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MTG’s Avatar crossover set will not hit the general market in the coming days, however following pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell experienced a surge in price.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub garnered a lot of attention. A 2/2 requiring one green and one colorless mana, it has the Earthbend 1 ability (arguably the most effective among the set’s four “bending” mechanics). Its key advantage here comes from another power: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, you gain one extra green mana.

At its cheapest, this card was available below $30. After the pre-release weekend, however, the going rate escalated above $45 and one seller offering as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing on this adorable card? Primarily due to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

When it arrives play, this creature transforms a terrain card to a creature land with earthbend. Combined with its other power, while it remains on the board, those lands generates double mana — plus any creatures on your side that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with includes Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces a green resource. However many other mana generation creatures available. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice with stats 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, dorks that generate resources, alongside this card, you can easily get a very big high-cost monster on the board within a few turns. Momentum builds rapidly by maintaining dominance from that point.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, examples including versatile mana producers are excellent picks that generate any color of mana. Additionally, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play one extra land each turn AND turns all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example the enchantment A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment provides all of your permanents the power to be tapped for a mana of any type — which covers all creatures under your control.

The cub might seem overpowered in terms of boosting mana production, yet what closes out the game for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice already is this legendary creature. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, plus it turns your non-token creatures into Forests along with their other types. Essentially, all your creatures in play may generate two green mana by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider is another expensive, beefy creature that thrives with lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its power and toughness are based on your land total).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. One of her abilities causes Forest lands produce extra green. (With a Badgermole Cub, so each one produce triple green.) Her main ability is essentially a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on terrain, a useful effect but does not overlap with earthbend. The minus ability, though, grants each land you control indestructible enabling you to draw out every Forest left from your library. Once you trigger that ability, it almost certainly game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies focusing on Earthbending. When branching into red-green, you can use Bumi. It possesses earthbend 4, plus if it hits a player in combat, all land creatures are ready again and can attack again. Even though Bumi has become a beloved leader, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick in the Avatar set.