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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market in the coming days, yet after early access events recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design comes from an additional effect: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, however, the going rate jumped above $45 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

As it hits the board, the cub turns a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, it's simple to summon an enormous high-cost monster on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain each turn AND turns your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the capacity to produce one mana of any color — which covers all creatures under your control.

The cub could be too strong in terms of accelerating your resources, but what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Its stats are both equal to your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures in play may tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities allows every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, however, makes your entire land base indestructible and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly you win.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red and green, consider Bumi. This card features level 4 earthbending, and when it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land untap for another attack. Even though Bumi is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick in the collaboration.