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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card is another power: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, the card was available for $26.98. Following the early events, however, its value has shot up to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this little creature? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub turns a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to any creatures in your control which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate a green resource. However many creatures that make mana out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive monster into play by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into another color in this strategy, cards like these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like this powerful dryad allows you to put another terrain per turn plus transforms all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides every card you own the ability to produce one mana of any color — which covers any creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. In other words, all your creatures on your board is able to produce double green if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its stats match your land total).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so those lands produce triple green.) Her plus ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for all green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. When branching into red-green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to a player, each animated land are ready again for another attack. While that version is a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.