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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available in the coming days, however following pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design lies in its second ability: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, however, the going rate jumped to $49.66 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub converts a terrain card into a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it is not removed, those lands yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures you have which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive monster into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly with continued aggression from there.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, cards like these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that can make all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land each turn AND makes your entire land base into every basic land type. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides every card you own the power to produce a mana of any type — including any creature under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures into Forests as well as their original types. In other words, all your creatures on your board may generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to your land total).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one yield three G.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly you win.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player in combat, each animated land become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card has become a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of, if not the most sought-after card in the collaboration.