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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t become widely available until later this week, but after prerelease weekends recently, one cheap green card experienced a surge in market worth.

Even during previews, this small creature garnered widespread focus. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features Earthbending 1 (perhaps the strongest among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon in its design is its second ability: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. The reason for such high costs on this adorable card? Mostly due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering the board, the cub transforms a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to any creatures on your side which tap for mana.

An ideal partner for maximum effect includes Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. However many alternative mana dorks in the game. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you may quickly play a very big high-cost creature into play early in the game. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression from that point.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that can make any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad lets you play one extra land every round AND turns all of your lands so they count as all basics. Another possibility is such as the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub might seem overpowered when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet how do you win for a deck like this? An often-seen solution is Ashaya. Power and toughness match your land count, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, every single creature you control is able to tap for two G when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat that thrives with a high land count (like Ashaya, its stats match how many lands you have).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows all Forests tap for one more G. (If you have the cub, this results in each one yield three G.) Her plus ability is essentially a form of land animation, adding counters on terrain, which is great but does not overlap with earthbending. The minus ability, on the other hand, renders each land you control immune to destruction and allows you to search for all the remaining forests in the deck. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. If you dip into red and green, consider Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, and when it hits a player to an opponent, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version is a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most sought-after card in the Avatar set.