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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar will not get a wider release until later this week, but after prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design lies in another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, its value jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub turns a land to a creature land that has earthbending. And with that second ability, as long as it is not removed, those lands yields two mana instead of one — plus any creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. But many creatures that make mana in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a very big high-cost creature on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that can make any color of mana. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land each turn AND turns all of your lands providing all land types. It's also worth trying for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides all of your permanents the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers each creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures you control may tap for two G by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are based on your land total).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect makes all Forests produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, though, renders all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

The cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. If you dip into red and green, there’s this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures untap for another attack. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most sought-after card from this expansion.