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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, yet due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Even during previews, this small creature attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, the card includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card lies in an additional effect: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, yet, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub converts a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating an additional hue using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain each turn AND transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers each creature under your control.

This card might seem overpowered when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been this legendary creature. Power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. This means, every single creature on your board can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from a high land count (as with the previous card, its stats are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her static effect causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, makes your entire land base immune to destruction and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for all green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. By including red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures untap for another attack. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.