Magic's Avatar Set: Is the Colour Pie Getting a Bit Stretched?
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
The new *Magic: The Gathering - Avatar: The Last Airbender* set is grappling with a core design clash, struggling to fit *Avatar*'s four elements into *Magic*'s five-color system, particularly the awkward role of the 'black' mana colour. This highlights a broader challenge for *Magic*'s 'Universes Beyond' strategy, where beloved IPs sometimes stretch the game's foundational design principles.
Right, so you know that feeling when you're trying to fit a perfectly round peg into a slightly-less-round hole, and you just kinda have to… jam it? Yeah, well, that's what seems to be happening with the new *Magic: The Gathering* set, *Avatar: The Last Airbender*. And, bloody hell, it’s stirring up a right kerfuffle amongst the deck-slingers.
For anyone who’s ever spent a cozy afternoon binge-watching *Avatar*, you know its heart and soul lies in the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. They're meant to exist in harmony, until, well, the Fire Nation decided to get a bit too toasty. The whole show revolves around Aang, the Avatar, mastering all four to bring back that sweet, sweet balance. Perfectly clear, perfectly four-sided.
Now, *Magic* has its own fundamental forces, doesn't it? Five of 'em, represented by the legendary colour pie. Each slice of that pie has its own flavour, its own philosophy, its own bloody personality, if you will. We've got White (order, justice), Blue (knowledge, trickery), Black (ambition, death), Red (passion, chaos), and Green (nature, growth). These colours aren’t always holding hands and singing kumbaya; their push and pull, their alliances and rivalries, are what define *Magic*'s lore and its strategic depth.
So, when you've got a world fundamentally built on *four* elements, and you're trying to map it onto a system of *five* colours, well, mate, you're gonna have a bit of a squish. Aang, bless his four-element-mastering heart, is naturally depicted as red/green/white/blue, representing the four bending styles. And the bending mechanics themselves seem to slot neatly enough: White for air, Blue for water, Red for fire, Green for earth. Perfectly logical, right?
But here's where the digital tea leaves start to look a bit murky. What about Black? In *Avatar*, villains aren't just 'evil' in some nebulous, shadowy sense; they're usually tied to a nation, an element. Fire Lord Ozai is Fire, Princess Azula is Fire, Admiral Zhao is Fire. But in *Magic*, Black often gets lumped in as the 'bad guy' colour. So, we see cards like Fire Lord Ozai and The Rise of Sozin saga tagged as Black, even though their abilities generate Red mana. It’s like they picked a colour because 'villain = black,' but then immediately had to stick a plaster on it to make it actually *work* with their elemental theme. A bit like trying to summon a demon and accidentally giving it a pet hamster.
You do have some characters who could legitimately be pure Black, like Koh the Face Stealer, who's absolutely dripping with that demonic, secrets-and-treachery vibe. Fair dinkum, he fits. But then you’ve got folks like Hama, the bloodbender. She’s a waterbender first and foremost, so you’d reckon she’d be Blue, maybe Blue/Black for her darker arts. And the Dai Li? Earthbenders through and through, but also masters of secrets and treachery. Black fits the treachery bit, but what about the earthbending? It starts to feel like a design team playing a very complicated game of 'musical chairs' with the colour pie.
This isn't just a minor blip for *Avatar*, though. This is a symptom of a much larger, dare I say, slightly chaotic trend in *Magic*: Universes Beyond. Remember when *Magic* worlds felt… organic? Like the guilds of Ravnica or the clans of Tarkir? The mechanics weren't just tacked on; they were *born* from the world's very essence. Golgari Swarm was Green/Black because it was about the cycle of life and death, decomposition and rebirth. Jeskai was Red/White/Blue because it was about martial arts, strategy, and monk-like discipline. It was a beautiful, cohesive dance between lore and card design.
Now, with Universes Beyond, it’s less about building a world from the ground up for *Magic*, and more about strapping a beloved franchise onto *Magic*'s existing skeleton. And sometimes, mate, that skeleton just doesn’t quite fit the new skin. It’s like trying to wear a wizard’s robe over a spacesuit – technically possible, but a bit clunky.
Take the *Dungeons & Dragons* crossover, *Adventures in the Forgotten Realms*, for another cracker example. They had the chromatic dragons, right? Red dragons breathe fire (Red, perfect!). Green dragons breathe poison (Green, spot on!). Black dragons from swamps (Black, makes sense!). But then you hit the Blue dragons, who breathe lightning – which has traditionally been Red in *Magic*. And White dragons, masters of cold – which is usually Blue. See? Even with a rich, expansive world like *D&D*, you get these little nudges and shoves against the established *Magic* colour identity.
These might seem like nitpicks, but when you zoom out, you see how these seemingly small concessions chip away at the very foundations *Magic* has built over 30 years. The colour pie isn't just a gimmick; it's the philosophical backbone of the game. It dictates strategy, deckbuilding, even how players understand the lore. When you start bending those rules for the sake of fitting an IP, you risk losing some of that inherent balance and identity.
So, what does this mean for us, the folks actually slinging these cards? It means decks might feel a bit less intuitive, a bit less 'right' thematically. It means the game's beloved lore and mechanical integrity might be taking a backseat to brand recognition. And while I'm all for expanding *Magic*'s reach and bringing new players into the fold – fair play, that’s how games thrive – I reckon it shouldn’t come at the expense of what makes *Magic* truly special. After all, nobody wants a spell to fizzle because the elemental forces just couldn't quite agree on which colour they were, do they?
It’s a curious predicament, isn't it? On one hand, *Avatar* in *Magic* sounds like a dream crossover. On the other, the mechanical compromises might leave a slightly bitter aftertaste for those of us who value *Magic*'s intricate design. Here's hoping that as Wizards of the Coast continues down this Universes Beyond path, they find a way to make these fantastic worlds *truly* meld, rather than just awkwardly coexist. This fascinating conundrum was originally brought to light by the folks over at Polygon.
Tags: Magic: The Gathering, Gaming Design, Collectable Card Games, Universes Beyond, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Original article: Polygon