Among Avatar's cutest Magic cards turns out to be a formidable compact contender.
the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t 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.
Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design comes from an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.
At its cheapest, the card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing Vivi prices on this adorable card? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it provides.
Upon entering the board, this creature turns a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures you have which tap for mana.
A clear choice for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. However many other mana generation creatures available. Another option is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.
By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive monster on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on after that.
When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain every round plus turns every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate one mana of any color — even any creature you have on the board.
This card may be OP regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests as well as other subtypes. In other words, each creature you control can tap for two G when tapped.
Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).
This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) One loyalty ability functions like a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, renders all of your lands indestructible enabling you to search for every Forest left in your deck. Once you trigger this power, this typically means the game ends.
Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential in any green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. By including Gruul colors, you can use this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player in combat, all land creatures untap for another attack. While that version is a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.