Among the Avatar-themed cutest MTG cards is a powerful small force.
MTG’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release until later this week, yet due to prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.
Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card is its second ability: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.
When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate jumped above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.
As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts a land into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to other creatures in your control which tap for mana.
A clear choice for maximum effect would be the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet many alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana as an alternative.
Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.
When adding a secondary color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain every round AND transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides all of your permanents the power to produce any color mana — including all creatures under your control.
Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their other types. Essentially, all your creatures in play is able to tap for two G by tapping.
This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its stats match your land total).
Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her passive ability allows Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.
Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. By including Gruul colors, consider Bumi. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures untap and can attack again. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, this small creature will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card in the collaboration.