🔗 Share this article

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, yet after pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk with this card is its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the board, the cub converts a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for synergy includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces G mana. Yet many creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive threat on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance from that point.

By incorporating another color with this approach, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain per turn as well as transforms your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — including any creature you have on the board.

This card might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, but how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Its stats are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes each creature you own to be Forests as well as their other types. In other words, every single creature in play is able to generate two green mana when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from a high land count (as with the previous card, its stats match your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. Her passive ability causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. By including Gruul colors, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card has become a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.