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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available until later this week, but due to early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk here is another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value jumped to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. However many other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous high-cost monster into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling rapidly if you keep the pressure on after that.

If you dip into another color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put an additional land every round as well as makes every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider such as this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides every card you own the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — including all creatures under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures into Forests in addition to other subtypes. In other words, every single creature on your board is able to produce double green by tapping.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are based on your land total).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability allows all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control immune to destruction and lets you search for every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

This card is nearly mandatory in any green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, there’s Bumi. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when it hits a player in combat, each animated land untap and may attack once more. While that version is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most sought-after card in the Avatar set.