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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available until later this week, but due to pre-releases over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, it has Earthbending 1 (arguably the best of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage here is an additional effect: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts a terrain card into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it is not removed, each affected land generates double mana — along with any creatures you have that produce resources.

An ideal partner to combine with is this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But many other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big and very expensive threat on the board early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

If you dip into a secondary color in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain every round as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. It's also worth trying for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana provides all of your permanents the power to produce any color mana — even all creatures under your control.

This card might seem overpowered when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, however how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Its stats match your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, all your creatures you control can generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat that thrives with a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, which is great though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly you win.

The cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, consider this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to a player, each animated land become untapped for another attack. Even though Bumi has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick from this expansion.