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MTG’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market until later this week, but after pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, it has Earthbending 1 (possibly the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design comes from its second ability: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. Following the early events, however, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy is Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive pricey monster into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression from that point.

When adding another color with this approach, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land each turn plus makes your entire land base into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides all of your permanents the power to produce a mana of any type — even each creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP regarding boosting mana production, but how do you win for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Its stats match the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. In other words, every single creature you control may produce double green if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to your land total).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her static effect causes all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability functions like a form of land animation, placing counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, however, makes each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in the deck. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, there’s Bumi. He has level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again for another attack. Although this card has become a beloved leader, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the sought-after card from this expansion.