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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, but following prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the best of the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card lies in its second ability: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, this card was available below $30. Following the early events, however, the market price has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub converts a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that produces one green mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive threat on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling rapidly by maintaining dominance after that.

If you dip into an additional hue using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain every round AND transforms every land you control providing all land types. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate any color mana — even all creatures in play.

The cub may be OP regarding ramping up your mana generation, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes each creature you own Forests along with other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature in play may tap for two G when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, however, makes each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate that ability, this typically means the game ends.

The cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies focusing on earthbend. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures are ready again for another attack. Although this card has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick in the collaboration.