🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not get a wider release until later this week, but due to early access events this past weekend, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the best among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here comes from another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, this card was available for $26.98. Following the early events, however, its value escalated above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Primarily thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — plus any creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with is Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However numerous alternative mana dorks available. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive monster on the battlefield by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from that point.

By incorporating another color in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain each turn AND makes every land you control providing all land types. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — which covers all creatures in play.

The cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, however how do you win with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their other types. In other words, each creature on your board may tap for two G when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands indestructible and lets you draw out every Forest left in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, there’s this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, and when it hits a player in combat, land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.