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MTG’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available before the end of the week, but after early access events over the last few days, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design is another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, though, its value has shot up to nearly $50 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

Upon entering play, the cub turns a terrain card to a creature land that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet many other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play an enormous pricey threat on the battlefield by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain each turn plus turns your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider something like a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants every card you own the ability to tap and generate a mana of any type — including all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, however what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their other types. Essentially, each creature you control is able to produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to your land total).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability is essentially an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger this power, it’s pretty much game over.

This card is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar that use Earthbending. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player in combat, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of, if not the most popular pick in the collaboration.