One of the Avatar-themed most adorable MTG cards turns out to be a powerful compact force.

Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however following pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card saw a sharp rise in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the best of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage in its design lies in its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, Badgermole Cub sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, yet, its value has shot up above $45 including listings priced at sixty dollars. The reason for Vivi prices on this adorable card? Mainly due to the incredible mana acceleration it can produce.

Upon entering play, the cub transforms one land into a creature that has earthbending. Combined with its other power, if it is not removed, each affected land generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures on your side which tap for mana.

The obvious go-to for maximum effect is the classic Llanowar Elves, a cheap 1/1 that produces a green resource. However many other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid is a more expensive alternative that’s a 1/3 costing two mana as an alternative.

Deploying terrain, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon an enormous pricey creature on the board within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially with continued aggression from that point.

When adding another color with this approach, cards like these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make any mana color. Additionally, this powerful dryad enables playing another terrain every round as well as makes all of your lands so they count as all basics. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment gives each permanent you control the ability to be tapped for a mana of any type — even each creature under your control.

This card could be too strong regarding accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game in such a strategy? An often-seen solution already is Ashaya. Power and toughness are both equal to the number of lands you control, plus it turns your non-token creatures to be Forests in addition to their original types. Essentially, all your creatures on your board is able to produce double green when tapped.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with a high land count (like Ashaya, its stats are equal to how many lands you have).

This Planeswalker fits really well as a staple. Her passive ability causes all Forests generate an additional green mana. (Combined with earthbend, that means those lands produce triple green.) One loyalty ability acts as a proto-earthbend, adding counters on terrain, which is great but it isn't redundant with earthbend. The minus ability, however, renders all of your lands immune to destruction enabling you to search for every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly the game ends.

The cub is a must-have for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on the earthbend mechanic. When branching into Gruul colors, consider Bumi Unleashed. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures are ready again and can attack again. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of the most, maybe the desired card in the collaboration.