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Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t hit the general market until later this week, yet following early access events this past weekend, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective among the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here is an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased below $30. After the pre-release weekend, yet, the market price escalated to nearly $50 with at least one listed priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly due to the explosive mana ramping it enables.

When it arrives the board, the cub converts one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, if it remains on the board, every earthbent land generates double mana — along with other creatures in your control that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for one green mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures in the game. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you may quickly play a massive high-cost monster on the battlefield by round three or four. The situation escalates exponentially with continued aggression after that.

When adding another color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options which produce all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allows you to put another terrain every round AND makes your entire land base so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — even all creatures you have on the board.

Badgermole Cub may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, but what closes out the game with this archetype? One obvious and popular answer is this legendary creature. Its stats are both equal to your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests along with their other types. In other words, each creature you control can generate two green mana when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that thrives with a high land count (as with the previous card, its stats are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well in this deck. Her static effect makes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, so all earthbend forests generate three green mana.) Her plus ability functions like a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters to a noncreature land, handy though it doesn't stack with earthbend. Her ultimate, though, makes all of your lands unbreakable enabling you to search for your remaining Forests from your library. Once you trigger this power, it almost certainly you win.

This card is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, there’s Bumi Unleashed. This card features earthbend 4, and if it hits a player in combat, each animated land are ready again and may attack once more. While that version is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of the most, maybe the popular pick in the Avatar set.