🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not get a wider release before the end of the week, but following prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in value.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the best among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here lies in an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased for $26.98. Following the early events, yet, its value has shot up to $49.66 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, while it remains on the board, those lands generates double mana — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. But many other mana generation creatures in the game. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive and very expensive threat into play early in the game. The situation escalates out of control if you keep the pressure on after that.

When adding an additional hue in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate all five colors. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain per turn as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives all of your permanents the power to produce any color mana — including any creature under your control.

This card might seem overpowered when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature in play can generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from a high land count (as with the previous card, its stats match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities causes all Forests tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her ultimate, though, grants your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

The cub is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. When branching into red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to a player, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.