A standout from Avatar's most adorable collectible cards is a nasty small contender.
Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market in the coming days, but due to early access events recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in value.
Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (arguably the best of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk with this card lies in another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.
When first listed, this card was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price has shot up above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.
As it hits the battlefield, this creature transforms one land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.
A clear choice to combine with is Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for a green resource. But there are plenty of alternative mana dorks available. This particular druid costs a bit more with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.
Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you may quickly play a very big high-cost monster on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.
If you dip into another color using this method, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain every round AND turns every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants each permanent you control the power to produce a mana of any type — which covers all creatures you have on the board.
The cub could be too strong when it comes to accelerating your resources, but how do you win with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests along with their other types. This means, all your creatures on your board is able to produce double green when tapped.
Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).
Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. Her static effect causes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her main ability acts as a proto-earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, grants your entire land base immune to destruction and allows you to search for every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.
This card is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, there’s Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the collaboration.