🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion won’t hit the general market until later this week, but due to pre-releases this past weekend, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here lies in its second ability: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, this creature turns a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that produce resources.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

When adding another color using this method, cards like versatile mana producers are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain each turn AND turns all of your lands providing all land types. It's also worth trying for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the ability to tap and generate any color mana — even all creatures you have on the board.

The cub may be OP in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests as well as their other types. In other words, all your creatures you control may produce double green by tapping.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities allows every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, that means each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability functions like a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base immune to destruction and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly game over.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, you can use Bumi. It possesses level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures untap and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, this small creature will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.