Among the Avatar-themed most charming Magic cards proves to be a nasty small powerhouse.
the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available before the end of the week, but due to pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.
From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.
When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price escalated to $49.66 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.
When it arrives the battlefield, this creature converts a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — along with other creatures on your side that produce resources.
A clear choice for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. Yet numerous alternative mana dorks out there. Another option is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature for two mana as an alternative.
Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive threat into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.
When adding another color using this method, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad enables playing an additional land every round plus transforms every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate a mana of any type — even any creature in play.
The cub might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, each creature you control may produce double green by tapping.
Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness match your land total).
Nissa fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities causes all Forests tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbend. The minus ability, though, renders all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in the deck. If you can actually activate that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.
The cub is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt in combat, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. Even though Bumi is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.
