Avatar: The Last Airbender Trading Card Game

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The Avatar: The Last Airbender Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Upper Deck Entertainment launched this title in the first quarter of 2006.

1 Game overview
2 Game system
3 Card sets and products
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Game overview

Players take on the role of characters from the television series, dueling each other in a contest of strength and ability. For example, one player might play as Katara, battling against another player playing as Uncle Iroh. The objective is to be the first to score three points, earned when opponents are forced back into their red zone with no further actions available to them.

[edit] Game system

The gaming system used for this title is known as the QuickStrike system. The intent of having such a system is so that a number of different games (based on different intellectual property) can be made compatible with each other. This allows cards from different fictional universes to compete and interact. There are now a number of card games making use of a similar approach, e.g. the Universal Fighting System from Sabertooth Games.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Trading Card Game is the first game to make use of the QuickStrike system, with the second property being the Pirates of the Caribbean Trading Card Game.

[edit] Card sets and products

The initial release for Avatar, titled Master of Elements, contains 235 cards total - 85 common cards, 75 uncommon cards, 65 rare cards, and 10 super-rare Zenementals cards. Of these 235 cards, 60 are Chamber cards: 30 common cards, 20 uncommon cards, and 10 rare cards. All Master of Elements cards can be identified by the code AME (Avatar Master of Elements), which appears immediately before the number on each card.

The Master of Elements two-player starter set includes 60 playing cards, 2 Chamber cards, a rule book, a pair of playmats, and a plastic carrying case. Booster packs contain 10 cards, typically distributed as 5 commons, 3 uncommons, 1 rare, and 1 Chamber card. There is a 1 in 6 chance that one of the cards in the booster will be replaced with a super-rare Zenementals foil card instead.

Additionally, a number of promo cards have been released. The first pressings of Volume 1 and 2 of Avatar on DVD contain exclusive promotional cards. These cards can be identified by the code APR (Avatar PRomo). Promotional cards can also be obtained through other means. This includes 8 cards which are available as a result of a Burger King cross-promotion; such cards are marked with the code ABK (Avatar Burger King).

Sometime in the future, there will be a second Avatar set titled Path to Enlightenment. The cards in this set will most likely be marked with the code APE (Avatar Path to Enlightenment).

[edit] Trivia

The Avatar TCG features four Chamber Card characters that have not appeared in the show to date: Afiko the Betrayer, Malu the Ghost Witch, Jojo the Kissing Bandit, and Kinto the Waterbender. See Minor Recurring Characters for more details on these four new characters.
The card "Pai Sho Mastery" shows Iroh, not playing Pai Sho, but rather playing the solitaire-like game he played in the first episode of the show.
The card game depicts Airbenders, including Monk Gyatso, during the battle 100 years before the start of the television series. While the show gives no detail on how well the Air Nomads fared before being wiped out in the end, several cards (particularly "Lion" cards, or protective-styled cards) show these Airbenders fighting skillfully. The flavor text of the cards suggests that the betrayal of Afiko was the only factor that allowed the Fire Nation to finally achieve victory.
Some cards from the Avatar TCG are identical in gameplay terms to those in the Pirates of the Caribbean TCG, such as Closed-hand Form and Improvised Tactics. This opens possibilities to add Pirate cards to one's Avatar deck and visa versa simply for visual enjoyment, without imbalancing it's strategy. These two sets are the first of several card games that Upperdeck hopes to release under the "Quickstrike" gameplay.
While some cards are depicted utilizing the artistic style similar to that which is used on the animated series, others are drawn to have an especially strong certain Manga-influenced theme to them.
Conspiciously enough, the spears of the Fire Nation soldiers that appeared in certain Burger King cross-promotional cards did not retain their heads, making it appear as if the soldiers were wielding staffs. The sharp spearheads were most likely removed for the sake of censorship.

[edit] External links

Avatar: The Last Airbender v • d • e
Franchise
Episodes · Media information · Trading cards · Video game
Universe
Water Tribe · Earth Kingdom · Fire Nation · Air Nomads · Spirit World Waterbender · Earthbender · Firebender · Airbender · Chakra
Characters
Aang · Katara · Sokka · Appa · Toph · Zuko · Iroh · Azula Major secondary characters · Minor secondary characters · Creatures