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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, yet due to pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

Even during previews, this small creature drew significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, the card features Earthbending 1 (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here comes from another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate escalated to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits play, this creature transforms a land to a creature land that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land generates double mana — plus any creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner for synergy includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. Yet numerous alternative mana dorks available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous pricey threat on the battlefield by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling out of control with continued aggression from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that can make any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain each turn as well as makes every land you control into every basic land type. You can also consider something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana gives all of your permanents the ability to produce a mana of any type — even each creature in play.

This card may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their other types. Essentially, each creature you control is able to tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa works perfectly as a staple. Her static effect allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control unbreakable and allows you to draw out every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. If you dip into red and green, there’s Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, the cub is set to be one of, if not the most popular pick in the Avatar set.