🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available before the end of the week, however due to early access events over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the best among the elemental mechanics available). The real boon with this card comes from its second ability: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. Post-prerelease, however, the market price jumped to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, the cub turns one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, those lands yields two mana instead of one — in addition to any creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost threat into play early in the game. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature enables playing an additional land every round as well as turns every land you control into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the capacity to produce any color mana — including each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, however what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, every single creature on your board can generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is a costly, large threat that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, though, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in your deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it almost certainly you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red and green, there’s Bumi. He has earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the collaboration.