A standout from the Avatar-themed cutest MTG cards is a nasty compact force.

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t get a wider release in the coming days, however following early access events this past weekend, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (perhaps the strongest within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon with this card is another power: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased at around $27. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate jumped to $49.66 with at least one listed as high as $60. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

As it hits the board, the cub converts a terrain card to a creature land that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate G mana. But numerous creatures that make mana in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive monster on the board early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance after that.

When adding another color in this strategy, options such as these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly that can make any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain each turn as well as makes all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to produce any color mana — which covers all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests along with other subtypes. This means, every single creature on your board can tap for two G by tapping.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a staple. One of her abilities makes every Forest generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so each one yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with earthbend. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants each land you control unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests in the deck. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means game over.

This card is pretty much essential in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on earthbend. When branching into red and 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 can attack again. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.