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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to hit the general market until later this week, yet after prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness priced at G and 1 mana, the card has Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design lies in an additional effect: If you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price has shot up above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

Upon entering the battlefield, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, those lands generates double mana — along with any creatures you have that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. However numerous alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big pricey monster on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding an additional hue with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like this powerful dryad enables playing an additional land per turn AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to produce any color mana — including any creature in play.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, yet how do you win with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests along with their other types. This means, all your creatures in play can produce double green by tapping.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in each one produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders each land you control unbreakable enabling you to draw out your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much game over.

This card is nearly mandatory in any green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. When branching into red and green, consider Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, and if damage is dealt to a player, land creatures untap and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the sought-after card from this expansion.