🔗 Share this article

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release until later this week, yet due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (arguably the best among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design is its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, this creature transforms a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it is not removed, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures you have that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. Yet there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from that point.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain every round plus transforms every land you control providing all land types. It's also worth trying such as a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the capacity to produce one mana of any color — even any creature in play.

This card could be too strong regarding accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with their original types. This means, each creature in play may generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for your remaining Forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory in any green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and if it hits a player in combat, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature will surely stay one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the collaboration.