Among the Avatar-themed cutest Magic cards proves to be a nasty small contender.

the popular card game’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to get a wider release in the coming days, yet following prerelease weekends this past weekend, an affordable green creature experienced a surge in price.

Throughout the spoiler season, this small creature garnered significant interest. A 2/2 priced at a single green and one generic mana, it features level 1 earthbending (perhaps the strongest within the four bending abilities in the set). The real boon here lies in its second ability: Whenever you tap a creature for mana, you gain one extra green mana.

When first listed, the card could be purchased below $30. Post-prerelease, however, the going rate jumped above $45 including listings as high as $60. Why are we seeing such high costs for this cute lil guy? Primarily because of the incredible mana acceleration it provides.

Upon entering the battlefield, the cub turns a land to a creature land with earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it is not removed, each affected land yields two mana instead of one — along with other creatures on your side which tap for mana.

A clear choice for maximum effect is this one-mana elf, an inexpensive 1/1 that produces G mana. But numerous other mana generation creatures out there. This particular druid costs a bit more with stats 1/3 costing two mana instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you may quickly play a very big pricey creature into play early in the game. And things just keep spiraling rapidly with continued aggression from that point.

When adding a secondary color in this strategy, cards like versatile mana producers are excellent picks that can make any color of mana. Additionally, this powerful dryad lets you play another terrain each turn as well as transforms all of your lands into every basic land type. You can also consider for example a card called A Realm Reborn, at a six-mana investment grants all of your permanents the capacity to tap and generate a mana of any type — which covers all creatures you have on the board.

The cub may be OP regarding accelerating your resources, but what closes out the game for a deck like this? One obvious and popular answer already is this legendary creature. Power and toughness are set by the number of lands you control, and it makes each creature you own to be Forests in addition to their other types. This means, all your creatures in play may tap for two G if used for mana.

Harmonious Grovestrider is a costly, large threat which gains from lots of lands (as with the previous card, its power and toughness are based on the number of lands you control).

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is an excellent fit as a staple. One of her abilities causes Forest lands tap for one more G. (Combined with earthbend, that means all earthbend forests yield three G.) Her plus ability acts as a proto-earthbend, placing counters on terrain, handy but it isn't redundant with the cub's ability. Her ultimate, though, grants each land you control indestructible and allows you to search for your remaining Forests in your deck. Once you trigger this power, this typically means game over.

The cub is a must-have for any kind of green Avatar deck that use Earthbending. By including red and green, you can use this legendary card. He has level 4 earthbending, plus if it hits a player in combat, each animated land untap and may attack once more. Even though Bumi is a popular Commander choice, this small creature is set to be among the top, possibly the popular pick from this expansion.