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MTG’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available in the coming days, however after early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub attracted significant interest. A 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, it has level 1 earthbending (perhaps the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design is an additional effect: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price jumped to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. The reason for premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives the board, this creature turns a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. Yet there are plenty of alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon an enormous high-cost threat on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating another color with this approach, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play an additional land each turn as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives every card you own the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — including each creature in play.

The cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. In other words, every single creature you control is able to produce double green when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to your land total).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect causes every Forest produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. Her ultimate, on the other hand, renders your entire land base unbreakable and lets you draw out your remaining Forests from your library. Once you trigger the ultimate, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar built around Earthbending. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cub will surely stay one of, if not the most sought-after card in the collaboration.