Redirect Lightning – Avatar
Date Reviewed: October 15, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed:
Casual:
Limited:
Multiplayer:
Commander [EDH]:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Coming Soon
Constructed:
Casual:
Limited:
Multiplayer:
Commander [EDH]:
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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