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Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available until later this week, but following pre-releases over the last few days, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature drew widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness priced at G and 1 mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the best within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The major perk here is an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, this card was available at around $27. Following the early events, however, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

As it hits the board, this creature converts a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — plus other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces G mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more a 1/3 creature for two mana as an alternative.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive monster on the battlefield early in the game. The situation escalates exponentially if you keep the pressure on from there.

By incorporating another color using this method, cards like versatile mana producers are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. Another card, a useful enchantment creature allows you to put one extra land per turn as well as transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives all of your permanents the power to produce one mana of any color — which covers all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to accelerating your resources, but what closes out the game in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests as well as their other types. In other words, all your creatures you control can generate two green mana when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities allows every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so each one produce triple green.) Her plus ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, makes your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in the deck. Should you manage to use the ultimate, it’s pretty much game over.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for all green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick from this expansion.