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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not become widely available before the end of the week, yet following pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in value.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness priced at a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk with this card is another power: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the going rate jumped to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub converts one land to a creature land that has earthbending. And with that second ability, while it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. Yet numerous alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play an enormous pricey threat into play by round three or four. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put an additional land every round as well as transforms your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the power to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers all creatures under your control.

The cub could be too strong in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests in addition to their other types. This means, all your creatures in play can tap for two G by tapping.

Another creature 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 works perfectly in this deck. Her passive ability makes all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability is essentially a form of land animation, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, however, renders each land you control immune to destruction and lets you search for every Forest left from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much the game ends.

The cub is a must-have in any green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. When branching into red and green, you can use this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures untap for another attack. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.