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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release before the end of the week, however due to pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes level 1 earthbending (perhaps the strongest of the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card is another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, the going rate escalated above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the board, the cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, while it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus other creatures in your control that produce resources.

An ideal partner to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. However many creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, it's simple to summon an enormous and very expensive creature on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from that point.

By incorporating another color in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain each turn as well as transforms your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides all of your permanents the power to tap and generate any color mana — even any creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to other subtypes. In other words, every single creature in play may generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, makes all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means you win.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, each animated land become untapped and may attack once more. While that version is a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card from this expansion.