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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available until later this week, however following early access events recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

Even during previews, this small creature drew widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here is another power: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, its value has shot up above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering play, this creature transforms a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — along with other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost threat on the board early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression after that.

If you dip into a secondary color in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that can make all five colors. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land every round as well as turns your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides every card you own the ability to tap and generate one mana of any color — even all creatures you have on the board.

This card may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. This means, each creature on your board may generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (like 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. Her static effect causes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, it almost certainly the game ends.

This card is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, consider Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt in combat, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Even though Bumi is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.