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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available until later this week, yet after early access events this past weekend, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge 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, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card lies in another power: If you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. The reason for Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mostly due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

When it arrives play, the cub transforms a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces one green mana. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. This particular druid costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost creature into play within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

By incorporating an additional hue using this method, cards like these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly which produce any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain per turn AND transforms all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the ability to produce any color mana — including each creature in play.

This card might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, but how do you win in such a strategy? An often-seen solution already is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures in play can tap for two G when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities makes every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, however, grants each land you control unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly you win.

This card is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies that use the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, consider this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. While that version is a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the collaboration.