One of Avatar: The Last Airbender's top installments is honored with its own MTG special card drop.
Usually, summary installments are disliked from viewers as a needless waste of time, or perhaps accepted as a necessity for shows in the era of episodic releases. This wasn't always true, but Avatar: The Last Airbender showed it with "The Ember Island Players," a popular installment in its last season which is now granted a dedicated Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair collection.
Highlights of the collector's edition
The complete Secret Lair superdrop for the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender collection was revealed recently. This includes five Secret Lairs, and although one titled "My Cabbages!" is an admittedly humorous tribute to the show's beloved recurring figure, the remaining sets feel a bit lacking creativity, aside from one remarkable entry: "The Ember Island Players."
Drawing from episode 17 from season 3 of the beloved series, this Secret Lair contains these specific cards:
- 1x Phantasmal Image as "Absolutely Accurate Actor"
- 1x Braid of Fire
- 1x Cursed Mirror
- 1x Mask of Memory
- 1x Thespian's Stage
The reason this segment remains memorable
Fans of the show fondly remember this episode, which acted as a recap of the protagonist Aang and the group's adventure leading up to the conclusion. Different from standard summary installments, or retrospective segments, "The Ember Island Players" was not driven due to production constraints or production issues. The show's makers truly wanted to provide audiences a moment to recap the show's narrative, but they decided to do it creatively.
Throughout the segment, the crew watches a play inspired by their journeys at a playhouse on Ember Island, titled The Boy in the Iceberg. The entire performance is wildly exaggerated, cheesy, and overall hilarious. It works since it plays on the characters' views about themselves, juxtaposing them compared to how society (and particularly the antagonist nation) views them. It possesses the perfect balance of meta-commentary, and it ends up perhaps the finest interpretation of Avatar released so far.
Value and cost
Regarding worth, this represents an excellent Secret Lair for one simple reason: Braid of Fire. This specific card is valued between $20 and $40 on online marketplaces at the time of writing, while for $29.99 you can obtain the entire Secret Lair, or for $39.99 for the shiny edition.
Magic's Avatar: The Last Airbender set will be available for advance previews on Nov. 14 and releases worldwide on November 21.