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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available before the end of the week, however following prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs G and 1 mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective among the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage in its design is its second ability: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, the card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price has shot up above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

Upon entering the board, the cub turns one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, while it remains on the board, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice to combine with would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. Yet numerous creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive high-cost threat on the board early in the game. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options that can make all five colors. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain each turn AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — which covers any creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its stats are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests along with their original types. Essentially, all your creatures you control is able to produce double green when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her static effect causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands indestructible enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures are ready again and can attack again. 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.