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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, yet after prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it has level 1 earthbending (perhaps the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage in its design is its second ability: If you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, this card was available for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

Upon entering play, Badgermole Cub turns a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces one green mana. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature costing two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost monster into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

By incorporating another color with this approach, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land each turn as well as makes your entire land base so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the power to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers all creatures in play.

This card might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to their other types. Essentially, all your creatures you control may tap for two G when tapped.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability acts as an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, renders your entire land base immune to destruction and lets you draw out all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much game over.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for all green Avatar deck that use earthbend. If you dip into red-green, consider this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to a player, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card from this expansion.