Among the Avatar-themed most adorable collectible cards turns out to be a nasty little force.

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not get a wider release in the coming days, however due to early access events recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered significant interest. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it has level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here comes from another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price jumped to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits the board, Badgermole Cub converts a terrain card into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus any creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive creature into play by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into another color in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly that can make any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land every round as well as turns every land you control into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate one mana of any color — including any creature in play.

The cub may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, but how do you win for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it changes each creature you own to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures on your board may tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities causes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, that means those lands yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants your entire land base indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests from your library. Once you trigger this power, this typically means you win.

This card is a must-have for all green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.

Katherine Weaver
Katherine Weaver

Aria is a fashion stylist and blogger passionate about luxury accessories and sustainable fashion trends.