A standout from Avatar's most charming Magic cards proves to be a formidable compact contender.

Magic: The Gathering’s collaboration with Avatar isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, but after prerelease weekends this past weekend, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in price.

From the initial reveals, Badgermole Cub drew a lot of attention. A creature with stats 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, Badgermole Cub includes Earthbending 1 (arguably the best of the elemental mechanics available). The major perk in its design comes from its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional green mana.

Initially, the card sold below $30. Following the early events, however, the market price has shot up above $45 with at least one listed as high as $60. What explains premium pricing for this little creature? Primarily thanks to the incredible mana acceleration it enables.

As it hits the battlefield, this creature turns a land so it becomes a creature granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, if it remains on the board, those lands generates double mana — plus mana-producing creatures on your side which tap for mana.

A clear choice for synergy would be this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces one green mana. However there are plenty of creatures that make mana available. This particular druid costs a bit more that’s a 1/3 for two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, and Badgermole Cub, it's simple to summon an enormous and very expensive creature on the battlefield early in the game. And things just keep spiraling exponentially by maintaining dominance from that point.

When adding a secondary color using this method, options such as Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid work perfectly that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play another terrain every round as well as makes your entire land base so they count as all basics. Another possibility is something like a card called A Realm Reborn, which for six mana grants each permanent you control the capacity to be tapped for a mana of any type — including all creatures under your control.

Badgermole Cub could be too strong when it comes to boosting mana production, however what closes out the game in such a strategy? A common and powerful choice has been Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to how many lands you have, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures Forests as well as their original types. Essentially, each creature on your board can generate two green mana when tapped.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, its stats are based on your land total).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities causes every Forest tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, this results in all earthbend forests produce triple green.) Her plus ability functions like a form of land animation, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but it isn't redundant with earthbend. Her ultimate, however, makes your entire land base unbreakable and allows you to draw out all the remaining forests in your deck. If you can actually activate the ultimate, this typically means the game ends.

This card is pretty much essential for any kind of decks using green and Avatar that use the earthbend mechanic. When branching into red and green, you can use Bumi. He has earthbend 4, and if damage is dealt to a player, each animated land become untapped and may attack once more. Although this card has emerged as a beloved leader, this small creature is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.