Overlooked Zombie Legend Sees Massive Price Spike Thanks to Aetherdrift

Header Image: Varina, Lich Queen, Illus. Igor Kieryluk

"There are terrors lurking in the unseen corners of us all." - Crovax

With all the undead hullabaloo surrounding the recently revealed Aetherdrift Commander deck Eternal Might, one conspicuously absent Zombie has seen a significant price jump.

That zombie would be Varina, Lich Queen, and the formerly 30 cent card has seen its price explode for all versions, currently hovering around $20 USD — an approximately 3,000% increase in less than a week.

Varina has been identified as the go-to first choice for owners of Eternal Might looking to upgrade the stock from-the-box list, and the mostly overlooked Zombie legend is seeing its time to shine. Currently, the cheapest of the above versions of Varina is the non-foil, standard border from Double Masters 2022, which went from around a quarter to $15. And when I said "overlooked," I wasn't exaggerating; EDHREC has 69,260 Zombie decks logged on the site, and Varina is at the lead of only 6,831 of them. There are nearly three times fewer Varina decks than there are Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks, for example.

Varina isn't the only card not present in the 99 of Eternal Might that's seeing a price bump thanks to the Zombie list. Unfulfilled Desires from Mirage and Stronghold's Tortured Existence have both seen their individual prices leap from a few bucks to double-digits overnight. The pair of enchantments synergize perfectly with the preconstructed deck's new legendary helmers, Temmet, Naktamun's Will and Hashaton, Scarab's Fist.

All three of these cards have seen fewer than a half-dozen trades on Cardsphere in the last 30 days, with Unfulfilled Desires being completely absent from trade movement over the past month.

While reprints of Varina, Lich Queen and Tortured Existence (which is a common, by the way) could very well be in store for us in the future, it's very unlikely the same fate will befall Unfulfilled Desires, thanks to its slot on the Reserved List.

It's likely that the hype surrounding the Eternal Might preconstructed deck will die down in a few weeks, and the price of Varina and Tortured Existence will settle somewhat; as for Unfulfilled Desires, though, its Reserved List status might mean its $30-ish price is the new normal.

Will you be adding Varina to your wants list on Cardsphere, despite the price hike? Or are you a proud Varina owner who'll be sending the Zombie to greener pastures?