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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release in the coming days, yet after pre-releases over the last few days, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in value.

From the initial reveals, this small creature drew widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here is its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, though, its value has shot up to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives the board, this creature converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it stays in play, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures you have that produce resources.

An ideal partner for synergy includes Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces a green resource. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks available. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a massive pricey creature into play within a few turns. The situation escalates out of control if you keep the pressure on after that.

By incorporating a secondary color using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land every round as well as makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives all of your permanents the power to be tapped for one mana of any color — even all creatures under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, every single creature on your board is able to produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats match how many lands you have).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability causes every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, makes all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, each animated land are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick in the collaboration.