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the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release until later this week, but due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness requiring G and 1 mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest within the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage here is an additional effect: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, this card was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the going rate escalated to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts one land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner for maximum effect includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But numerous creatures that make mana available. Another option is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature on the battlefield early in the game. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put an additional land every round plus makes all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers any creature under your control.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures you control may produce double green by tapping.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats are based on your land total).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, grants your entire land base immune to destruction enabling you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. By including red-green, consider Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures untap and can attack again. Although this card has become a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card from this expansion.