Among Avatar's cutest Magic cards proves to be a formidable compact contender.
the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release before the end of the week, however due to early access events this past weekend, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in value.
Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (perhaps the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design is its second ability: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.
At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available below $30. Following the early events, however, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 including listings as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it can produce.
Upon entering the board, Badgermole Cub transforms one land into a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — along with mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.
A clear choice for synergy is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. Yet many alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.
Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big and very expensive creature on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression from there.
When adding an additional hue using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put an additional land every round as well as turns all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides all of your permanents the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — even all creatures in play.
This card might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game with this archetype? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, all your creatures in play can tap for two G by tapping.
Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to how many lands you have).
Nissa fits really well in this deck. Her passive ability causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, though, makes each land you control indestructible and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.
This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.