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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available in the coming days, but following pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in price.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the best within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon with this card comes from an additional effect: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. Following the early events, however, the market price jumped above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, this creature converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it is not removed, those lands produces twice the mana — along with any creatures you have that produce resources.

A clear choice for synergy is Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. Yet many other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a very big pricey creature into play within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating a secondary color using this method, cards like versatile mana producers work perfectly that generate any mana color. Another card, this powerful dryad allows you to put an additional land each turn AND makes every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider for example this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana gives every card you own the power to produce one mana of any color — even each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, but how do you win with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness match how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests in addition to their other types. This means, each creature you control can tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its power and toughness match how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly in this deck. Her static effect makes every Forest produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control indestructible enabling you to search for all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate this power, it’s pretty much you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of green Avatar deck built around the earthbend mechanic. By including red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures become untapped for another attack. Even though Bumi has become a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.