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MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not get a wider release until later this week, yet after prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card features Earthbending 1 (arguably the strongest of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here lies in another power: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value has shot up to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub transforms one land to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, while it remains on the board, those lands yields two mana instead of one — along with any creatures on your side which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with is Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for G mana. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get an enormous pricey monster on the battlefield by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color in this strategy, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad allows you to put one extra land per turn as well as turns every land you control into every basic land type. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — even any creature you have on the board.

The cub could be too strong regarding accelerating your resources, yet how do you win in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it makes each creature you own Forests along with their original types. Essentially, each creature on your board may produce double green when tapped.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its stats are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so each one yield three G.) One loyalty ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, however, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to draw out every Forest left in the deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures are ready again and can attack again. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.