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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available before the end of the week, however due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, this small creature attracted significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (possibly the best of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage in its design is an additional effect: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price jumped above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices for this little creature? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. But many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous pricey creature on the board within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, cards like versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any mana color. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put one extra land per turn AND transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the power to produce any color mana — which covers all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature you control is able to produce double green by tapping.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well in this deck. Her static effect makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in those lands produce triple green.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes each land you control unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much you win.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, and if damage is dealt to a player, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.