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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not hit the general market before the end of the week, however following pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, its value has shot up above $45 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, the cub turns a terrain card into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — plus mana-producing creatures you have that produce resources.

A clear choice for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost monster on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding another color with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain each turn AND turns all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides each permanent you control the power to produce a mana of any type — which covers each creature in play.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, but how do you win in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer already is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own into Forests along with their other types. In other words, every single creature you control may tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. Her passive ability allows all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so those lands yield three G.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands indestructible and allows you to search for every Forest left in the deck. Should you manage to use this power, it’s pretty much you win.

This card is pretty much essential in any green-based Avatar strategies built around Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, consider Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to a player, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most popular pick in the collaboration.