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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to become widely available before the end of the week, yet due to prerelease weekends over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub attracted significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, it has level 1 earthbending (arguably the strongest of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage in its design comes from an additional effect: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, it provides bonus green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub was available below $30. After the pre-release weekend, though, its value jumped above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mostly due to the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

When it arrives play, the cub converts a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it stays in play, each affected land generates double mana — in addition to mana-producing creatures in your control which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with is the classic Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive and very expensive monster on the board by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control with continued aggression from that point.

When adding a secondary color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that generate all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad lets you play one extra land each turn as well as turns every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana gives all of your permanents the power to be tapped for one mana of any color — including each creature you have on the board.

The cub may be OP when it comes to boosting mana production, but how do you win for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer has been Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, and it makes your non-token creatures Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, every single creature you control may tap for two G by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (like Ashaya, its power and toughness match your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. One of her abilities makes all Forests produce extra green. (If you have the cub, this results in all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, however, makes all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to search for all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate this power, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar built around Earthbending. When branching into Gruul colors, there’s this legendary card. This card features earthbend 4, plus if damage is dealt to an opponent, each animated land untap for another attack. Although this card is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the sought-after card in the Avatar set.