One of Avatar's most adorable MTG cards is a powerful little force.
MTG’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to hit the general market in the coming days, but following pre-releases this past weekend, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in price.
Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here is an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.
Initially, this card sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.
Upon entering the board, this creature transforms one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.
An ideal partner to combine with includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. However numerous alternative mana dorks available. Another option is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.
By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.
If you dip into another color using this method, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land per turn as well as turns all of your lands into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives every card you own the capacity to produce one mana of any color — including all creatures under your control.
Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match your land count, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests as well as other subtypes. This means, every single creature you control can tap for two G when tapped.
Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).
Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her passive ability allows every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on terrain, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, though, renders each land you control indestructible enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means game over.
Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory in any green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. By including red and green, consider Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures untap and can attack again. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the collaboration.
