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MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not become widely available before the end of the week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card has already exploded in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub attracted a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features level 1 earthbending (possibly the best of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk with this card comes from an additional effect: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price has shot up to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly because of the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering play, this creature turns a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, while it stays in play, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. Yet there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. Another option costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous and very expensive threat on the board by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that generate any mana color. Another card, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing an additional land per turn AND transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

The cub might seem overpowered regarding ramping up your mana generation, yet how do you win with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match how many lands you have, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, every single creature in play is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a staple. Her static effect causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, this results in each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, on the other hand, grants all of your lands unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. By including red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to an opponent, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick in the Avatar set.