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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available in the coming days, however following pre-releases recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk here is an additional effect: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price escalated above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub transforms a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, each affected land produces twice the mana — along with other creatures you have that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for synergy is Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for G mana. However numerous alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature costing two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive pricey threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating another color using this method, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put an additional land per turn AND turns your entire land base into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment grants each permanent you control the ability to produce any color mana — including all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, but how do you win with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. This means, every single creature in play can generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, P/T match your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her -8 ability, though, grants all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures are ready again for another attack. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most sought-after card in the Avatar set.