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MTG’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market in the coming days, yet due to prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Even during previews, this small creature drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card has Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here comes from an additional effect: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased below $30. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

As it hits play, the cub converts a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. However many alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a very big pricey monster into play early in the game. Momentum builds out of control if you keep the pressure on from that point.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain every round AND turns 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 all of your permanents the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — even any creature under your control.

This card may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet how do you win in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, every single creature in play can generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from a high land count (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly as a staple. Her passive ability causes every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, though, grants each land you control unbreakable and allows you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means the game ends.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, there’s this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land become untapped for another attack. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.