Despite some fans’ early impressions of Magic: The Gathering‘s death race set, Aetherdrift, being more on the negative side, the expansion is starting to deliver some very powerful combos for decks in multiple formats. While MTG‘s new Start your engines! mechanic can be slower in some decks and formats, it can be used to great effect in Commander with cards like Mendicant Core, Guidelight. Likewise, Exhaust is also seeing play in some decks, with some Gruul (Green and Red) decks using it to great effect by combining Afterburner Expert and Draconautics Engineer. Yet, one deck archetype is seeing a lot of play in Commander and Pioneer, making an old MTG card spike from around $2 to around $22.
Cards spiking in value is nothing new in Magic: The Gathering, as it typically happens after unbans, new releases, meta shifts, and more. In this case, one of the two Aetherdrift preconstructed Commander decks in Magic: The Gathering sparked a resurgence of the Zombie archetype thanks to its leading card. This deck is Eternal Might in Esper colors (White, Blue, and Black), and it features Temmet, Naktamun’s Will, which synergizes with Zombies for some incredible damage potential. Now, a card whose latest reprint is from the 2007 Tenth Edition, is suddenly worth a lot more than its historical average.
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Why Magic: The Gathering’s New Aetherdrift Commander Decks Are Making an Old Card Spike in Value
This card is called Greveborn Muse, and it’s a Zombie Spirit Creature. It costs 2 mana of any color and 2 Black mana for a 3/3, but its power comes from its ability, which lets the user draw as many cards and lose as many life as the number of Zombies under the player’s control at the beginning of their upkeep. This is a potent effect for Zombie decks in MTG, but it is incredibly strong with Temmet, Naktamun’s Will in play.
Graveborn Muse and Temmet, Naktamun’s Will Combo Explained
Temmet costs 2 mana of any color, 1 White, 1 Blue, and 1 Black mana (5 CMC), and it’s a Legendary Zombie Wizard with 4 power and toughness. Additionally, it has both vigilance and menace, and it makes the owner draw a card and then discard a card whenever they attack, but more importantly, it reads “Whenever you draw a card, Zombies you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.” This MTG card combos exceptionally well with Graveborn Muse, as it can grant players the ability to draw a lot of cards each turn, then making Zombies get +1/+1 for each of those cards via Temmet.
Graveborn Muse’s New $23 Price is a Double-Edged Sword
Historically, Graveborn Muse hasn’t been a very expensive card even though its latest reprint is 18 years old. Normally, it sits at around $1 to $3, but its Legions version now has listings from $22.97 on TCGPlayer. The Tenth Edition version seems to be out of stock, with the latest listings going from $8.13, but actually selling for amounts varying between $13 and $20 in March so far. Right now, there is only one listing available for the Legions version of the card for $22.97, and it’s unclear whether its price will drop or if more listings will appear. With Magic: The Gathering‘s Tarkir: Dragonstorm looming on the horizon, Graveborn Muse is unlikely to get a reprint anytime soon, unless it’s in Commander decks.
Magic: The Gathering‘s UB sets are essentially guaranteed not to have reprints of Graveborn Muse either, so another option players have is to check their LGS if they need this card for a deck. Still, with the Aetherdrift Commander set featuring Temmet being so popular and a Zombie-themed deck making its way into Pioneer, it’s not impossible that WotC will ride the wave of Zombie love in some way soon. For now, though, players may have a hard time getting a fair deal for Graveborn Muse.
Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Designer
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Richard Garfield
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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13+