Legacy: Badgermole Cradle Control - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Greetings, Legacy community! Now that Legacy has become the testing grounds for many strategies, it's time to explore the decks that are playing the new cards from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Straightaway, one of the most promising cards from this set for Legacy was Badgermole Cub. And it is living up to our expectations! One of the main decks that is using it well is Cradle Control, in which it can create an absurd amount of mana with the card that names the deck and also interact with fetch lands as well as Wasteland.

Today's list won a Magic Online Challenge 32 in the hands of El-Bebbos. Cradle Control is basically a spiritual successor to Elves. It gave up Heritage Druid, Nettle Sentinel, and Glimpse of Nature, which is extremely vulnerable to Orcish Bowmasters, to play more Midrange elements, like Thoughtseize, Wight of the Reliquary, and Grist, the Hunger Tide. The Natural Order game plan is still here, either to cheat out an Atraxa, Grand Unifier into play and refill your life points with a lifelink threat, or to simply get lethal with Craterhoof Behemoth.

In this context, Badgermole Cub can make this list explode and give you an advantage in mana comparable to the ones decks like Cloudpost Ramp create. A common line is, in turn 1, a mana dork (Birds of Paradise, Ignoble Hierarch, Noble Hierarch, or Green Sun's Zenith into Dryad Arbor). In turn 2, you'll play Gaea's Cradle, use your other land and mana dork to play Cub, and use its Earthbending on Cradle. It is now a 1/1 creature that creates 3 mana (it, Cub, and the dork). With the Cub's other ability, you can get a total of 4 mana on turn 2. Curiously, the same amount of mana Natural Order costs.

As this deck plays lots of creature tutors (Green Sun's Zenith) and land tutors (Wight of the Reliquary), it makes sense to have a toolbox for specific situations. For instance, Collector Ouphe, Sylvan Safekeeper, Keen-Eyed Curator, Bojuka Bog, and Lair of the Hydra, as well as a few other cards in the sideboard.

Finally, we have Once Upon a Time. It'll make this deck more consistent and improve the hands you can keep.

Midrange lists are very appealing for many players (and don't be fooled, this list is named "control" but it leans heavily towards midrange), for starters. However, this list also plays one of the most exciting cards from the new set (Badgermole Cub), has answers for basically anything, and an escape button to win games quickly (Natural Order).

Very few cards have such a dedicated fanbase in Legacy as Gaea's Cradle, and, if a deck can use it well, you can be sure there will be a lot of players interested in it.

Firstly, this list leans on many game plans, as well as many cards to get the right answers early on (Once Upon a Time and Green Sun's Zenith), but it also mulligans really well.

Basically, you want a mana dork in turn 1 and action for the following turns.

Let's see a few opening hands:

Though, in practice, this hand only has 6 cards, as you want Atraxa in your deck and not in your hand, it has everything you want. Acceleration in turn 1, a free Once Upon a Time, and Wight of the Reliquary in turn 2 to start. Verdict: keep.

This hand is also pretty interesting. Hierarch in turn 1 will open the way for a few plays on turn 2. One of them is Wasteland with Cub, so that you can destroy a land on turn 2 and get it ready to destroy another on turn 3. Another is playing Wight and a surveil land or Cub and Thoughtseize, or Wight and Seize, if you get a land that can create black mana. Verdict: keep.

This hand is also technically "one card" short because of Atraxa and less consistent than our first hand. However, it has disruption because of Wasteland, acceleration, and 2 Zeniths to solve problems. Verdict: you can keep it, but you can mulligan it against a few decks.

This hand can also play Badgermole Cub and explode in turn 2, assuming you opened with Zenith into Dryad Arbor in turn 1. Verdict: keep.

Traditionally, Cradle Control struggles against fast combo lists. Therefore, a good portion of this sideboard is meant to beat this type of deck.

Reanimator might not be as popular as before, but both it and Oops still deserve respect. So, this deck plays Endurance and Faerie Macabre to deal with these strategies, as well as a few other cards in the main deck. Force of Vigor answers both artifact decks and Blood Moon, which can be a real problem if you don't have mana dorks to fix your mana. Snuff Out and Abrupt Decay are extra removals for whenever you need them.

Finally, we have 1 Veil of Summer, which is great to catch blue or black decks off guard, and Gaddock Teeg, which might lock down both your Green Sun's Zenith and Natural Order but is a real bomb against some decks.

Other cards you can use in this sideboard are Carpet of Flowers, Dismember, Duress, Ghost Quarter, Plague Engineer, Talon Gates of Madara, Terastodon, and Toxicrene.

Izzet Tempo

Their main way to get ahead in tempo is attacking your lands with Wasteland, but you can beat this with your acceleration. If you can set up a Natural Order with Thoughtseize, Atraxa usually ends the game on the spot. If they manage to play Dragon's Rage Channeler and remove your mana dork, you will be in trouble.

Post-side, you'll remove a few cards that don't affect them and add removals.

In:

Out:

Oops All Spells

As your list doesn't play Force of Will, game 1 will be decided on the coin flip. If they start the game playing, all you can do is pray they mulligan to 4.

If you were lucky enough to start playing, Thoughtseize can buy you some time to find some anti-graveyard tools. After that, you'll add some anti-graveyard cards and try to figure out which alternative game plan they got from their sideboards, like creatures, Goblin Charbelcher or just anti-hate.

You'll remove the Natural Order kit because it is a bit slow. Gaddock Teeg is useful against both Dread Return and Goblin Charbelcher. If you know what they're trying to do, you can remove Sylvan Safekeeper and Springheart Nantuko to get the right cards.

In:

Out:

Forge

Green Sun's Zenith into Collector Ouphe is your best friend in game 1. Badgermole Cub on Wasteland is another way to put pressure on them. The last part in the initial plan is Thoughtseize, which will often hit the right card at the right time. Post-side, you'll remove your anti-graveyard cards and other cards that aren't that useful to add artifact removal and Gaddock Teeg. This card will deal with Karn, the Great Creator, The One Ring, Kozilek's Command, and Ugin, Eye of the Storms.

In:

Out:

Show and Tell

In this matchup, if you play Thoughtseize just right, you'll win. If they hit a Show and Tell, they might end the game on the spot. You'll also have your own "Show and Tell" through Natural Order, so, if you can get a reasonable board, you can use Craterhoof Behemoth even against an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

There's not much to sideboard in this case. Veil of Summer will help you push your spells through, but that's it.

In:

Out:

Eldrazi Stompy

Chalice of the Void can be a real headache, and Thought-Knot Seer can hit one of your key cards. Natural Order should, preferably, set up lethal with Craterhoof Behemoth, considering exposing an Atraxa, Grand Unifier to Eldrazi Obligator's attack can be a big mistake. Both decks usually throw Wasteland across the board. Typically, Eye of Ugin is the most precious target, but letting them play other copies they have could also be great for them.

Post-side, you'll get more removals.

In:

Out:

Badgermole Cub has been making a lot of noise in Legacy and doesn't seem to be losing space any time soon. It definitely doesn't want to face Orcish Bowmasters, but it doesn't die to them immediately like Elves did. The fact that Orcish Bowmasters aren't as popular as before the bans is also a plus.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!