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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available until later this week, however due to early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature attracted significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon with this card lies in an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold below $30. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

Upon entering the board, Badgermole Cub converts one land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. But many creatures that make mana out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big and very expensive monster on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression from there.

By incorporating an additional hue with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain every round plus turns all of your lands so they count as all basics. You can also consider something like a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate one mana of any color — even any creature in play.

The cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests in addition to other subtypes. This means, all your creatures on your board is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect allows Forest lands produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, grants your entire land base indestructible and allows you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, this typically means you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.