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the popular card game’s collaboration with Avatar won’t get a wider release in the coming days, however due to early access events recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here lies in another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold at around $27. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate jumped above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub transforms a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. Yet there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from there.

By incorporating an additional hue using this method, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land each turn as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. It's also worth trying for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the ability to produce one mana of any color — even any creature under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests along with their other types. In other words, all your creatures you control can generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa fits really well in this deck. Her static effect allows every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so those lands produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, makes each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of green Avatar deck that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, consider Bumi. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.