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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, however following pre-releases over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here comes from an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available below $30. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives play, this creature transforms one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures you have that generate mana.

A clear choice to combine with would be the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. However many other mana generation creatures out there. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a massive and very expensive creature on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain each turn plus turns all of your lands providing all land types. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides every card you own the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, all your creatures in play can tap for two G when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit in this deck. Her passive ability allows all Forests produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like a form of land animation, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes each land you control unbreakable and allows you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is nearly mandatory for all green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card is a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.