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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, but following early access events over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in value.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes level 1 earthbending (perhaps the best within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon in its design lies in an additional effect: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the market price escalated to $49.66 with at least one listed for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily thanks to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

Upon entering play, the cub transforms a terrain card so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — plus other creatures you have that generate mana.

An ideal partner to combine with is the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate a green resource. Yet numerous other mana generation creatures out there. Druid of the Cowl is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost threat on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling rapidly with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating another color with this approach, examples including these mana-fixing creatures work perfectly which produce all five colors. Another card, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain every round AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment gives all of your permanents the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers all creatures under your control.

The cub may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer already is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, and it makes each creature you own Forests as well as their other types. Essentially, every single creature in play can generate two green mana by tapping.

Another creature is a costly, large threat that thrives with a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability allows all Forests generate an additional green mana. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) One loyalty ability is essentially a form of land animation, placing counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control immune to destruction enabling you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, it’s pretty much the game ends.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of green Avatar deck built around Earthbending. If you dip into red-green, you can use Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the collaboration.