One of Avatar's cutest Magic cards proves to be a nasty compact contender.

the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set won’t become widely available before the end of the week, yet following early access events over the last few days, an affordable green creature saw a sharp rise in value.

Even during previews, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. A creature with stats 2/2 requiring G and 1 mana, Badgermole Cub includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon with this card comes from its second ability: Whenever mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, the card was available below $30. Following the early events, though, its value escalated to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

When it arrives the battlefield, this creature converts a terrain card so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it is not removed, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — along with any creatures on your side that produce resources.

A clear choice for synergy is the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 which can be tapped for a green resource. But many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Deploying terrain, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you may quickly play an enormous and very expensive monster into play by round three or four. Momentum builds out of control if you keep the pressure on after that.

If you dip into an additional hue in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers are excellent picks which produce any mana color. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land every round plus makes every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is such as this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana grants all of your permanents the ability to produce any color mana — even any creature in play.

This card may be OP regarding boosting mana production, however what’s the endgame finisher with this archetype? An often-seen solution is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness match the number of lands you control, and it makes all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their original types. Essentially, each creature you control is able to tap for two G if used for mana.

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

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. Her passive ability makes Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, that means all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, a useful effect though it doesn't stack with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, on the other hand, grants all of your lands indestructible enabling you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it’s pretty much the game ends.

The cub is nearly mandatory in any decks using green and Avatar focusing on earthbend. By including red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. This card features level 4 earthbending, and if it hits a player in combat, each animated land are ready again for another attack. Even though Bumi has emerged as a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the sought-after card in the Avatar set.