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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available in the coming days, yet after early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here comes from an additional effect: If you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price jumped to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub converts one land into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures on your side that produce resources.

A clear choice to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive high-cost threat on the board early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

If you dip into another color using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain every round as well as transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — including any creature under your control.

The cub may be OP in terms of accelerating your resources, however what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, every single creature in play may generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect causes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, renders each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly game over.

This card is a must-have in any green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. By including red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player in combat, each animated land become untapped for another attack. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card in the Avatar set.