🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release before the end of the week, yet after prerelease weekends this past weekend, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here lies in an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available below $30. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this little creature? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits play, the cub converts one land to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — plus any creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. However many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature into play early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any color of mana. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land every round plus turns every land you control into every basic land type. Another possibility is such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives all of your permanents the power to produce any color mana — which covers all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Its stats match the number of lands you control, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests in addition to their other types. This means, every single creature in play may produce double green when tapped.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its stats match how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, that means those lands produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, makes all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is nearly mandatory for all decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. If you dip into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures untap for another attack. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card in the collaboration.