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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available before the end of the week, however after prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the strongest of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk in its design lies in another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate jumped above $45 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

As it hits the board, the cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with any creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate a green resource. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon a massive pricey creature into play early in the game. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression after that.

If you dip into an additional hue in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain per turn plus makes all of your lands providing all land types. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers each creature in play.

This card could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness match the number of lands you control, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their other types. In other words, each creature in play may produce double green when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means those lands yield three G.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters on terrain, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in the deck. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.

The cub is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, there’s this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures untap for another attack. While that version is a fan favorite Commander, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card in the Avatar set.