🔗 Share this article

MTG’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available before the end of the week, yet due to pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the most effective within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here lies in its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, this card sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — along with other creatures you have that generate mana.

A clear choice for synergy includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for G mana. However many creatures that make mana in the game. Another option is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive monster on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain each turn plus turns every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the ability to be tapped for any color mana — even any creature under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Its stats are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature in play may tap for two G when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect makes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her -8 ability, though, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Once you trigger that ability, this typically means you win.

This card is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, each animated land untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.