A standout from the Avatar-themed most adorable collectible cards proves to be a powerful small force.

Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar crossover set won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, however following pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell saw a sharp rise in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, Badgermole Cub garnered significant interest. A 2/2 that costs a single green and one generic mana, the card has level 1 earthbending (possibly the most effective of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage here is an additional effect: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, however, the going rate jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering for sale at $60.00. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Primarily due to the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub transforms a terrain card into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to other creatures in your control that generate mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces G mana. But numerous alternative mana dorks out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you may quickly play a very big and very expensive creature on the battlefield by round three or four. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color with this approach, options such as these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks which produce all five colors. Another card, this powerful dryad enables playing one extra land per turn as well as turns every land you control so they count as all basics. You can also consider for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for one mana of any color — even all creatures in play.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been this legendary creature. Power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as other subtypes. In other words, every single creature you control can tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat that benefits from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to your land total).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities allows Forest lands produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, that means each one generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like an early earthbend, adding counters on a land, which is great though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, grants each land you control indestructible enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests in the deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means you win.

This card is a must-have in any green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. When branching into red-green, consider Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card is a beloved leader, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card from this expansion.