🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release in the coming days, however following pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, this small creature garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card has level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk with this card lies in its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available below $30. Following the early events, though, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the board, the cub transforms one land into a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value in comparison.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big high-cost creature on the battlefield early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land every round as well as transforms your entire land base so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana gives each permanent you control the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their original types. This means, each creature you control may tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its stats are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her passive ability causes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, grants all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for every Forest left in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means game over.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck built around earthbend. If you dip into red-green, there’s this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.