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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available before the end of the week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness priced at G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the most effective within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design comes from another power: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available below $30. Following the early events, though, the going rate escalated above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

Upon entering play, this creature turns one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, those lands generates double mana — plus any creatures in your control that produce resources.

A clear choice to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. But many creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature for two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play an enormous and very expensive monster on the board by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly that can make any mana color. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put an additional land each turn plus transforms all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the power to produce any color mana — even all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, but what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its power and toughness match your land count, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures you control may generate two green mana if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes every Forest produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders each land you control indestructible and allows you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck built around earthbend. By including Gruul colors, there’s this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.