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the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, but after early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card has already exploded in market worth.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, it includes level 1 earthbending (arguably the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here comes from its second ability: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold at around $27. Following the early events, however, its value jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains such high costs for this little creature? Primarily thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

Upon entering the battlefield, this creature transforms a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, those lands yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures on your side that produce resources.

A clear choice to combine with would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. Yet many alternative mana dorks available. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a massive pricey threat on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, cards like Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that can make all five colors. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put an additional land every round plus transforms all of your lands providing all land types. You can also consider for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides every card you own the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — including any creature under your control.

The cub may be OP when it comes to ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, each creature you control is able to tap for two G by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, P/T are based on how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, so those lands yield three G.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, which is great though it doesn't stack with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, grants all of your lands unbreakable and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory in any green Avatar deck focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi. He has level 4 earthbending, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, each animated land untap and can attack again. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card in the Avatar set.