🔗 Share this article

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, but due to early access events this past weekend, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design comes from an additional effect: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, however, the market price escalated to $49.66 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs for this little creature? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub turns a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures you have which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Another option is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value as an alternative.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive monster into play early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression after that.

When adding a secondary color using this method, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that can make any color of mana. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land per turn as well as transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the power to be tapped for any color mana — including any creature in play.

This card might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, all your creatures in play can generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. Her ultimate, though, grants your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to draw out every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly the game ends.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, there’s this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.