🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release in the coming days, however after prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in value.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the best of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here comes from its second ability: If you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms one land to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner for synergy would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces a green resource. Yet there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play a very big pricey monster on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression after that.

When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put one extra land per turn as well as transforms your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for any color mana — which covers any creature you have on the board.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match your land count, plus it turns each creature you own Forests along with their other types. In other words, all your creatures on your board can generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. Her ultimate, though, renders your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, this typically means you win.

This card is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around Earthbending. When branching into red and green, there’s Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to an opponent, each animated land untap and can attack again. Although this card has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick from this expansion.