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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, but following prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, the card has Earthbending 1 (possibly the best within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon in its design lies in an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. Following the early events, though, its value escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. The reason for premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, this creature transforms one land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with any creatures you have that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. However many creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous and very expensive threat on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.

If you dip into another color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers work perfectly that generate any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain per turn as well as makes all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — which covers any creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, but how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to their original types. This means, every single creature on your board may generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is a costly, large threat which gains from a high land count (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities causes all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to search for every Forest left in your deck. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red and green, there’s this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt in combat, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card from this expansion.