🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, yet following prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card includes the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, this card was available below $30. After the pre-release weekend, however, its value has shot up to $49.66 including listings as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives the board, this creature transforms a land into a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — plus mana-producing creatures you have that produce resources.

A clear choice for synergy is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But many alternative mana dorks available. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive creature on the battlefield early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from that point.

By incorporating an additional hue with this approach, examples including versatile mana producers are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play one extra land each turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the power to produce a mana of any type — which covers each creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures in play can generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

This Planeswalker fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities allows all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, though, renders all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to search for every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red-green, there’s Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage to an opponent, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.