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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market in the coming days, but following prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered widespread focus. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon here lies in another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, this card was available for $26.98. Following the early events, however, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

When it arrives play, this creature turns a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus any creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate a green resource. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks available. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a massive and very expensive creature into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate all five colors. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain per turn plus makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is such as this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides all of your permanents the ability to be tapped for any color mana — which covers all creatures under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, yet how do you win for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, each creature on your board may produce double green when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to draw out every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly the game ends.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. By including red-green, there’s Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt in combat, each animated land become untapped and can attack again. While that version has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.