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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release until later this week, however following pre-releases recently, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (arguably the best of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk with this card lies in an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate escalated above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

Upon entering play, this creature converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. But numerous creatures that make mana available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive pricey threat on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly if you keep the pressure on after that.

By incorporating another color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land each turn AND transforms your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying such as this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — even any creature in play.

The cub could be too strong when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. Essentially, each creature on your board is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities allows every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands produce triple green.) Her plus ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, grants your entire land base immune to destruction and lets you draw out 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 any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to a player, all land creatures are ready again for another attack. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.