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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not hit the general market before the end of the week, however after early access events over the last few days, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

From the initial reveals, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the best of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk in its design comes from an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, the card was available below $30. Post-prerelease, though, its value has shot up to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives play, the cub turns a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus other creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost creature on the battlefield within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression from that point.

By incorporating another color in this strategy, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land each turn as well as turns every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives each permanent you control the power to produce one mana of any color — which covers each creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes each creature you own to be Forests along with their other types. This means, all your creatures you control may tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so those lands yield three G.) Her plus ability functions like a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to draw out every Forest left from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. By including red-green, consider Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most popular pick from this expansion.