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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market in the coming days, but due to early access events recently, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in price.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk with this card is its second ability: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate has shot up to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub transforms a land into a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. However many other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost monster into play by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options which produce all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land per turn plus turns all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the power to tap and generate a mana of any type — including any creature in play.

The cub may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, however what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests along with their original types. In other words, every single creature on your board is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect allows all Forests produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for every Forest left in the deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it’s pretty much game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red and green, consider this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player in combat, each animated land become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.