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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market in the coming days, however after pre-releases over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here is its second ability: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts a terrain card into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it stays in play, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus other creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate G mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures out there. Another option costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon an enormous and very expensive monster on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating an additional hue with this approach, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any mana color. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put one extra land every round plus makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. You can also consider something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the ability to produce a mana of any type — even all creatures under your control.

This card could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, yet how do you win with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, every single creature in play can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option is a costly, large threat which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa fits really well in this deck. Her passive ability causes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means game over.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. By including red and green, consider this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, each animated land untap for another attack. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick in the collaboration.