Among the Avatar-themed cutest collectible cards turns out to be a nasty small force.
Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t get a wider release in the coming days, but after pre-releases recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.
Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon in its design lies in its second ability: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.
At its cheapest, the card was available for $26.98. Following the early events, however, the going rate escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.
As it hits play, this creature transforms a land into a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, as long as it is not removed, each affected land produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures in your control that produce resources.
The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value instead.
By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost creature on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.
When adding another color in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land per turn AND transforms your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers all creatures in play.
Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes each creature you own into Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, every single creature on your board is able to generate two green mana by tapping.
This additional option is a costly, large threat that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T are based on your land total).
Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit in this deck. Her passive ability makes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, though, makes each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.
The cub is a must-have in any green-based Avatar strategies that use the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt in combat, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most sought-after card in the collaboration.