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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not hit the general market until later this week, however following prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card has level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design comes from an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold for $26.98. Following the early events, however, the going rate has shot up above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, each affected land produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But numerous alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive creature on the board early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding another color with this approach, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain each turn plus transforms all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the capacity to produce any color mana — including all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. This means, every single creature in play can tap for two G when tapped.

This additional option is a costly, large threat that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands yield three G.) Her plus ability functions like a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, renders all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use the ultimate, this typically means you win.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. By including Gruul colors, there’s this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures untap and can attack again. Although this card is a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.