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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t get a wider release before the end of the week, yet following prerelease weekends over the last few days, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in market worth.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 that costs one green and one colorless mana, the card features the Earthbend 1 ability (possibly the strongest of the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon here comes from an additional effect: Each time a creature is tapped to produce mana, add an additional green mana.

At its cheapest, the card sold below $30. After the pre-release weekend, however, its value escalated to nearly $50 including listings priced at sixty dollars. Why are we seeing Vivi prices for this cute lil guy? Mostly because of the rapid resource generation it provides.

Upon entering the board, this creature converts a land into a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, if it stays in play, each affected land produces twice the mana — along with any creatures in your control that produce resources.

An ideal partner for synergy would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces G mana. But there are plenty of creatures that make mana out there. Another option costs a bit more a 1/3 creature costing two mana in comparison.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, alongside this card, you can easily get an enormous high-cost monster on the battlefield early in the game. Momentum builds rapidly if you keep the pressure on from there.

When adding an additional hue using this method, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are excellent picks that can make all five colors. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play an additional land every round AND transforms all of your lands providing all land types. Another possibility is such as this six-mana enchantment, at a six-mana investment provides every card you own the ability to be tapped for one mana of any color — even each creature in play.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong regarding boosting mana production, yet what’s the endgame finisher in such a strategy? An often-seen solution is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures to be Forests in addition to other subtypes. Essentially, all your creatures you control is able to generate two green mana if used for mana.

Another creature provides a high-cost, powerful body that benefits from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on how many lands you have).

Nissa works perfectly as a go-to Planeswalker. Her static effect allows all Forests generate an additional green mana. (If you have the cub, so each one produce triple green.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, however, grants your entire land base indestructible enabling you to put onto the battlefield all the remaining forests from your library. Once you trigger the ultimate, it’s pretty much game over.

This card is pretty much essential in any green Avatar deck focusing on the earthbend mechanic. By including Gruul colors, consider this legendary card. He has earthbend 4, and when damage is dealt to a player, all land creatures are ready again for another attack. Even though Bumi is a popular Commander choice, the cute little Badgermole Cub will surely stay one of, if not the most desired card from this expansion.