A standout from the Avatar-themed most adorable MTG cards proves to be a powerful small force.

MTG’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to become widely available until later this week, however due to pre-releases this past weekend, an affordable green creature has already exploded in market worth.

Throughout the spoiler season, the earthbending cub attracted widespread focus. A 2/2 requiring a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (possibly the most effective within the four bending abilities in the set). The major perk here comes from an additional effect: Whenever a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, this card was available at around $27. After the pre-release weekend, though, the going rate jumped to $49.66 and one seller offering as high as $60. The reason for such high costs for this little creature? Mainly because of the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

Upon entering the board, Badgermole Cub converts a terrain card into a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — in addition to other creatures in your control which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is Llanowar Elves, a low-cost creature which can be tapped for G mana. However there are plenty of other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Using land cards, creatures that tap for mana, plus the cub, you can easily get an enormous pricey threat on the board within a few turns. The situation escalates exponentially by maintaining dominance after that.

When adding an additional hue in this strategy, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are excellent picks that generate any mana color. And something like this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain every round plus makes your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying something like this six-mana enchantment, which for six mana provides every card you own the capacity to produce a mana of any type — which covers each creature you have on the board.

This card could be too strong when it comes to accelerating your resources, however what closes out the game for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests as well as their original types. Essentially, all your creatures on your board can produce double green by tapping.

Another creature is another expensive, beefy creature that benefits from many terrain cards (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World fits really well as a staple. One of her abilities makes every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, this results in those lands generate three green mana.) Her main ability acts as an early earthbend, adding counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbending. Her ultimate, however, makes each land you control immune to destruction and lets you put onto the battlefield your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger the ultimate, it’s pretty much you win.

The cub is nearly mandatory for all decks using green and Avatar focusing on earthbend. When branching into red and green, there’s this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player to an opponent, all land creatures become untapped and can attack again. Even though Bumi has emerged as a fan favorite Commander, the cub will surely stay among the top, possibly the desired card in the Avatar set.