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MTG’s special Avatar expansion will not become widely available until later this week, however after prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, it has Earthbending 1 (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon here comes from another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. Post-prerelease, however, the market price jumped above $45 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Mainly due to the rapid resource generation it can produce.

When it arrives play, Badgermole Cub turns a land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with any creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with includes the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate G mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive creature into play early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly with continued aggression from there.

When adding an additional hue using this method, cards like versatile mana producers are all great options that generate all five colors. Additionally, this powerful dryad allows you to put an additional land each turn AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — even any creature in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong in terms of boosting mana production, but what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Its stats match how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own Forests as well as their other types. This means, all your creatures you control is able to generate two green mana when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats are based on your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so each one produce triple green.) Her main ability functions like a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, however, renders your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, consider Bumi. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage to a player, each animated land untap and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.