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the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion won’t get a wider release in the coming days, however following prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk in its design comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value escalated to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, while it stays in play, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control that produce resources.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big high-cost threat on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

By incorporating a secondary color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land every round AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to produce a mana of any type — including any creature in play.

This card might seem overpowered regarding boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. In other words, all your creatures on your board may tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities causes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, though, renders each land you control immune to destruction and lets you search for all the remaining forests in the deck. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly game over.

This card is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. When branching into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures untap and can attack again. While that version has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most sought-after card in the Avatar set.