One of Avatar's most charming MTG cards is a powerful compact force.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, but after prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub has Earthbending 1 (arguably the best among the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub could be purchased for $26.98. Post-prerelease, however, its value escalated above $45 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly because of the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits the board, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, those lands generates double mana — plus other creatures in your control that produce resources.

The obvious go-to to combine with is this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. However numerous other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a very big pricey monster into play by round three or four. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression after that.

If you dip into another color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers work perfectly that can make any mana color. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play an additional land per turn plus makes all of your lands into every basic land type. Another possibility is something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers any creature you have on the board.

The cub might seem overpowered when it comes to boosting mana production, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests along with their original types. In other words, every single creature in play is able to generate two green mana when tapped.

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

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands unbreakable and lets you draw out your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

The cub is pretty much essential in any green-based Avatar strategies built around Earthbending. When branching into red and green, you can use this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the desired card in the Avatar set.