Badgermole Cub Delivers Landslide Value: 5 Absurdly Effective Plays

Magic: The Gatherings Avatar set has been out during prerelease week for a while now, and it finally launches tomorrow. Although community morale about Universes Beyond has been on the low side since the Spider-Man debacle and the announcement that next year will feature four UB Standard sets in total, Avatar has a lot of hype surrounding it, and it's been very well received. With interesting mechanics that perfectly encapsulate what the Avatar IP is all about, the new Magic: The Gathering the set has a lot of potential for interesting play and cool combinations. One of the new outstanding cards is already ready, and that is Badgermole Cub.

If it is something like MTG players learned during the prerelease period of the Avatar set is that certain cards and mechanics can be broken incredibly with a dedicated deck, which is especially true for airbending and earthbending. Waterbending is a powerful mechanic, but it can be less game-changing than others. Firebending is extremely powerful with the right mana drain, such as MTGs Zhao, Moon Slayer, who can get a counter on himself for 7 mana and turn all non-basic lands into mountains. But airbending and earthbending can dramatically reshape a game, and Badgermole Cub is the perfect example of the latter.

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The Best Badgermole Cub Combos in Magic: The Gathering Explained

Badgermole Cub Breaks Fetchlands

Fetchlands are land cards that allow you to sacrifice them, pay 1 life, search your library for a basic land, and put it into play. This is a great way to thin out the deck and have the exact land type you need all the time, and it's especially strong because the newly played lands come in untapped. Avatar's earthbend mechanic i MTG lets you turn any land into a creature with haste and a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the earthbending value, and when the land creature dies, it returns to the battlefield. So yeah, that means you can play Badgermole Cub and earthbend a fetch land, sacrifice it to get a basic land into play, and then the fetch land returns to the field for you to use again next turn.

Badgermole Cub + Llanowar Alves can reshape standard

Badgermole Cub has an ability that reads “When you tap a creature for mana, add an extra green mana”, which means you can effectively cast Llanowar Elves on turn 1, then Badgermole Cub on turn 2, and immediately have two more mana to cast something else. This works on all mana monsters, meaning creatures that can tap for mana, like the iconic Birds of Paradise, found in MTGs Final Fantasy Chocobo Bundle. Since both Llanowar Elves and Badgermole Cub are legal in Standard, this could be the core of a new Green Stompy deck.

This combo can be taken even further by adding fetchland into the mix, playing a fetchland on turn 2, and using the first combo explained above along with another mana dork, a mana rock, or maybe even another Badgermole Cub, giving you 8-10 mana on turn 3.

How Badgermole Cub can make Commander's most hated playstyle worse

Depending on who is asked, one of the most heinous offenses in a Commander game is when a player at the table uses mass land destruction, as it can set a given game back many turns, make the game longer, and ruin combos for others. However, tools like Strip Mine and Wasteland are more socially acceptable because they target a specific land. The problem is that you can earth bend both Strip Mine and Wasteland with Badgermole Cub, meaning they can be used twice to destroy opposing lands as they return to the field after being used.

This works with all earthbend cards, but Badgermole Cub is one of the cheapest in terms of mana cost.

Badgermole Cub adds much more value to your Urza's saga

Urza's Saga is arguably one of the most iconic cards in the game right now, and it's extremely powerful in artifact decks. Since this is both a land and a saga, it can be the target of earthbend, meaning it will return to the field once its third chapter is complete. The powerful effect of this is that players can create tokens from Urza's Saga twice (once in Chapter 2 and then in Chapter 3), and then repeat the process when the land comes back into play, thanks to earthbend. This can be further enhanced with cards like Life from the Loam or Edge of Eternities' Icetill Explorer, which repeatedly cycle Urza's Saga back into play.

Two Commander Staples Create a powerful infinite combo with Badgermole Cub

There are many cards that either break Badgermole Cub or are broken by it, and this includes the popular Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, and Zuran Orb. These are powerful cards i MTG Commander decks on their own, but they are often part of some combo strategy. In this case, if both are on the field and you cast Badgermole Cub, it can bend itself due to being a forest, thanks to Ashaya. Then the Zuran Orb can be activated by sacrificing the earthbend Badgermole Cub to gain 2 life, meaning the Badgermole Cub comes back into play, its ETB earthbend ability triggers again, and since it's still a forest, it can trigger itself to repeat the cycle over and over. Achieving this rewards you with: