I started playing on the DotP demo and I was using the green deck they had you automatically start with. I had been reading up to the game for a month or two at this point very intensively so I understood ideas such as combat rules, card advantage, archetypes, the color pie.
I lost because I didn't cast a single thing until about 5 or so turns in even though I had a few lower cost creatures. I neglected to learn that you can use a land more than once.
Almost everything from this link has been brought up already, but to refer back to I think its a good resource for some of the cool non-traditional things a bender could do. I found it when looking for sand benders (which would be cool in black alongside firebenders)
World Enchantments are probably the closest thing, or even just enchantments in general. Maybe spells or creatures that have a "symmetric" effect when they resolve? That feels too narrow for anything but a small cycle though.
There's chi blocking and just general strength, non-benders could also make an effective WW. Maybe if there's any equipment then white could play with that theme sort of like the Kor. Sokka and Suki are good examples of people with great skill with a weapon to overcome their lack of bending.
Conspire was an unpopular mechanic I believe. I think evoke could work flavorfully with spirits (although probably not as much with the other avatar creatures)
and spirits, which are also an important part of the world.
I haven't watched the old series in a while so I thought about Koh, but one legend does not a color make. Somehow I forgot about the huge amount of other spirits you could pull from, definitely a good direction.
Maybe non-benders could fill those spots somehow with white and black mechanics. If this was set in Korra's time then the equalists would be awesome for those colors, but I think other non-benders could be given an identity in those colors.
Given the speed of some combos maybe misstep would have a place as a sort of FoW of its format. Just a thought but if anybody actually did this I think misstep would deserve a chance just to see how it works out.
It's unofficial because many of the cards were actually printed, but Ethan Fleischer's intro deck from the Great Designer Search seems like an awesome dinosaur themed deck if your friends are willing to try it.
Sadly I can find all of the cards that are in the deck but not the actual list, so I'm not sure how often each card appears.
I always see something about different standards going against each other, what if we had an unofficial tournament where we vote on the most iconic decks of each standard and then have people pick them or have them randomly assigned?
Norin the Wary is the name of this deck for a reason. Norin has a solid interaction with every other creature. The sisters and Champion can gain massive life and be buffed to a massive size. Genesis Chamber only makes it more ridiculous as the side with Norin and 15 other 1-drops will usually get a significantly larger benefit.
This deck started out as rW variation of Soul Sisters, but Black was added for faster card draw. So far I can't say my consistency has lessened any for having it. I know the land count is low, I may drop a card and bump it up to 19 but I think the low curve is sufficient provided the high density of 1 and 2-cmc cards that are ran.
This deck fares quite well against faster opponents, especially aggro, because of how easy it is to piece together my life-gain engine. Even against faster combo this deck has performed well, although to a lesser degree.
My problem is with decks that intend to stick around for a while. Easily Tron and other ramp is my worst matchup and re-animator decks with Elesh Norn are probably as bad. What could be mainboarded or sideboarded in to make these sorts of matches easier? Ideally answers in white as Phyrexian Arena is already a card I may remove for it's non-white double-color cost but upping my red or black mana producing is a possibility if need be.
Pros
Fun to play
Stable Engine (Norin is hard to remove)
Low Curve
Typically Strong Presence
Cons
Tightly packed curve (Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives)
Too slow against certain decks with more inevitability
Elesh Norn / Iona / Emrakul
My least favorite is probably dependency on lands. I don't think I get mana-screwed or mana-flooded more than anybody else so I'm fine with that aspect, but I saw something I liked in a game called Shadow Era. Basically you discard a card face down as a "resource" once per turn instead. I loved all the options with that, but I ended up coming back to Magic because the deck options still left a bit to be desired, mainly because the absence of 5 colors.
I lost because I didn't cast a single thing until about 5 or so turns in even though I had a few lower cost creatures. I neglected to learn that you can use a land more than once.
The stack would be
Enlisted Worm Cascade
Enlisted Worm Cascade
Enlisted Worm resolving
then after the first Cascade resolves Captured Sunlight is played so the stack looks like
Captured Sunlight Cascade
Captured Sunlight resolving
Enlisted Worm Cascade
Enlisted Worm resolving
http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Specialized_bending_techniques
EDIT: I should refresh more often
I haven't watched the old series in a while so I thought about Koh, but one legend does not a color make. Somehow I forgot about the huge amount of other spirits you could pull from, definitely a good direction.
I'd like to help with this in some small way.
Sadly I can find all of the cards that are in the deck but not the actual list, so I'm not sure how often each card appears.
EDIT: Found it
http://community.wizards.com/magicthegathering/wiki/Labs:Gds/gds2/pariah_press/challenge5skeleton
4 Norin the Wary
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Champion of the Parish
3 Serra Ascendant
3 Dark Confidant
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Ranger of Eos
Artifacts: 4
4 Genesis Chamber
2 Phyrexian Arena
Spells: 8
4 Path to Exile
4 Proclamation of Rebirth
Lands: 18
4 Arid Mesa
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Plains
Norin the Wary is the name of this deck for a reason. Norin has a solid interaction with every other creature. The sisters and Champion can gain massive life and be buffed to a massive size. Genesis Chamber only makes it more ridiculous as the side with Norin and 15 other 1-drops will usually get a significantly larger benefit.
This deck started out as rW variation of Soul Sisters, but Black was added for faster card draw. So far I can't say my consistency has lessened any for having it. I know the land count is low, I may drop a card and bump it up to 19 but I think the low curve is sufficient provided the high density of 1 and 2-cmc cards that are ran.
This deck fares quite well against faster opponents, especially aggro, because of how easy it is to piece together my life-gain engine. Even against faster combo this deck has performed well, although to a lesser degree.
My problem is with decks that intend to stick around for a while. Easily Tron and other ramp is my worst matchup and re-animator decks with Elesh Norn are probably as bad. What could be mainboarded or sideboarded in to make these sorts of matches easier? Ideally answers in white as Phyrexian Arena is already a card I may remove for it's non-white double-color cost but upping my red or black mana producing is a possibility if need be.
Pros
Fun to play
Stable Engine (Norin is hard to remove)
Low Curve
Typically Strong Presence
Cons
Tightly packed curve (Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives)
Too slow against certain decks with more inevitability
Elesh Norn / Iona / Emrakul
I'd say I win by default then, but the same goes for Headly