One of Avatar's cutest collectible cards proves to be a nasty small contender.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not get a wider release in the coming days, however following prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

Even during previews, this small creature garnered a lot of attention. A 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price jumped above $45 including listings for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, this creature converts one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, each affected land produces twice the mana — along with mana-producing creatures in your control that produce resources.

An ideal partner for synergy is the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. However many alternative mana dorks available. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana 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. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from that point.

If you dip into another color in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain every round plus turns your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives every card you own the power to tap and generate any color mana — which covers all creatures in play.

This card might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Its stats are set by how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests in addition to their other types. This means, all your creatures you control may tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities causes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, renders all of your lands unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means you win.

This card is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again for another attack. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.

Ariel Gonzalez
Ariel Gonzalez

A seasoned domain investor with over a decade of experience in digital asset management and market analysis.