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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, yet after pre-releases over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card is an additional effect: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price jumped to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub converts a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to any creatures on your side that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But numerous alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play a very big high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling out of control with continued aggression after that.

If you dip into another color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land each turn plus makes every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider something like a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the ability to produce a mana of any type — including each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own into Forests along with their original types. This means, each creature in play is able to generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, its power and toughness match the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities allows every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes each land you control indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in the deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green-based Avatar strategies that use earthbend. When branching into red-green, there’s Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to a player, each animated land become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the collaboration.