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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar will not hit the general market before the end of the week, however after pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub drew widespread focus. A 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, the card has Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk with this card comes from its second ability: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold at around $27. Following the early events, though, the market price has shot up above $45 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub converts a land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with any creatures you have that produce resources.

A clear choice to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. But many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive and very expensive threat on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into another color with this approach, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make any mana color. Another card, this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain per turn plus turns your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives each permanent you control the ability to produce any color mana — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Its stats match your land count, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to their original types. This means, every single creature you control can generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to your land total).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect allows every Forest produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly you win.

This card is a must-have for all green Avatar deck built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, there’s this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.