One of the Avatar-themed most charming Magic cards proves to be a formidable small powerhouse.
the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, however following pre-releases recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.
From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective of the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card lies in an additional effect: 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, though, the market price escalated above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it provides.
As it hits the battlefield, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, while it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — along with any creatures in your control that generate mana.
The obvious go-to to combine with would be Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value in comparison.
By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive creature on the board early in the game. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression from that point.
By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any color of mana. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play an additional land per turn AND makes your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the power to produce a mana of any type — including all creatures under your control.
The cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, however how do you win in such a strategy? 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 makes each creature you own into Forests along with their other types. In other words, every single creature on your board can generate two green mana when tapped.
This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to the number of lands you control).
This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. Her passive ability allows all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability functions like a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, makes each land you control indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in the deck. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much game over.
The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, consider this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most sought-after card from this expansion.
