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MTG’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to get a wider release until later this week, but due to early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, this small creature drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the most effective among the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here is another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available below $30. Post-prerelease, though, the market price escalated to nearly $50 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

As it hits play, Badgermole Cub turns a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, those lands yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy includes this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that produces one green mana. But many alternative mana dorks in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive threat on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling rapidly by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating another color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that can make any color of mana. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain every round plus makes all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers each creature under your control.

The cub may be OP regarding boosting mana production, however what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, each creature in play may generate two green mana when tapped.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly you win.

This card is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar built around the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.