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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t become widely available until later this week, however after early access events over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub drew a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring a single green and one generic mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the best of the elemental mechanics available). The real boon here lies in another power: If you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, though, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily because of the explosive mana ramping it provides.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub converts a land so it becomes a creature that has earthbending. And with that second ability, as long as it stays in play, those lands generates double mana — along with any creatures on your side which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. But many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big pricey threat into play within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling out of control by maintaining dominance from there.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, options such as versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any color of mana. Another card, this powerful dryad enables playing one extra land per turn plus makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — even all creatures you have on the board.

This card might seem overpowered regarding accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice has been this legendary creature. Its stats are set by the number of lands you control, and it changes your non-token creatures to be Forests as well as their original types. In other words, every single creature on your board can generate two green mana when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (like Ashaya, its power and toughness are equal to the number of lands you control).

Nissa works perfectly in this deck. Her passive ability allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, this results in each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability is essentially an early earthbend, placing counters on a land, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbending. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands indestructible enabling you to search for all the remaining forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, it almost certainly the game ends.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, you can use this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player to a player, land creatures are ready again and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick from this expansion.