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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not get a wider release before the end of the week, but due to prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card features Earthbending 1 (arguably the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage in its design lies in another power: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value escalated to nearly $50 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

As it hits play, this creature transforms a land into a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures you have which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. However many creatures that make mana available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost creature on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating a secondary color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any color of mana. Additionally, this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land per turn plus transforms your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers all creatures under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. This means, each creature on your board can generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect causes all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands produce triple green.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, makes your entire land base immune to destruction enabling you to draw out every Forest left in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means you win.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, consider this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to a player, each animated land are ready again for another attack. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card from this expansion.