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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar will not hit the general market before the end of the week, but following early access events over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub attracted a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at G and 1 mana, it features level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here comes from an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available below $30. Following the early events, though, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing such high costs on this adorable card? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering the board, the cub turns a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, while it stays in play, every earthbent land generates double mana — plus other creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for synergy is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But many creatures that make mana available. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a very big pricey threat into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into another color with this approach, examples including versatile mana producers are excellent picks that can make any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play one extra land per turn AND makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides each permanent you control the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness match your land count, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests as well as their original types. This means, every single creature in play may generate two green mana by tapping.

This additional option is a costly, large threat which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her static effect makes Forest lands produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, renders all of your lands indestructible and allows you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has become a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.