One of Avatar's cutest collectible cards proves to be a nasty small contender.

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release before the end of the week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub attracted significant interest. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage in its design is its second ability: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value jumped to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits play, Badgermole Cub converts one land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But numerous other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive creature into play early in the game. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance from there.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land each turn AND transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides all of your permanents the ability to produce a mana of any type — including any creature under your control.

This card could be too strong in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature in play can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect causes Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, though, grants your entire land base unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, it’s pretty much game over.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on earthbend. By including red and green, you can use this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Even though Bumi is a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.