potential top candidates coming out of the set. That's not too surprising for a set with over 100 new legendary creatures!

Fire Lord Azula

Fire Lord Azula has zipped past the competition, and looks like it'll break into the Top 100 soon enough. The new Grixis commander is currently positioned at #1 from Avatar, and #137 overall, which is impressive for a commander that was only spoiled about a month ago. With roughly 11,000 total decklists attributed to Azula, people have made it very clear that it's likely to take a spot on the Top 100 in just a couple of weeks.

Whenever a commander hits the 10k mark this quickly, it usually lands in the list pretty soon thereafter. As of today, the number to beat is 12,683 with Sythis, Harvest's Hand at rank #100. The bottom 10ish entries all hover in the 12,000-13,000 decklist range and move in and out of the top 100 frequently, so anything approaching those numbers this soon after release feels like a surefire hit.

Azula's appeal isn't exactly a mystery, either. It has casual and competitive potential, so it appeals to a wide audience. It's also inherently powerful and occupies a space that few other commanders compete with, and novelty + inherent power is always a recipe for a successful commander. It's also in Grixis colors (), which is a popular and powerful color combination in Commander.

Being able to copy anything you cast mid-combat is a gnarly ability. You can fire off a Reverberate combo, or just cast a card draw instant and be set for the rest of the game. It's especially fun with flash creatures or Leyline of Anticipation to let you copy anything and everything. Azula's a bit reminiscent of Kalamax, the Stormsire, but with much more explosive potential. It also generates mana with firebending, and mana production is king in Commander. In other words, it pushes all the right buttons while still feeling imminently fair since it has to be attacking to make any of this matter at all.

Toph, the First Metalbender

Toph, the First Metalbender looked like the early frontrunner for best Avatar commander… until the Fire Nation attacked. It's still climbing at a stead rate, breaching the 10k mark with 10,167 decklists as of today, but it was also previewed much earlier in Avatar‘s spoiler cycle, so it's further proof at just how quickly Azula's rising in the ranks.

Toph doesn't hit quite all the same marks as Azula, but it nails it as a novel commander design. Naya () isn't exactly known for its ingenuity, yet Toph somehow feels like no other Naya commander we've seen before. Combining land and artifact synergies is interesting territory for this color trio, and the ability is open-ended enough to let people explore a bunch of different builds.

Again, there's casual appeal here, as there often is with land-centric commanders, but there's also competitive viability and combo potential if you want to go that route. Naya Toph's a bit of a canvas for players to work with, and puts the earthbending mechanic on full display.

No Third Place

Avatar Aang | Illustration by Fahmi Fauzi

While Azula and Toph have a great, almost deterministic shot at the Top 100, that's pretty much it from Avatar. The third place commander from the set is Avatar Aang, which is not only sitting below 6k decks, but is also parasitic enough of a commander that there's no reason to assume people will be playing the card a year from now. After all, when are you going to see more bending cards printed in future sets?

Iroh, Grand Lotus and Fire Lord Zuko are #4 and #5, respectively, both in the 4k-5k decklist range. While Fire Lord Zuko has a similar open-endedness to the #1 and #2 slots, it just hasn't captured people the same way Azula has. People love a good villain, after all. Iroh's novel as a lessons commander, sure, but it's parasitic in the same way that Avatar Aang is. Maybe it'll get another bump in popularity when Secrets of Strixhaven releases next year, assuming lesson/learn returns in some form.

While we're here, it felt necessary to reach out to the two brave souls who built Sokka, Wolf Cove's Protector. Everything good, folks? You feeling alright? And can we get a little love for our boy Pipsqueak, Rebel Strongarm while we're at it? Poor Pipsqueak clocks in as Avatar‘s least popular commander, as the only legend in the set with literally 0 decks on EDHREC. In due time, Pipsqueak.