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MTG’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available until later this week, however following early access events this past weekend, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in value.

From the initial reveals, this small creature drew widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness requiring G and 1 mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design lies in another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, its value escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

As it hits play, the cub transforms one land into a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to any creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces G mana. Yet numerous alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive pricey creature on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating another color in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly which produce any color of mana. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain every round as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives every card you own the capacity to produce any color mana — which covers each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests in addition to their other types. In other words, every single creature on your board may 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 the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, however, makes your entire land base immune to destruction enabling you to draw out every Forest left in your deck. Once you trigger that ability, this typically means you win.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, there’s Bumi. He has level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player in combat, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a popular Commander choice, this small creature is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.