🔗 Share this article

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market until later this week, but due to prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (possibly the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here comes from its second ability: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold below $30. Post-prerelease, though, its value escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, Badgermole Cub turns a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures on your side that produce resources.

A clear choice for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet there are plenty of alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value as an alternative.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big pricey threat into play by round three or four. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, options such as these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land per turn AND makes all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants each permanent you control the ability to produce one mana of any color — even all creatures in play.

This card could be too strong in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness match the number of lands you control, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to other subtypes. In other words, every single creature in play can tap for two G by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, grants all of your lands indestructible and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much you win.

This card is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, there’s Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.