🔗 Share this article

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to hit the general market until later this week, but following pre-releases this past weekend, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in price.

From the initial reveals, this small creature drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the best among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk in its design comes from an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value has shot up to nearly $50 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

Upon entering the board, the cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures on your side that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect would be Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. But many creatures that make mana out there. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you may quickly play a very big high-cost threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding another color with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate all five colors. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain each turn plus transforms your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides each permanent you control the ability to produce one mana of any color — even all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their original types. This means, every single creature on your board may generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, that means each one yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base indestructible and lets you search for every Forest left in the deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly game over.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. By including red-green, consider this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.