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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release before the end of the week, yet due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card has already exploded in market worth.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub attracted a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here comes from an additional effect: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, its value escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

As it hits play, this creature turns one land into a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — along with other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces one green mana. But many alternative mana dorks in the game. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a very big high-cost creature on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on after that.

If you dip into another color using this method, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad enables playing an additional land per turn as well as transforms all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — even each creature you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, however how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution has been this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns each creature you own Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, all your creatures on your board may produce double green when tapped.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with a high land count (like Ashaya, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands yield three G.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, grants your entire land base indestructible and lets you search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including red and green, there’s Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi is a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.