🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release in the coming days, yet after early access events recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon with this card comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives play, the cub converts one land into a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. Yet many alternative mana dorks in the game. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive monster on the battlefield by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating another color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options that generate all five colors. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land per turn as well as transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides every card you own the ability to be tapped for one mana of any color — which covers each creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to boosting mana production, but what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Power and toughness match your land count, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests as well as other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures on your board can produce double green by tapping.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it almost certainly you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. By including red-green, consider Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to a player, all land creatures untap and can attack again. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.