One of the Avatar-themed most adorable collectible cards proves to be a formidable small contender.
Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, but due to early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.
Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card has Earthbending 1 (possibly the best among the elemental mechanics available). The real boon with this card lies in its second ability: If you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.
At its cheapest, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, though, the going rate escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it enables.
When it arrives play, this creature converts one land to a creature land that has earthbending. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, those lands generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.
The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that produces a green resource. Yet many alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.
By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a very big pricey monster on the board within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.
If you dip into an additional hue using this method, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain each turn plus transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants every card you own the capacity to produce a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.
Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered regarding ramping up your mana generation, however how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with their other types. This means, every single creature on your board is able to generate two green mana when tapped.
Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its stats are based on how many lands you have).
Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, renders each land you control unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, it’s pretty much you win.
This card is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures untap for another attack. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.