🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release in the coming days, yet following pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub has level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design comes from another power: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate has shot up above $45 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives play, the cub turns one land to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it is not removed, those lands generates double mana — in addition to other creatures on your side that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks in the game. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates exponentially with continued aggression after that.

When adding another color with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing an additional land every round as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides every card you own the power to tap and generate any color mana — including all creatures you have on the board.

This card may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes each creature you own Forests in addition to their other types. This means, all your creatures on your board may produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. Her passive ability makes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, renders all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. By including red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Although this card is a fan favorite Commander, this small creature will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.