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the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release in the coming days, however following pre-releases over the last few days, one cheap green card has already exploded in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card lies in its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value escalated above $45 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

Upon entering play, the cub turns one land into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it is not removed, those lands generates double mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces one green mana. However numerous other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive threat into play within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding an additional hue in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers work perfectly that can make any mana color. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land per turn plus transforms every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the ability to be tapped for one mana of any color — including each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Power and toughness match your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests as well as their other types. This means, all your creatures you control can tap for two G by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, P/T match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a staple. Her passive ability makes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means those lands generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, though, makes your entire land base indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it almost certainly you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. By including red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player to a player, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the collaboration.