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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, yet after pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, this small creature attracted significant interest. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk with this card lies in its second ability: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts a land into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it stays in play, those lands yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. However many other mana generation creatures available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from there.

If you dip into a secondary color with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any color of mana. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land every round AND transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider such as this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to be tapped for any color mana — even all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to boosting mana production, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, each creature on your board is able to produce double green by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T are based on your land total).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect makes every Forest produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for every Forest left from your library. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. By including red-green, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and when it hits a player to a player, all land creatures untap and can attack again. While that version has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.