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the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion won’t hit the general market before the end of the week, but after prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub attracted a lot of attention. This two-power, two-toughness requiring one green and one colorless mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the strongest among the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage here comes from its second ability: If mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, however, its value escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed as high as $60. The reason for premium pricing on this adorable card? Mainly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it provides.

As it hits play, this creature converts a land into a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus 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 a green resource. Yet many creatures that make mana available. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value in comparison.

By playing lands, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive creature into play within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly if you keep the pressure on from that point.

When adding an additional hue using this method, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that can make any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land every round as well as turns every land you control so they count as all basics. Another possibility is for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, costing six mana gives each permanent you control the ability to tap and generate one mana of any color — which covers each creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of boosting mana production, but what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Its stats match your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests as well as other subtypes. This means, all your creatures on your board may produce double green if used for mana.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (like Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. One of her abilities makes every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, on the other hand, renders all of your lands indestructible and lets you search for all the remaining forests from your library. If you can actually activate that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

Badgermole Cub is pretty much essential in any green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, you can use this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.