Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available before the end of the week, but after prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in value.
Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered widespread focus. A 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here lies in another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.
At its cheapest, the card was available for $26.98. Following the early events, yet, its value has shot up to $49.66 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.
When it arrives the board, this creature transforms a land into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures you have that generate mana.
A clear choice to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for a green resource. However numerous alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.
Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression from that point.
By incorporating another color in this strategy, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain each turn AND transforms all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the power to be tapped for any color mana — including all creatures in play.
The cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet how do you win for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests as well as other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures you control may generate two green mana if used for mana.
This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).
Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her static effect makes every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, so each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters to a noncreature land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, though, makes your entire land base indestructible enabling you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.
The cub is pretty much essential for all green-based Avatar strategies focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to a player, each animated land untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.
