One of Avatar's most adorable collectible cards is a nasty compact powerhouse.
the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to become widely available until later this week, however after pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.
Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, it features level 1 earthbending (arguably the best among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here is its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.
When first listed, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the rapid resource generation it enables.
When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub turns a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, while it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures you have that generate mana.
A clear choice for synergy is the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.
By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big high-cost threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control with continued aggression from that point.
When adding a secondary color in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put one extra land every round AND makes your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — even all creatures in play.
This card could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature you control can tap for two G when tapped.
Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to how many lands you have).
This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.
Badgermole Cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage in combat, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. While that version is a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the collaboration.