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MTG’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to get a wider release until later this week, but following prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it features Earthbending 1 (perhaps the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design is its second ability: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, the card sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, however, its value escalated to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

As it hits the battlefield, the cub converts a land into a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — along with mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for synergy would be the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for G mana. Yet numerous creatures that make mana in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, it's simple to summon an enormous high-cost threat on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly by maintaining dominance from there.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, cards like versatile mana producers are all great options which produce any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain every round AND makes every land you control into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — even any creature under your control.

The cub could be too strong regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to their original types. This means, every single creature on your board is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat that thrives with lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit as a staple. Her static effect causes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands indestructible and lets you draw out your remaining Forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means game over.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green Avatar deck that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, land creatures untap for another attack. Although this card is a popular Commander choice, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.