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MTG’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release before the end of the week, yet following early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card lies in its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, this card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs for this little creature? Mostly due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it stays in play, those lands yields two mana instead of one — along with any creatures you have that produce resources.

An ideal partner to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate a green resource. But numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

If you dip into another color in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options that generate all five colors. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain each turn plus transforms your entire land base into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — including any creature under your control.

The cub may be OP when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, yet what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. This means, each creature on your board can generate two green mana if used for mana.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are equal to your land total).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one produce triple green.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, makes your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, it almost certainly the game ends.

This card is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies that use earthbend. When branching into red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures untap for another attack. Although this card has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.