A standout from the Avatar-themed most charming collectible cards proves to be a formidable compact force.

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however after prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card features the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here is an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, the card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, yet, its value escalated above $45 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

Upon entering the board, this creature turns one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it stays in play, those lands yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for synergy is Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet there are plenty of alternative mana dorks in the game. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive threat on the board within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make any color of mana. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing an additional land per turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. Another possibility is such as a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for any color mana — including any creature in play.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its power and toughness match the number of lands you control, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests along with their original types. In other words, every single creature on your board is able to produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. Her passive ability causes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for every Forest left in the deck. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly game over.

This card is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. If you dip into Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player to a player, each animated land are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi is a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.