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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, but due to pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk here comes from another power: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, the card sold for $26.98. Following the early events, yet, the going rate escalated to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. The reason for premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering play, the cub turns one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus any creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. But many alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon an enormous and very expensive monster into play within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly if you keep the pressure on from that point.

If you dip into an additional hue using this method, options such as versatile mana producers work perfectly that generate any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain per turn as well as turns your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides all of your permanents the ability to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers each creature you have on the board.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of boosting mana production, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures Forests as well as their other types. In other words, each creature you control is able to tap for two G when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with lots of lands (like Ashaya, its stats match how many lands you have).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, grants all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. If you can actually activate that ability, it’s pretty much you win.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck that use earthbend. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, and when it hits a player to an opponent, each animated land untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.