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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release until later this week, yet after early access events recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card is an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, the card was available below $30. Post-prerelease, however, its value escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

When it arrives play, the cub turns one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy would be Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, plus the cub, you may quickly play a massive high-cost threat on the board by round three or four. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression after that.

When adding another color using this method, options such as versatile mana producers are excellent picks that generate any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing an additional land each turn AND turns your entire land base providing all land types. Another possibility is something like a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — including all creatures in play.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it changes each creature you own to be Forests along with their original types. This means, all your creatures on your board may generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities causes Forest lands produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants your entire land base unbreakable and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means you win.

The cub is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around Earthbending. By including red and green, you can use this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.