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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available in the coming days, yet following pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, it features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best within the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card comes from another power: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price jumped to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub transforms one land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures available. Another option is a higher-cost choice a 1/3 creature at a two-mana value in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost monster on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate all five colors. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain every round AND turns your entire land base so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers any creature you have on the board.

This card may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, each creature in play may tap for two G when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities makes Forest lands generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, makes all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again and can attack again. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.