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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set will not become widely available until later this week, but following prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring G and 1 mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the best among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here is an additional effect: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card was available for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price has shot up to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives the board, this creature converts a land to a creature land with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, those lands yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. But there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon a very big and very expensive threat into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.

By incorporating a secondary color in this strategy, cards like versatile mana producers are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land each turn AND turns every land you control into every basic land type. It's also worth trying for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana provides every card you own the power to produce a mana of any type — even all creatures under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their original types. Essentially, each creature you control is able to produce double green if used for mana.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from a high land count (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows every Forest generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control unbreakable enabling you to draw out your remaining Forests in the deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red-green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to a player, all land creatures are ready again for another attack. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, this small creature is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.