Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
5, Feb, 25

MTG Foundations Zombie Spikes 338% As Aetherdrift Approaches

The release date of Aetherdrift is fast approaching now. At the end of this week, players will get their first taste of the set at Prerelease events. Following this, Aetherdrift will get its big proper release just one week later, to properly begin the race in earnest. Unsurprisingly, with these release dates on the horizon, hype for the set is at an all-time high.

Ahead of Aetherdrift’s release, many MTG players have unsurprisingly been keen to pick up relevant staples and upgrades. Over recent weeks, upgrades, in particular, have been especially big business as Aetherdrift’s preconstructed Commander decks stole the show. Even moving into this week, we’re still seeing fresh price spikes thanks to one exciting deck in particular.

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord

Much like many of the price spikes we saw last week, Zul Ashur, Lich Lord is a fantastic upgrade to the Eternal Might Commander deck. Like many Zombie-focused decks, this precon makes heavy use of the graveyard, especially when Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist is in charge. When Hashaton is your Commander, discarding creatures into the bin allows you to effectively cheat them into play at minimal cost.

While cheating in creatures is always an effective strategy, the synergy doesn’t end there for Zombie decks. Typically, in Commander, this archetype has no end of ways to interact with the graveyard for additional value. For proof of this, we need look no further than Zul Ashur, Lich Lord.

Released as part of MTG Foundations, Zul Ashur is an incredibly simple yet effective card. All you have to do is tap Zul Ashur and you get to play something from the graveyard. Sadly, this means there aren’t any fancy tricks to make casting things easier, but that’s not the end of the world.

Despite the lack of additional abilities to sweeten the deal, Zul Ashur, Lich Lord offers extra value on already spent creatures. Whether you’re recasting a creature you’ve already discarded and copied or just reanimating a fallen the extra value is always nice. Thanks to Zul Ashur’s Ward ability, you may even be able to keep them around for a decent while.

While they are great in Commander, Zul Ashur, Lich Lord doesn’t really have any legs to stand on competitively. In a world of instant value and lightning-fast-aggro, Zul Ashur is too slow to keep up. In fact, until now, this card hasn’t seen much of any attention at all.

The Spike

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord Price Spike

Since Zul Ashur, Lich Lord has been rather unpopular until now, this MTG Foundations card had a low starting point. Toward the beginning of January, prices on TCGplayer for this card hit a low of just $0.54. Since then, the card has been on quite the journey, to say the least, as prices have soared to $2.37!

While this 338% price spike is already fairly impressive, it does appear to be driven by TCGplayer Direct. As we’ve seen before, this program can be responsible for some surprisingly impressive spikes as players utilize its convenience. While this convenience does come at a cost, clearly it’s one that many players are willing to play.

So far, the highest recorded price for a sale of Zul Ashur, Lich Lord sits at $8.98. Notably, however, this appears to be an outlier since current TCGplayer Direct prices begin at $5.97. If this is still too pricy, worry not, as there are still plenty of copies of Zul Ashur available for around $1.

As if there wasn’t already enough variance in the price of Zul Ashur, Lich Lord, there are also multiple variants. Currently, the cheapest out of these is the Extended Art variant, which has a market price of $1.18. Taking a step up, the Borderless treatment comes with increased rarity, new art, and a $3.74 price tag.

Finally, if you really want to bling out your Commander deck, there is a Borderless Mana Foil variant of Zul Ashur, Lich Lord. Currently, this prised variant sells for around $19.66, which is impressive given the card hasn’t been hugely popular until now.

The Future

As always, there’s technically no telling which way the price of Zul Ashur, Lich Lord will go in the future. The MTG financial markets are nothing if not fickle, so anything could cause this card’s price to spike or crash. That being said, I’d be surprised if this card remained at its current price point for too long.

Following its recent appearance as an upgrade within a video from The Command Zone, Zul Ashur is clearly popular right now. The fact that it wasn’t beloved before, however, speaks volumes for this card’s widespread playability. Zul Ashur may have a home in Zombie-themed and Discard-based decks, but it’s by no means a competitive staple.

Due to this, there’s a very real chance that the price of Zul Ashur, Lich Lord will slump once the current interest fades. If this does happen, the market price will probably settle around the $1 price that a lot of copies are currently going for. Considering that MTG Foundations may become the most printed set in the game’s history, however, this price may slump further.

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