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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market until later this week, however due to pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in price.

From the initial reveals, this small creature garnered significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk with this card comes from an additional effect: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate has shot up to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

As it hits the board, this creature turns a land into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures on your side that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate G mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big and very expensive monster into play within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.

When adding another color with this approach, options such as versatile mana producers are excellent picks that can make any mana color. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain per turn AND makes every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the capacity to be tapped for any color mana — even each creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but how do you win with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer has been this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests as well as their other types. In other words, every single creature you control may generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, so those lands yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, which is great but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands indestructible enabling you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly game over.

This card is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar that use earthbend. By including Gruul colors, there’s Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage in combat, each animated land untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.