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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available in the coming days, however due to early access events recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

Even during previews, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card features Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon with this card comes from an additional effect: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value has shot up to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub transforms a land into a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana in the game. Another option costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive creature into play by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control with continued aggression after that.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play one extra land per turn plus makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides every card you own the ability to produce one mana of any color — even all creatures in play.

The cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their other types. This means, every single creature you control is able to produce double green if used for mana.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well in this deck. Her static effect causes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes each land you control indestructible and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, consider Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most sought-after card in the collaboration.