Redirect Lightning – Avatar
Date Reviewed: October 17, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.83
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.50
Multiplayer: 3.60
Commander [EDH]: 3.90
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’m in a curious position when it comes to talking about the Avatar setting. I haven’t seen all of The Last Airbender, but have seen all of Legend of Korra, just because of what happened to be on TV when I was paying attention. Some of you reading will probably correct me when I get references wrong, which I appreciate! It is not necessarily a setting that I would associate with a Magic adaptation, since it has a unique approach to “magic” that really stands out in fantasy settings. But we’ll see how it goes.
It always seems like redirection effects should be good. We think of the situations where you send a lethal burn spell back at your opponent, or hijack one of the card-drawing spells that they decided to make have a target (how do they decide that, anyway?). In practice, they tend to be too situational and reactive for high-level play; even in control mirrors, there have often historically been better and more proactive ways to disrupt opponents’ plans. They have an interesting niche in casual Magic, where auras and combat tricks tend to be more common and stealing them makes for cool stories. I once got blown out at an Extended Friday Night Magic when my opponent used Divert on a Moldervine Cloak intended for my Silhana Ledgewalker, and I wasn’t even slightly annoyed. Redirect Lightning has the right cost and the right text, and it’s very easy to grant flashback with something like Snapcaster Mage, so I expect to see it around in Commander and maybe even elsewhere.
On top of all this, it’s a Lesson – we haven’t seen much of that mechanic since Strixhaven: School of Mages, but perhaps one of these days we’ll get another Strixhaven set. Maybe as part of a cluster of high-profile releases so tightly spaced and randomly previewed that nobody knows what cards they’ll be playing with or when, I don’t know.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Into the real of Avatar: The Last Airbender we go, and today’s is a doozy. I will start with a warning: I don’t know a ton about this property, so don’t expect any actual evaluations on flavor and fittingness. That said, this card has plenty to talk about, so let’s jump to it.
Redirect Lightning is a pretty intriguing card as the second-cheapest way (in terms of mana) to change a spell’s target. Don’t get me wrong, five life is a pretty steep price to pay if you’re going that way, but when you need to shift something’s target, this is as efficient as you will get, and you usually have plenty of life to spare. In the event that you can’t (or don’t want to) pay life, three mana is still a fair price for this, but a bit of an overpay. It’s nice to have that as an option, though. It also has the fun upside of hitting abilities, which is quite uncommon even on blue’s redirection spells, and that makes this not just a worse option than something like Misdirection.
I do think that the cheapness of this effect is going to make this, unless something else shows up, one of the most sought-after cards from this set. It also has some synergy with Strixhaven‘s learn mechanic and other cards that care about lessons, which opens up the ability to tuck this in a sideboard to fish out when it’s most efficacious to bring out. This is definitely a card I see doing a lot, though, and while being able to only hit single-target spells or abilities is a bit irksome, it’s still a very lovely tool for a red deck to have access to at this price point.
Constructed: 4.5 (maybe optimistic, but this is a very potent effect to have access to for one mana)
Casual: 4
Limited: 3 (depends on an opponent’s things, but throwing a kill spell back into something is always worth one mana)
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.25 (hitting abilities is suprisingly uncommon, and that can sometimes do a lot more work than you’re expecting)
Thijs
Are you as confused as I am, dear readers? Cause I am. Thoroughly confused.
During, no, before Edge of Eternities came out, we saw the first spoilers for Avatar. Then EoE came out and we saw spoilers for Spider-Man, and more spoilers for Avatar. Then we saw spoilers for Lorwyn Eclipsed. Then Spider-Man came out and we were suddenly granted a ‘first look’ at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Which is planned for March.
Now that you’re as confused as I am, we will have to take our first look at an Avatar card. We’re a little over a month away from its release, but hey, 110 cards have been spoiled already, so why the hell not.
Redirect Lightning in itself is not a new idea, we’ve seen cards like Reroute and Shunt, but the little symbol in the top left corner might peek some players’ interests. It’s a lesson card, a mechanic we first saw in Strixhaven. Lessons itself don’t do anything specific, but the mechanic is connected to the Learn mechanic, as seen in cards like Eyetwitch. I just mentioned the fact that 110 cards of Avatar have been spoiled, but so far we haven’t seen any cards with Learn. Those will probably come later, and as a fan of surprising opponents with cards ‘from outside the game’ (hiya Karn!), I honestly can’t wait.
Constructed: 3,5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3,6
Commander [EDH]: 3,6
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