🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market until later this week, but after pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest of the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate jumped to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily because of the explosive mana ramping it provides.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it is not removed, those lands generates double mana — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into another color in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that generate all five colors. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land each turn as well as makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — including any creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but how do you win for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests along with their other types. This means, every single creature in play is able to generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is a costly, large threat which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect causes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, this results in each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, renders each land you control indestructible enabling you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, consider Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt in combat, each animated land become untapped for another attack. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most popular pick in the collaboration.