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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not get a wider release until later this week, yet due to early access events over the last few days, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature garnered a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness that costs G and 1 mana, the card includes level 1 earthbending (possibly the strongest of the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design lies in another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the board, Badgermole Cub turns one land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to any creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for synergy would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. Another option is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous pricey creature into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression from that point.

When adding an additional hue with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that generate any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing another terrain per turn as well as makes your entire land base providing all land types. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives every card you own the power to tap and generate a mana of any type — including all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? An often-seen solution has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, plus it turns each creature you own into Forests along with their original types. This means, all your creatures on your board may tap for two G by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes your entire land base unbreakable and lets you draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. If you dip into Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures become untapped for another attack. Although this card has become a beloved leader, the cub is set to be one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.