Among the Avatar-themed cutest MTG cards turns out to be a formidable little contender.
Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not hit the general market until later this week, however after early access events this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in market worth.
Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design comes from its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.
When first listed, this card sold at around $27. Following the early events, though, the market price jumped to $49.66 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.
As it hits play, this creature converts a land to a creature land that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it remains on the board, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures you have that produce resources.
A clear choice for synergy is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. Yet many creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.
Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive monster into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.
When adding another color with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put an additional land per turn AND turns every land you control providing all land types. It's also worth trying for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides every card you own the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — which covers any creature in play.
Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, however what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to their other types. In other words, all your creatures on your board is able to tap for two G by tapping.
Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).
This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities causes every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, renders all of your lands immune to destruction and allows you to draw out every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much game over.
Badgermole Cub is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt in combat, all land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most sought-after card in the Avatar set.