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MTG’s special Avatar expansion will not hit the general market before the end of the week, however after early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the best among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design lies in its second ability: If you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, though, the market price escalated to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mostly thanks to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

Upon entering play, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However many creatures that make mana available. Another option is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a very big pricey threat on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling rapidly with continued aggression from that point.

When adding another color in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land each turn as well as makes all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — including any creature you have on the board.

This card might seem overpowered in terms of boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Power and toughness match your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests as well as their original types. This means, every single creature you control can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, however, renders each land you control immune to destruction enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, each animated land are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the collaboration.