One of the Avatar-themed cutest collectible cards turns out to be a formidable compact contender.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar won’t get a wider release until later this week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub drew significant interest. This two-power, two-toughness priced at one green and one colorless mana, the card has the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the strongest within the set’s four “bending” mechanics). The real boon here lies in an additional effect: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card was available for $26.98. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value jumped above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. What explains such high costs on this adorable card? Mainly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

As it hits the battlefield, Badgermole Cub converts one land so it becomes a creature with earthbend. And with that second ability, while it is not removed, every earthbent land yields two mana instead of one — along with mana-producing creatures in your control that generate mana.

An ideal partner for synergy is the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces G mana. Yet many alternative mana dorks out there. Another option is a more expensive alternative with stats 1/3 costing two mana in comparison.

By playing lands, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, you may quickly play an enormous high-cost monster on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

If you dip into a secondary color using this method, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options which produce all five colors. And something like a useful enchantment creature enables playing one extra land per turn plus transforms your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment grants every card you own the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers each creature you have on the board.

This card might seem overpowered in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness match your land count, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests along with their other types. Essentially, each creature in play may generate two green mana if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from many terrain cards (as with the previous card, P/T match how many lands you have).

Nissa is an excellent fit as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability allows Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so each one generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, a useful effect but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. The minus ability, on the other hand, makes all of your lands immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Should you manage to use that ability, this typically means game over.

Badgermole Cub is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red-green, there’s this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if he deals combat damage to an opponent, land creatures are ready again for another attack. Although this card has emerged as a beloved leader, the cub is set to be among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.