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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t get a wider release in the coming days, yet following prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring G and 1 mana, the card has level 1 earthbending (possibly the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here is another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, though, the going rate escalated above $45 including listings as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives the board, the cub converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures you have that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. However numerous other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a very big pricey creature on the board by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into a secondary color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain per turn AND transforms every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the power to tap and generate any color mana — including all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what closes out the game with this archetype? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests as well as other subtypes. This means, every single creature on your board is able to produce double green when tapped.

This additional option is a costly, large threat that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities allows all Forests tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, renders each land you control immune to destruction and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to a player, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.