A standout from Avatar's most adorable Magic cards proves to be a nasty small contender.

the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, yet due to early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design comes from another power: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value escalated above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — along with any creatures on your side that produce resources.

A clear choice for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. However many alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive creature on the board early in the game. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression from there.

By incorporating an additional hue using this method, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain every round plus makes all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides every card you own the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers all creatures in play.

The cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, but what closes out the game with this archetype? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it changes each creature you own into Forests as well as their other types. In other words, each creature in play can tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, grants your entire land base immune to destruction enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, this typically means you win.

This card is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Even though Bumi is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.

Hailey Pena
Hailey Pena

An avid hiker and nature writer, sharing personal experiences and insights from trails across diverse ecosystems.