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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to get a wider release before the end of the week, yet after pre-releases recently, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the best within the elemental mechanics available). The real boon in its design comes from another power: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

Initially, Badgermole Cub could be purchased at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the market price escalated to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Mostly thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

As it hits the board, Badgermole Cub transforms one land to a creature land granting it earthbend. And with that second ability, if it remains on the board, each affected land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that taps to generate one green mana. But many other mana generation creatures available. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature for two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, it's simple to summon a massive high-cost creature on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds exponentially with continued aggression after that.

By incorporating another color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate any color of mana. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play one extra land every round as well as makes all of your lands into every basic land type. It's also worth trying for example a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the ability to tap and generate any color mana — even each creature under your control.

This card might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, but what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer already is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats are set by your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests as well as their original types. In other words, every single creature in play is able to produce double green when tapped.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability causes all Forests produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in those lands produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, placing counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect but does not overlap with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, grants all of your lands immune to destruction and allows you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. Should you manage to use this power, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. While that version has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most desired card in the collaboration.