Among the Avatar-themed cutest Magic cards proves to be a formidable compact contender.

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, but due to prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature attracted a lot of attention. A 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub has level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest of the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here is an additional effect: If you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms one land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces one green mana. However many other mana generation creatures in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive pricey creature on the board early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression after that.

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, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land every round as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the ability to tap and generate one mana of any color — including any creature in play.

This card could be too strong in terms of ramping up your mana generation, however what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its stats are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to their original types. This means, each creature in play may produce double green when tapped.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. Her passive ability causes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her main ability functions like a form of land animation, adding counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her -8 ability, though, renders all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you draw out every Forest left in the deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have in any green Avatar deck that use earthbend. By including red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.