: Add 
for each creature you control.Gaea’s Cradle turns a developed creature board into a large source of green mana. Tapping it adds one green for each creature you control, making it especially useful in Elf, token, and creature-combo decks. Even small utility creatures contribute to its output, so ordinary development can make the land much stronger as a game progresses.
Avenger of Zendikar can create a large collection of Plants that immediately increase Cradle’s production. Summoning sickness does not prevent those creatures from being counted, since Cradle’s ability does not ask them to tap. A creature deck can then use the mana for Finale of Devastation, Craterhoof Behemoth, or another play that turns its existing board into a finishing attack.
Untap effects provide additional opportunities to use the same land. Deserted Temple can untap Cradle for another activation when the creature count makes the extra mana worthwhile. Land tutors such as Crop Rotation can find it when the board is ready, allowing a lands package to supply a burst at the point when the deck has something useful to do with it.
Cradle produces no mana without creatures, so it is an unreliable opening source when the hand cannot establish a body first. A sweeper can also remove much of its output in one action. It produces green rather than unrestricted colors, and it is legendary. Keep enough conventional lands and color fixing to operate before the creature board develops, using Cradle as the payoff for building that board rather than the only way to begin.
