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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available before the end of the week, however following prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, this small creature attracted a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest among the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate has shot up above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mostly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

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

An ideal partner to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. Another option costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you may quickly play a massive high-cost monster into play by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain every round plus turns your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the ability to tap and generate any color mana — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

The cub could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been this legendary creature. Its stats match how many lands you have, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. This means, each creature in play can tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a staple. Her static effect allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means those lands yield three G.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, though, makes your entire land base unbreakable and lets you draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means you win.

The cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. By including red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Although this card is a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.