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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, however due to pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, this small creature attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the best among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon here is another power: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. Following the early events, yet, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub turns a land to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, those lands generates double mana — along with other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive monster on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any mana color. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land each turn AND makes every land you control providing all land types. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides each permanent you control the ability to produce a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.

The cub may be OP regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer already is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. This means, all your creatures on your board may 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 based on how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbend. The minus ability, though, makes all of your lands immune to destruction and allows you to draw out your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, it’s pretty much you win.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.