A standout from Avatar's most charming MTG cards proves to be a powerful small force.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market in the coming days, yet after prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it has Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage here is another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, this card sold below $30. Following the early events, though, the going rate has shot up to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Mostly thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub transforms a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, those lands produces twice the mana — along with other creatures on your side that produce resources.

An ideal partner for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for one green mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big and very expensive monster into play by round three or four. The situation escalates out of control if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding another color using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play an additional land each turn plus turns your entire land base so they count as all basics. You can also consider something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides each permanent you control the power to tap and generate any color mana — including any creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by your land count, and it changes each creature you own to be Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, all your creatures on your board may generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (like Ashaya, its stats are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, grants all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar that use Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Although this card has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.