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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available until later this week, however following prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage with this card lies in its second ability: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed as high as $60. The reason for Vivi prices for this little creature? Mainly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits play, Badgermole Cub turns a land into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner to combine with is Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive high-cost threat into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling rapidly with continued aggression from there.

When adding another color in this strategy, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain each turn AND transforms your entire land base into every basic land type. It's also worth trying something like a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana gives each permanent you control the ability to be tapped for one mana of any color — including each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own Forests as well as their other types. This means, every single creature in play can produce double green if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (like Ashaya, its power and toughness match your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a staple. Her passive ability allows every Forest tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, that means each one yield three G.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, makes your entire land base immune to destruction and lets you search for your remaining Forests from your library. Once you trigger this power, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for all green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. If you dip into Gruul colors, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and if he deals combat damage in combat, all land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.