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MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not become widely available until later this week, yet following early access events this past weekend, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in value.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring a single green and one generic mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (perhaps the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: If you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate escalated to nearly $50 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, the cub turns a land to a creature land that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, each affected land produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for synergy is the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous and very expensive threat into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating another color with this approach, options such as versatile mana producers are excellent picks which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing one extra land per turn as well as transforms every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, costing six mana grants every card you own the power to tap and generate any color mana — which covers each creature you have on the board.

This card might seem overpowered in terms of ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests as well as their other types. This means, every single creature you control may generate two green mana when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its stats match your land total).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so each one yield three G.) One loyalty ability is essentially an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory for all green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. By including Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and when it hits a player in combat, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card from this expansion.