in its cost. Mana abilities that don't include the Badgermole Cub gives green creature decks both a new mana-producing body and an increase to creature-based mana production. When it enters, earthbend turns one of your lands into a hasty creature with a +1/+1 counter while keeping it a land. Whenever you tap a creature for mana, the Cub adds an additional green mana, making the animated land immediately relevant to its second ability.
Llanowar Elves and other mana creatures become more productive while the Cub remains on the battlefield. The extra green can accelerate additional creatures, activated abilities, or a larger payoff on the following turn. A deck with several mana creatures receives broader value than a land-ramp deck whose mana sources remain ordinary noncreature lands.
Earthbending also changes the chosen land's risks and utility. It can attack, block, receive creature counters, and be affected by creature removal. The earthbend effect returns the land tapped when it dies or is exiled, providing a degree of resilience, but bouncing it to hand is a different event. Choosing the land should account for both its mana ability and the role you want the new creature to fill.
The Cub's bonus triggers from tapping a creature for mana, not from every ability that happens to produce mana. A creature generating mana without being tapped does not automatically qualify. Build with a high enough density of actual tap-based creature mana sources so the two-mana investment contributes consistently instead of relying entirely on the single earthbent land.
