Among the Avatar-themed most adorable MTG cards turns out to be a nasty compact contender.

MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not get a wider release before the end of the week, but due to early access events over the last few days, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here lies in its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. Following the early events, though, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 including listings as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub turns a terrain card into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — along with mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive creature on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers work perfectly that generate any color of mana. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain every round plus transforms every land you control providing all land types. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides all of your permanents the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers all creatures in play.

This card could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, each creature in play may generate two green mana when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from a high land count (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a staple. Her static effect allows all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, though, makes your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to draw out every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, it almost certainly game over.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on earthbend. If you dip into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.

Eric Osborn
Eric Osborn

A passionate gaming expert and content creator, Lena explores the latest trends in digital entertainment and shares insights with her audience.