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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available in the coming days, yet after pre-releases recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub drew widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, it has Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card lies in an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card sold below $30. Following the early events, however, the going rate jumped above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect would be the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. But there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big and very expensive monster into play early in the game. The situation escalates out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding another color in this strategy, cards like versatile mana producers are all great options that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play an additional land per turn as well as turns all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the ability to tap and generate any color mana — which covers all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of accelerating your resources, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures you control is able to produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (as with the previous card, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities allows all Forests produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests produce triple green.) One loyalty ability functions like an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to draw out your remaining Forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, consider this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again for another attack. While that version has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.