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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t hit the general market until later this week, yet following pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here lies in another power: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, however, the going rate jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

As it hits play, Badgermole Cub turns one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures in your control that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with would be Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. Yet there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive monster into play early in the game. Momentum builds exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land per turn AND transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the power to produce a mana of any type — even any creature under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, and it changes each creature you own into Forests in addition to their other types. This means, all your creatures on your board can tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to your land total).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect makes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbending. The minus ability, though, renders each land you control immune to destruction and lets you search for every Forest left from your library. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar that use Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, you can use this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player in combat, land creatures become untapped for another attack. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.