One of Avatar's most charming collectible cards is a powerful little powerhouse.
MTG’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, but after prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.
Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon in its design comes from its second ability: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.
When first listed, this card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price has shot up above $45 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.
As it hits the board, Badgermole Cub transforms a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures on your side that produce resources.
A clear choice for synergy would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet many alternative mana dorks in the game. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.
Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression after that.
When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options that can make all five colors. Another card, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain each turn AND transforms every land you control into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives each permanent you control the power to produce one mana of any color — including all creatures in play.
Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns each creature you own Forests as well as their other types. This means, every single creature you control may produce double green by tapping.
Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to how many lands you have).
Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in each one generate three green mana.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbending. The minus ability, though, makes all of your lands unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield every Forest left in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much you win.
The cub is a must-have in any green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to a player, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi is a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.
