Avatar The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny

Now it’s up to you and your fellow players to take on the roles of Avatar Aang and the rest of the Gaang to rescue the world from Fire Nation domination. Avatar The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny is a cooperative deck building game for 2-4 players ages 10+. It was designed by Pat Marino and published by The Op.

Setup

Aang’s Destiny is a campaign game that progresses through a story, but the basic set up is the same every time.

On the board, place the shuffled deck of applicable Fire Nation cards, the shuffled Adversary deck, and support cards in their proper places (the first game will have water-bending, air-bending, and general support decks).

Below the boat-shaped Fire Nation tracker, place the Objective deck facedown. Do not shuffle the objective deck. It is intended to be completed in order and will occasionally have reward cards as well.

You and your fellow players will pick which character you will play and take their starting deck of cards plus a Hero card and turn reference card. For Book 1, you can choose from Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Aang’s beloved sky bison, Appa.

Aang starts out with water- and air-bending, Katara is a water-bender, and Appa also classifies as an air-bender. Sokka has no bending skills, instead relying on his whalebone club to start.

Gameplay

At the beginning of each turn, the active player will flip out a Fire Nation card and follow the instructions. It is always something negative, either dealing damage to heroes, forcing you to discard cards, or even moving the Fire Nation ship on the tracker.

Then the active player will look at the active Adversary card and follow the instructions. Some Adversaries act every single turn, others only act when certain things happen in the game.

When both of those things are done, the active hero begins. They take their hand of five cards and play them to generate Purpose tokens (the game’s currency), Attack tokens, heal characters, or draw cards. Then they can purchase cards from any of the Support decks, attack Adversaries, and/or complete Objectives.

Once a player has played all of their cards and used their tokens, they discard their cards and draw a new hand of five cards. Unspent tokens do not carry over to the next turn. Then play passes to the next player.

The one other major element of the game is the Stun condition. If any player’s health is reduced below one, they are not killed. Instead, they are Stunned. They have to discard half of their cards, rounded down. They also have to discard any tokens they might have on their player board. Finally, the Fire Nation Ship on the tracker moves up one.

As the Fire Nation Ship advances along the tracker, it can cause the active player to draw more than one Fire Nation card at the start of their turn. And if the Fire Nation Ship reaches the final spot on the tracker, the Fire Nation has captured Aang and the Gaang, ending the game.

Game End

The game can end when the Fire Nation Ship reaches the end of the tracker, as noted above, causing the players to lose. But the players can win by defeating all of the Adversary cards and completing all of the Objective cards.

Campaign (But Wait, There’s More!)

Aang’s Destiny is not like many deck building games. It is cooperative, and also a campaign game. It follows the overall arc of the television show, spreading three seasons across seven Books. After the players complete Box 1, they can open Box 2 and read the instructions.

Each Box modifies the game. Players will face new Adversaries, tougher challenges from the Fire Nation, and complete tougher Objectives. But players will also unlock new allies and stronger abilities. And if you’ve ever seen the show, you know what happens to the Gaang as the game progresses!

Impressions

When I heard about Aang’s Destiny, I was quite excited for two reasons. One, my entire family loves Avatar: The Last Airbender. My wife and I enjoyed the show when we were younger, and our kids loved it when we introduced it to them. Thematically, this game was right up our alley.

Secondly, Aang’s Destiny didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s a re-implementation of another cooperative deck building game, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. My kids also happen to be big Harry Potter fans, so my son wanted that game. And we enjoyed playing it.

But make no mistake, Aang’s Destiny is not simply a re-skinned game with a new theme. It is a new theme. But Pat Marino and the team at the Op looked hard at Hogwarts Battle and made some big improvements for Aang’s Destiny.

Without spoiling the events of the game, I want to address these improvements. First, they improved the Support deck. In Hogwarts Battle, all the Support cards were in one big deck. In Aang’s Destiny, the Support Deck is split up into the different bending disciplines as well as a General Support deck.

Also, in Hogwarts Battle, the Support deck simply grew and grew from Book to Book. By later Books, the Support Deck was so big that you might never see some of the best and newest cards.

But in Aang’s Destiny, you will not only add to all of the Support decks, you will also take away cards from the General Support deck as you follow the course of Aang’s journey.

The other major change is the hero’s personal starting deck. In Hogwarts Battle, you start Book 7 with the same ten cards you had when you started Book 1. In Aang’s Destiny, you will add to your personal starting deck through rewards gained by completing Objectives. And that makes you feel like each hero is improving through the course of the game.

Final Impressions

Avatar The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny is a great game, in my opinion. Thematically, this game follows the journey of Aang and the Gaang phenomenally. And the game eases you into it. Books 1 and 2 serve as an introduction to how to play. The rulebook even has a provision that if you’re familiar with this type of game, you can jump straight into Book 3 for a tougher challenge.

The first level was simple enough for our seven year old. And oh boy, does this game get tougher as you play. Strategies that work in earlier Books won’t necessarily lead to success in later Books. You will have to learn how to balance pursuing Objectives while defeating Adversaries.

And that is my one slight gripe with Aang’s Destiny. We came across a scenario in a later Book where the combination of Adversaries coupled with the details of the current Objective put us in essentially an impossible situation. So, you might encounter a very specific combination that feels impossible.

But that’s only happened once in the course of many playthroughs. Sometimes, you just realize that you need to shuffle the Adversary deck a bit better.

Outside of that one impossible moment, we have all enjoyed the tension of trying to balance the Adversaries, the Objectives, and the encroaching Fire Nation Ship on the tracker. It gets really tough in the later Books. But that makes victory and restoring balance to the elements all that much sweeter.

Get Avatar The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny on Amazon, direct from The Op, or at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Avatar The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny from The Op for this review.

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