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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however following prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card comes from an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. What explains such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits play, the cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it stays in play, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice for synergy would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate G mana. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost threat on the board by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly if you keep the pressure on from that point.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers work perfectly that generate all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play one extra land per turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment grants each permanent you control the ability to tap and generate any color mana — including any creature under your control.

The cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. Essentially, every single creature you control can produce double green when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, P/T are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. Her static effect causes all Forests tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, so all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to draw out every Forest left in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. By including red-green, you can use this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card is a fan favorite Commander, this small creature will surely stay one of the most, maybe the desired card in the Avatar set.