Among Avatar's most adorable collectible cards turns out to be a nasty small force.

the popular card game’s Avatar crossover set isn't set to become widely available until later this week, however following prerelease weekends this past weekend, one cheap green card has already exploded in value.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness that costs one green and one colorless mana, it includes the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the most effective within the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design comes from its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available for $26.98. Post-prerelease, though, its value jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering priced at sixty dollars. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

Upon entering play, the cub transforms a land to a creature land granting it earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, as long as it stays in play, every earthbent land produces twice the mana — in addition to other creatures in your control that produce resources.

An ideal partner for maximum effect would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate a green resource. However there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. Druid of the Cowl costs a bit more with stats 1/3 for two mana as an alternative.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, and Badgermole Cub, you can easily get a very big pricey creature on the battlefield within a few turns. And things just keep spiraling exponentially if you keep the pressure on from that point.

When adding an additional hue in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers are all great options that can make any mana color. And something like a useful enchantment creature allows you to put one extra land each turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. Another possibility is something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana provides every card you own the power to produce one mana of any color — which covers any creature under your control.

Badgermole Cub may be OP when it comes to accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its stats match the number of lands you control, and it changes each creature you own Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, every single creature you control may generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from a high land count (similar to Ashaya, its stats are based on your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect makes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, so those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability is essentially an early earthbend, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her -8 ability, however, makes your entire land base unbreakable enabling you to put onto the battlefield every Forest left in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, it almost certainly game over.

This card is pretty much essential for all green-based Avatar strategies that use Earthbending. By including red and green, you can use Bumi. This card features earthbend 4, plus if he deals combat damage in combat, land creatures untap and may attack once more. While that version has become a popular Commander choice, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most popular pick from this expansion.