Varina, Lich Queen
29, Jan, 25

MTG Zombie Typal Card Spikes 4004% Due to New Commander

Throughout the spoiler season for Aetherdrift, the MTG financial markets have been surprisingly quiet. Rather than jumping on the bandwagon of buying up every exciting vehicle, players have been holding their nerve. Once the set is released, we may see a flurry of activity, but for now, things have been rather slow.

That slow pace all changed recently, however, following the reveal of the Aetherdrift Commander decks. With two brand-new decks to admire and upgrade, we’ve suddenly seen a few absolutely massive spikes. The first of these is impressively one of the biggest price spikes we’ve seen in months.

Varina, Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen

Hailing from Commander 2018, Varina, Lich Queen is a fantastic, if awkward, addition to Zombie Typal Commander decks. If you want card draw, cheap zombies, and specific cards in the graveyard, Varina does it all. You’ll even gain a bit of life throughout this process to further sweeten the deal.

Despite this strength, Varina, Lich Queen is hardly the most popular Commander option for a Zombie deck. That honor, instead, goes to Wihelt, the Rotcleaver, who is leagues ahead of the competition. The main benefit that Varina lauded was their Esper color identity, but this evidently wasn’t enough to win over players.

Now, however, Varina, Lich Queen has a new home within the Eternal Might preconstructed Commander deck. Within this deck, Varina supports both of the deck’s optional Commanders, making them an easy upgrade.

When using Temmet, Naktamun’s Will as your Commander, Varina provides extra card draw, which means extra buffs for your Zombies. Should you be using Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist, however, then Varina’s discard effect provides extra copying opportunities. You could even reliably run Varina, Lich Queen as your Commander to maximize card draw and graveyard shenanigans. 

Ultimately, Varina, Lich Queen is an obvious upgrade if you’re going to be playing the new Eternal Might Commander deck. Beyond this, however, the new typal support cards from Aetherdrift Commander have likely further increased interest in Varina. As a result of this, it’s little wonder that Varina has gotten so expensive recently.

The Spike

Varina, Lich Queen Price Spike

As we alluded to earlier, Varina, Lich Queen has seen an absolutely obscene price spike over this past week. This immense 4004% is thanks to the new surge in demand coupled with a remarkably low starting price. Thanks to being reprinted in Double Masters 2022, Varina has been an incredibly cheap card for the longest time.

Two weeks ago, you would have been able to purchase a Double Masters 2022 copy of Varina, Lich Queen for as little as $0.25. The original Commander 2018 printing was also only selling for a few cents more than this. Now, however, you’ll have to fork over some serious cash to get your hands on this card.

Currently, prices for near-mint non-foil copies of Varina, Lich Queen start at $10.26. Remarkably, this price doesn’t even include shipping. Right now, only four near-mint copies of this card are available on TCGplayer, so it’s safe to say the supply has been drained. If you’re not so fussed about quality, damaged, moderately played, and heavily played examples are currently selling for cheaper.

If you’re looking to save some money, the Commander 2018 variant is your best bet. Notably, this variant is only available in foil, which isn’t to everyone’s tastes. Prices for this variant currently start at $6.25, including shipping, however, this is for a damaged copy. Once again, near-mint examples are in incredibly short supply and are priced at $10+.

The Future

Right now, it’s evident that Varina, Lich Queen is suffering from a supply problem. A video by The Command Zone has put this card in vogue, and players are scrambling to pick up copies. That doesn’t mean that this card will always be expensive, however, as there are bound to be investors too.

Once the price of Varina reaches a high enough level, some of these investors will surely cash in to make their money. Depending on how this is done, the newly available supply could flood the market, bringing the price back down. That being said, $10 for Varina, Lich Queen, doesn’t seem too unreasonable.

Considering Varina is the fourth most popular Zombie Typal Commander, according to EDHREC, a moderate price tag is to be expected. Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, for example, currently sells for around $7. With this in mind, maybe a price tag of around $5 would be more appropriate for Varina once the dust settles.

Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens as time goes on. There’s no guarantee that players or investors alike will sell anytime soon. It could just be that interested players are using Varina rather than hoarding her. We can only hope that this temporary spike in interest is exactly that. Once initial fervor fades, the price of Varina will likely tumble back down.

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