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the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion will not hit the general market in the coming days, yet after prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card has already exploded in market worth.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring G and 1 mana, it has Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage in its design is another power: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, the cub converts a land into a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. However numerous creatures that make mana out there. Another option is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive monster on the board early in the game. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating another color in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain each turn as well as makes your entire land base so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives every card you own the capacity to produce one mana of any color — even all creatures under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is this legendary creature. Its stats are set by your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with their original types. This means, every single creature you control may produce double green when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so each one yield three G.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base unbreakable and lets you search for your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for all green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage to an opponent, each animated land untap for another attack. While that version has emerged as a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.