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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release until later this week, however after prerelease weekends recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, it features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the most effective of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card lies in an additional effect: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. Following the early events, however, the going rate jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering play, the cub transforms one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus mana-producing creatures you have that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for G mana. But there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive high-cost monster into play early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play one extra land per turn AND turns every land you control providing all land types. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.

The cub could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, however what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, each creature you control is able to tap for two G by tapping.

Another creature is a costly, large threat which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a staple. Her static effect causes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, renders your entire land base immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential in any green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. If you dip into Gruul colors, consider Bumi. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again for another attack. While that version is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.