🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available before the end of the week, however after prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in value.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here lies in its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, its value escalated to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits play, Badgermole Cub transforms a land to a creature land that has earthbending. And with that second ability, while it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus any creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice to combine with includes this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But numerous alternative mana dorks available. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play an enormous and very expensive threat on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into a secondary color with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any color of mana. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land every round AND turns all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the power to produce any color mana — including each creature you have on the board.

The cub could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by how many lands you have, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature on your board is able to generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its stats match your land total).

Nissa fits really well in this deck. Her static effect causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in those lands yield three G.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, placing counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders all of your lands unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, this typically means game over.

This card is nearly mandatory in any green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, and if damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. Although this card has become a beloved leader, this small creature will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.