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Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion won’t get a wider release in the coming days, however due to pre-releases over the last few days, a low-cost green spell has already exploded in value.

From the initial reveals, this small creature attracted significant interest. A 2/2 priced at one green and one colorless mana, it features Earthbending 1 (possibly the strongest of the elemental mechanics available). Its key advantage with this card comes from its second ability: Each time you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card sold for $26.98. Following the early events, though, the market price escalated to nearly $50 and one seller offering as high as $60. Why are we seeing premium pricing for this cute lil guy? Mainly thanks to the explosive mana ramping it can produce.

Upon entering the board, the cub transforms a terrain card so it becomes a creature with earthbend. Alongside its mana-doubling effect, while it is not removed, every earthbent land generates double mana — in addition to other creatures you have that generate mana.

The obvious go-to to combine with would be this one-mana elf, a cheap 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. But there are plenty of alternative mana dorks out there. This particular druid is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Deploying terrain, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get a massive and very expensive threat on the battlefield within a few turns. The situation escalates out of control by maintaining dominance from that point.

When adding an additional hue using this method, examples including Fuel Tank Feaster, Ilysian Caryatid, and Paradise Druid are all great options that generate all five colors. And something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove enables playing an additional land each turn as well as turns your entire land base into every basic land type. You can also consider such as a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants each permanent you control the ability to tap and generate any color mana — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

This card could be too strong in terms of accelerating your resources, yet what closes out the game with this archetype? A common and powerful choice already is Ashaya. Its power and toughness are both equal to your land count, and it makes each creature you own Forests as well as other subtypes. In other words, every single creature you control may tap for two G if used for mana.

This additional option is another expensive, beefy creature which gains from a high land count (like Ashaya, P/T match your land total).

Nissa works perfectly as a staple. One of her abilities causes Forest lands produce extra green. (If you have the cub, so all earthbend forests produce triple green.) One loyalty ability is essentially a proto-earthbend, putting +1/+1 counters on a land, handy but does not overlap with earthbending. Her -8 ability, however, makes each land you control indestructible enabling you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. If you can actually activate this power, it almost certainly you win.

This card is nearly mandatory for any kind of green-based Avatar strategies built around earthbend. If you dip into red and green, consider this legendary card. This card features level 4 earthbending, plus if damage is dealt to an opponent, land creatures become untapped for another attack. While that version has become a fan favorite Commander, the cub is definitely going to remain among the top, possibly the desired card in the collaboration.