What it does
Airbend is a keyword action introduced in the Avatar: The Last Airbender set. When an effect tells you to airbend a permanent, you put it on top of its owner's library. It's essentially a "tuck" effect dressed in flavor—removing the permanent from the battlefield without destroying it.
The key nuance: because the card goes to the library rather than being destroyed or exiled, it dodges destruction-based protections like indestructible, but it doesn't trigger "leaves the battlefield" abilities the way dying does (well, it does count as leaving, but not as dying). Players often forget that airbending their own permanent can be useful—and that it puts the card where its owner can redraw it.
In Commander, airbend shines as flexible interaction: it answers indestructible threats, problematic enchantments, or commanders. Note tucking a commander now lets that player choose to send it to the command zone instead, so it's weaker against commanders than it once was.
Iconic cards with Airbend
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