Among Avatar's most charming MTG cards is a formidable compact contender.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, but after pre-releases recently, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, it features Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective among the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design is another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, this card sold below $30. Post-prerelease, however, its value has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives the board, this creature converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value in comparison.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big high-cost creature into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate any color of mana. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain per turn as well as transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the ability to tap and generate a mana of any type — including any creature in play.

This card may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it makes your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. This means, all your creatures you control can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, that means those lands yield three G.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, renders all of your lands indestructible and lets you put onto the battlefield every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger the ultimate, it almost certainly you win.

This card is a must-have in any green Avatar deck that use earthbend. By including Gruul colors, there’s this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.

Allen Cobb
Allen Cobb

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