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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not hit the general market in the coming days, however after prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk in its design lies in its second ability: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. Following the early events, however, the going rate has shot up above $45 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing such high costs for this little creature? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it enables.

Upon entering the board, this creature transforms a terrain card into a creature that has earthbending. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for synergy would be Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that produces one green mana. Yet numerous creatures that make mana available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive threat into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly if you keep the pressure on after that.

By incorporating a secondary color using this method, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain every round AND turns every land you control into every basic land type. Another possibility is something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate any color mana — even any creature in play.

The cub could be too strong in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with their original types. In other words, each creature in play may generate two green mana if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, grants all of your lands indestructible and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, this typically means the game ends.

The cub is pretty much essential for all green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, consider Bumi Unleashed. He has earthbend 4, and when he deals combat damage in combat, each animated land untap for another attack. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, this small creature will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.