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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available until later this week, however due to prerelease weekends this past weekend, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, this card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub turns a land into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. This particular druid costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost threat into play within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain every round as well as transforms every land you control providing all land types. You can also consider for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides each permanent you control the ability to be tapped for any color mana — including all creatures under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests along with their other types. This means, all your creatures you control is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. Her passive ability allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, renders all of your lands indestructible enabling you to draw out your remaining Forests from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

The cub is pretty much essential in any green-based Avatar strategies that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, each animated land are ready again for another attack. Even though Bumi is a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be one of, if not the most sought-after card in the collaboration.