One of Avatar's most adorable MTG cards proves to be a powerful small contender.

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card includes the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here comes from an additional effect: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold for $26.98. Post-prerelease, yet, the market price escalated to $49.66 including listings priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

When it arrives the board, this creature transforms a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with other creatures in your control that produce resources.

A clear choice for maximum effect would be the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate G mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana in the game. Another option costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive creature into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression after that.

If you dip into another color using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options which produce any color of mana. And something like a useful enchantment creature lets you play another terrain every round as well as turns your entire land base so they count as all basics. You can also consider for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to produce any color mana — including each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding ramping up your mana generation, but how do you win in such a strategy? An often-seen solution has been this legendary creature. Its stats are set by how many lands you have, and it changes your non-token creatures Forests as well as their original types. This means, all your creatures on your board is able to tap for two G when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities makes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, though, renders your entire land base unbreakable and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, this typically means you win.

This card is a must-have in any green Avatar deck that use Earthbending. If you dip into Gruul colors, there’s Bumi. This card features level 4 earthbending, and when damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures become untapped for another attack. Although this card has become a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.