Among the Avatar-themed most charming collectible cards is a powerful little powerhouse.

MTG’s special Avatar expansion won’t get a wider release in the coming days, yet due to pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in value.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub features Earthbending 1 (arguably the most effective of the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here is its second ability: Each time mana is generated by tapping a creature, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, this card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, though, the going rate jumped to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices for this little creature? Primarily due to the rapid resource generation it provides.

As it hits the board, Badgermole Cub turns one land to a creature land with earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — along with other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, a low-cost creature that produces a green resource. But numerous other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value as an alternative.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, alongside this card, it's simple to summon an enormous and very expensive monster into play by round three or four. And things just keep spiraling out of control if you keep the pressure on from that point.

By incorporating a secondary color with this approach, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly which produce all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain every round AND transforms your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana gives each permanent you control the power to tap and generate one mana of any color — including all creatures under your control.

The cub may be OP in terms of accelerating your resources, however how do you win in such a strategy? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Power and toughness are set by how many lands you have, and it changes all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests along with their other types. This means, every single creature in play can produce double green by tapping.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from lots of lands (as with the previous card, P/T are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her passive ability allows every Forest tap for one more G. (With a Badgermole Cub, that means each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability functions like a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, on the other hand, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to search for every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

This card is a must-have in any decks using green and Avatar built around earthbend. If you dip into red and green, there’s Bumi. This card features level 4 earthbending, and when he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version is a fan favorite Commander, the cute little Badgermole Cub is set to be one of, if not the most popular pick in the collaboration.