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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however after pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card features the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here comes from its second ability: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, the market price escalated above $45 including listings as high as $60. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives play, the cub turns a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus any creatures in your control that produce resources.

A clear choice to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. However numerous other mana generation creatures available. Another option is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive threat on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put an additional land per turn as well as makes your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the capacity to produce a mana of any type — even all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya. Power and toughness match the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own Forests as well as their original types. This means, all your creatures on your board may produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to your land total).

Nissa fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, that means those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, renders each land you control immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger this power, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck that use earthbend. If you dip into red and green, consider Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the collaboration.