A standout from Avatar's most charming MTG cards turns out to be a powerful compact powerhouse.

Magic: The Gathering’s special Avatar expansion isn't set to hit the general market before the end of the week, however following pre-releases this past weekend, one cheap green card experienced a surge in price.

From the initial reveals, the earthbending cub drew widespread focus. This two-power, two-toughness priced at G and 1 mana, it features the Earthbend 1 ability (perhaps the strongest among the four bending abilities in the set). Its key advantage here comes from an additional effect: If a creature is tapped to produce mana, it provides bonus green mana.

Initially, the card was available at around $27. Post-prerelease, yet, the going rate has shot up to nearly $50 including listings for sale at $60.00. What explains Vivi prices for this little creature? Mostly thanks to the rapid resource generation it enables.

When it arrives play, the cub transforms a terrain card to a creature land granting it earthbend. Combined with its other power, as long as it remains on the board, each affected land produces twice the mana — plus any creatures you have which tap for mana.

An ideal partner to combine with is the classic Llanowar Elves, an inexpensive 1/1 that taps to generate one green mana. Yet there are plenty of other mana generation creatures in the game. Druid of the Cowl is a higher-cost choice that’s a 1/3 at a two-mana value instead.

Using land cards, mana-producing creatures, plus the cub, you can easily get an enormous pricey creature on the board within a few turns. The situation escalates rapidly with continued aggression from there.

By incorporating an additional hue in this strategy, examples including these mana-fixing creatures are all great options that can make all five colors. Additionally, a useful enchantment creature enables playing another terrain every round AND transforms your entire land base providing all land types. It's also worth trying something like a card called A Realm Reborn, costing six mana grants every card you own the ability to produce any color mana — which covers any creature in play.

This card may be OP in terms of ramping up your mana generation, however what’s the endgame finisher for a deck like this? A common and powerful choice is Ashaya. Power and toughness are set by your land count, plus it turns all of your nontoken creatures into Forests in addition to their original types. In other words, all your creatures you control may produce double green by tapping.

Harmonious Grovestrider provides a high-cost, powerful body which gains from lots of lands (similar to Ashaya, P/T match the number of lands you control).

Nissa is an excellent fit in this deck. Her static effect makes all Forests produce extra green. (Combined with earthbend, so each one generate three green mana.) One loyalty ability acts as a form of land animation, adding counters to a noncreature land, which is great but does not overlap with earthbend. Her -8 ability, though, makes each land you control immune to destruction enabling you to draw out your remaining Forests in your deck. Should you manage to use that ability, it’s pretty much game over.

The cub is pretty much essential in any green Avatar deck focusing on earthbend. If you dip into red and green, there’s Bumi Unleashed. It possesses earthbend 4, and if it hits a player in combat, each animated land are ready again and can attack again. Although this card has emerged as a popular Commander choice, this small creature is definitely going to remain one of, if not the most desired card in the Avatar set.