One of the Avatar-themed cutest collectible cards turns out to be a formidable small powerhouse.

MTG’s special Avatar expansion will not hit the general market in the coming days, but following pre-releases recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, it features Earthbending 1 (perhaps the most effective within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design lies in its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold below $30. Following the early events, yet, its value has shot up to nearly $50 with at least one listed as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, the cub converts a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures on your side that generate mana.

A clear choice to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. Yet there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. Another option costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get a massive pricey creature on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling out of control with continued aggression from that point.

When adding a secondary color using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that generate any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land per turn as well as turns all of your lands providing all land types. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives every card you own the ability to produce any color mana — which covers each creature in play.

This card may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness match how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, every single creature on your board can tap for two G by tapping.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness match your land total).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. One of her abilities causes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, grants all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for all decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, you can use this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi is a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the collaboration.