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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available in the coming days, however following prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card features level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon in its design comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. Following the early events, though, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

As it hits the board, this creature turns one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with other creatures on your side that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. Yet many alternative mana dorks in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put an additional land each turn AND makes all of your lands providing all land types. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the power to produce a mana of any type — which covers any creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered in terms of boosting mana production, however what closes out the game with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature you control may tap for two G by tapping.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its stats are equal to the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, on the other hand, renders all of your lands unbreakable and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use the ultimate, this typically means game over.

The cub is nearly mandatory for all decks using green and Avatar that use Earthbending. When branching into red-green, consider this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage to a player, all land creatures untap for another attack. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most popular pick from this expansion.