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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion will not hit the general market until later this week, but following early access events this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in value.

Even during previews, Badgermole Cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card features Earthbending 1 (arguably the best within the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage in its design is another power: Each time you tap a creature for mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card sold below $30. Following the early events, yet, the going rate has shot up to $49.66 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains premium pricing on this adorable card? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. And with that second ability, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous high-cost creature into play early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding another color using this method, cards like versatile mana producers are all great options that generate any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put another terrain each turn as well as makes every land you control so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying such as a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers all creatures under your control.

This card may be OP regarding ramping up your mana generation, however how do you win with this archetype? An often-seen solution already is this legendary creature. Its stats are set by your land count, plus it turns each creature you own to be Forests along with other subtypes. In other words, each creature you control may generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, its power and toughness match the number of lands you control).

Nissa fits really well as a staple. One of her abilities allows Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, that means each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbend. The minus ability, though, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to draw out every Forest left from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is nearly mandatory for any kind of green Avatar deck built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, consider Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt in combat, land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card has become a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the popular pick from this expansion.