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MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not hit the general market before the end of the week, however following early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design is an additional effect: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, the card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, the market price escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives play, the cub transforms one land to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. But there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a very big high-cost monster on the board early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating another color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate any color of mana. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land every round as well as makes all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana grants every card you own the ability to tap and generate any color mana — which covers any creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match how many lands you have, and it changes each creature you own Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures in play may generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability allows Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly the game ends.

This card is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. If you dip into Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt to an opponent, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.