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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, yet after prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card has already exploded in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, the card includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here lies in another power: If you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price jumped above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts one land to a creature land that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it is not removed, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures on your side which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. Yet many alternative mana dorks available. This particular druid costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost monster into play by round three or four. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on after that.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, options such as these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that generate any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land each turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the ability to produce any color mana — which covers any creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures to be Forests along with their other types. Essentially, each creature in play is able to produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. Her passive ability causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. Her ultimate, though, grants your entire land base indestructible and allows you to put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the collaboration.