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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not become widely available before the end of the week, however following prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here is an additional effect: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value escalated above $45 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub converts a terrain card into a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to mana-producing creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks in the game. Another option costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon an enormous high-cost threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression from there.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land every round AND transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya. Its stats match your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests as well as their original types. In other words, each creature in play may tap for two G if used for mana.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are based on your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes every Forest produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, placing counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, grants your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have in any green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, you can use this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card from this expansion.