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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, however after prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here lies in an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, the card sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price jumped to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

As it hits the board, Badgermole Cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures you have that generate mana.

A clear choice for synergy would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big pricey creature on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly if you keep the pressure on after that.

When adding another color in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any color of mana. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put an additional land per turn plus makes every land you control into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — even any creature under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of boosting mana production, yet how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. Essentially, all your creatures on your board can tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a staple. One of her abilities causes every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, so each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means game over.

The cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of, if not the most popular pick from this expansion.