One of Avatar's most charming collectible cards proves to be a formidable compact force.
Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, but after pre-releases over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.
Even during previews, this small creature drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub has level 1 earthbending (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design lies in an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.
At its cheapest, the card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value has shot up to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.
As it hits play, Badgermole Cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to other creatures you have which tap for mana.
The obvious go-to to combine with is Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. Yet many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.
Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get an enormous high-cost creature into play within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression after that.
When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate any mana color. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land per turn AND turns every land you control into every basic land type. It's also worth trying for example a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for any color mana — including each creature in play.
This card might seem overpowered when it comes to boosting mana production, yet how do you win for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with their other types. In other words, all your creatures on your board can tap for two G when tapped.
This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).
Nissa fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities allows Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders each land you control immune to destruction enabling you to search for every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger this power, this typically means the game ends.
This card is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. By including red and green, there’s Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to a player, each animated land become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card is a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card from this expansion.