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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available before the end of the week, yet after early access events recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, this small creature drew significant interest. A 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card comes from another power: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, its value has shot up above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

Upon entering play, the cub converts a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces a green resource. However many alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous pricey monster on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land each turn plus makes your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana grants every card you own the power to be tapped for any color mana — including any creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP regarding boosting mana production, however what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to their other types. Essentially, all your creatures on your board can produce double green by tapping.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect causes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger that ability, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. By including red-green, you can use this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt in combat, all land creatures untap and can attack again. While that version is a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.