I disagree, I think this card is actually really good.
Enter_the_Void
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(8 votes)
Overused, but effective.
Master_Socks
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(8 votes)
My only complaint is that it's too powerful. Now it's out of standard, though, price should go down.
AkromaAngelofWrath
★★☆☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(10 votes)
One of the best 2-drops in Magic, particularly in Extended, the other being Dark Confidant.
bark_at_the_moonn
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(15 votes)
A great 2-drop (if not the greatest), even if it was a total mistake. It will be used in all formats it is legal in until the end of Magic. Tarmogoyf fills many roles: A quick aggro beater, a protected control finisher, or a wall... for other Tarmogoyfs.
Hambot
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(10 votes)
This card shows how much big dumb green fatties have to be pushed in order to be playable. Now that it has been printed and they can never print a bigger, cheaper green creature, they can focus on making other green creatures that have abilities that matter. Considering that green is the colour with the "best creatures", the fact that this card was an accident shows that green creature design still has a long way to go.
victorvolt
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(14 votes)
It should be reprinted in January of 2013, so when it is around, who cares? The world ended.
Shoe2
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(13 votes)
Tarmogoyf isnt as broken as everyone thinks. Its basically vanilla, it has no protection for itsself except a big butt and no evasion except a low CMC. Its a GOOD card dont get me wrong, but its not as broken as everyone thinks.
Akatosh
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(9 votes)
It is not often I give a perfect rating to a card. I dare say Tarmo is one of the strongest creatures ever printed. Its fast and its deadly effective in almost any situation, early or late game. No, it's not broken and does not deserve to be banned. There's a difference between "amazing power" and "game-breaking cheapness" and Tarmo definitely falls into the former category.
Lemt
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(94 votes)
Unofficial Unoracle Text
As long as Tarmogoyf is legal, green decks cost 200$ more to play.
Mortisss
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(8 votes)
don't like this card. too much power.
Hawk_man
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(7 votes)
I'd like to say he's overrated since he represents all that I hate about competitive magic (playing monoblack aggro? +4 Bayou, +4 goyf, or go home kid!) but Tarmogoyf is brutally powerful. He's not always an auto-include imo, as he's *just* going to be a 2/3 in an average deck. For most decks though, particularly in the grave abuse of extended, he's a 3/4 or 4/5 and is a necessary weapon. Also, he goes together with the 2nd best 2-drop of all time (Wild Mongrel)like Peanut Butter and Jelly :)
Martin_the_Warrior
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(61 votes)
Your green deck needs four.
Your blue deck needs four, and green sources.
Mode
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(15 votes)
the mechanic is a good idea, and i actually like its implementation. it's a very powerful card, yet not necessarily broken. but seriously, who decided to give this creature a default toughness of 1? that's really something this creature wouldn't have needed in my opinion.
Skyknight
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(6 votes)
The word "excessive" comes to mind. Never mind that the mechanic makes more sense in black than in green...I'm guessing the accident was that it was supposed to be 1GG, not 1G.
Master_Yumyums
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(7 votes)
Hate this card. It's a b****.
PhageRules1
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(6 votes)
While beatable, this card is really a pain in the rear end. I don't like it very much.
By the way, a friend of mine bought a total of two packs of Future Sight. His rares were Daybreak Coronet and this. His pack-opening luck is unrivaled.
Dragon_Whelp
★☆☆☆☆ (1.9/5.0)(5 votes)
It annoys me that people keep whining about this card. If they banned Goyf, they'd just start whining about Force or Jitte. Please stop it.
2pcsofcandy
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(14 votes)
He's no Storm Crow, that's for sure.
True_Mumin
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(7 votes)
Simply overpowered. Jitte all over again. Since it's rare, I think this was a very clever mistake on Wizards' part after all. It sure paid off, eh?
hunthell
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(7 votes)
As stygimoloch said, there ARE ways to deal with this creature:
Terror/Dark Banishing BURNBURNBURNBURN Counter
Oh noez! Tarmy can be beat? I killed 4 tarmogoyfs using 3 terrors and a dark banishing in the same game. Needless to say, my opponent was ***ED.
ChaoticNature
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(11 votes)
Overrated like hell. Very good, but very overrated. IMO Chameleon Colossus is strictly better.
BOSH235
★☆☆☆☆ (1.7/5.0)(5 votes)
Never saw the appeal till I proxied him(Don't have $200 right now) in my Madness deck and he gets pretty big pretty fast for a 2 drop, but he's far from broken IMO, then again I've never played against them so I could be completely wrong.
Joseph_Leito
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(12 votes)
I've never understood just what was so great about this card. So, situationally, you could have an 8/9 for 1G. Yes, it's very, very good. It's still very much vulnerable to...
In other words, it's good against anything that isn't blue or black, since those two really don't give a crap how big your creatures are. If it had Shroud, it would be gawd and would have to be illegal. As it is... It's a very good card that sees way too much use in my opinion.
UNBAN_SHAHRAZAD
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(8 votes)
Easily the most broken card (rivaled only by Jitte) of the modern Magic era.
evenblackerlotus
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(5 votes)
I remember trading one of these for junk when i first drafted one, and have been kicking myself ever since
Makoeyesx
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(6 votes)
The best "Vanilla" creature ever printed. 2 mana 3/4's seem okay to me.
FreakyM
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(5 votes)
A very efficient creature. Two mana for what amounts to a 3/4, 4/5 or even a 5/6 is.. crazy, to say the least. That, and the cool "future" card frame, the monster itself looking awesome, and the fact that we will probably never see this fellow reprinted combine to make this a very nice piece of cardboard. Best Grizzly Bear ever in my opinion, and in legacy, a typical choice for a finisher for a wide range of decks, and just about larger than all of the other options, too.
GicmaTheGatherer
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(6 votes)
keep putting this guy in all extended archetypes and pretty soon the DCI will intervene.
OutlawD1
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(18 votes)
So why does Tribal count as a card type, but not Snow, Basic or Legendary?
Vandrace
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(13 votes)
This card is neutering formats like affinity did to Mirrodin standard.
In Legacy deck development threads this is the response I hear to every interesting card choice: Why not Tarmogoyf? But how is this going to deal with Tarmogoyf? You should splash green for Tamogoyf. TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF.
TokenMaster
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(25 votes)
For all the people who say "it dies to removal", so does nearly every other creature. It's still overpowered. Furthermore, blue doesn't care if you have a way to deal with it, because they can stop you from doing it. Goyf's extremely efficient cost allows you to play him AND have mana open to protect him. There's a reason why he's considered one of the best finishers for mono-blue ever made.
ong312
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(4 votes)
This is a great card. However the one thing that keeps it from being better than Baneslayer Angel is a little thing called situational greatness. The Goyf is only good if the graveyards are well stocked. If you get hit by a Ravenous Trap, Haunting Echoes, or a Planar Void has been in play since early game, then Goyf is a dead draw compared to a pre-set P/T card like Baneslayer Angel. That being said, it is still a card you have to pack hate or extra removal for.
It's like Dredge... When it's good, it's great... when it's not... it's horrible.
AbyssalManZero
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(7 votes)
Nah this aint broken, give it SHROUD & INDESTRUCTABILITY then I'd say it's broken LOL
Awesome card... Wish I had some now lol.
TokenMaster (10/13/2009 5:23:09 PM)
THANK YOU!! I get so tired of people pointing out how this and that can be bested by removal!
Finally someone who gets it, anything and everything can be removed but it's not about IF it can be removed, it's WHAT it can do if not removed quickly!
RamzaFromIvalice
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Wild mongrel kicks his butt anyday
Laguz
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(6 votes)
It never lives up to the overhype.
It's a great card, don't get me wrong - but you need 3 card types in the graveyard by turn two to make it better than watchwolf, at least in aggro terms. It shines as a control finisher, but $50 a pop? It's worth a tenth of that max, especially with the ugly future sight card face.
Great creature, but nowhere near broken and certainly not on the level of auto-win cards like jitte.
sir_dwar
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(5 votes)
Just... Wow... Dropping something that's power 5 or 6 for two mana with no drawback? Incredible. The only downside to this low cost is smother vulnerability. Still, it's a very nifty card. Any 2-drop that acts as a removal magnet is good in and of itself.
Mill_Master
★☆☆☆☆ (1.9/5.0)(5 votes)
The Tarmogoyf may be good but it cannot stand toe to toe with the 2 greatest creature drops, Stifle/Phyrexian Dreadnought and Dark Depths/ Vampire Hexmage. Tarmogoyf done.
Th3_Dark_On3
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(4 votes)
mongoose and mongrel are still better.
LasherHN
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(17 votes)
This card is good, but sadly it's still no match for Chimney Imp.
TheTraitorKing
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(6 votes)
I think it's okay, then again I'm no Johnny. Still, I recognize its power, but you do have to build a deck around it.
Gezus82
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(4 votes)
um is legendary creature another type despite it's reminder. As "legendary" now appears in the type section and not in the subtype section, also it has it's own rulings.
BlackKnightsBack
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(2 votes)
The sad thing, is that this card started off as a throwaway, 25 cent rare youd find in piles. If only iI had the foresight to invest......
Joking aside, Tarmgoyf is an excellent creature, but there ARE ways to deal with it - it's not an auto-win in the same league as Umezawa's Jitte.
@ TokenMaster, AbyssalManZero, Hovercraft and various other people: The fact that Tarmogoyf 'dies to removal' is not a bad thing. The point is that people who go 'OMG Tarmogoyf is unbeatable and overpowered and should be banned!' are tiresome fools - I count roughly 25 cards in M10 alone which single-handedly nullify it. Tarmogoyf is powerful but ultimately fair. It's above the curve but has no protection and while it's undoubtedly one of the very best cards printed in recent years, it is absolutely NOT the case that casting it equals winning. I can only ạssume the people who consider Tarmogoyf unfair don't remember how dominant cards like Jitte, Psychatog or Tolarian Acadamy were in their day, cards which frankly make Tarmogoyf look like small fry.
Just to reiterate, this is a GOOD thing. Overpowered cards are getting less and less frequent. I suppose one slight downside of that is the fact that when something comes close but doesn't actually quite break the glạss ceiling of total format-warping - like Goyf - people still act like it's too much for the meta to handle. If anything, Bloodbraid Elf has been the real format-warper of recent years.
Teotanek
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(14 votes)
Ok, I can accept that wizards from time to time makes this kind of overpowered cards, every serious player will have to buy/trade, only because the artwork is as horrible as the format, thus the price is inversely proportional to the originality of the player.
ClockworkSwordfish
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(6 votes)
With all the weird stuff they did in Future Sight, I'm surprised more cards didn't turn out this broken.
Carbunc
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(6 votes)
a strong card but has plenty of counters, smother, doom blade, assassinate, etc. and if your opponent gives him shroud with canopy cover or some other means then play a bojuka bog in your sideboard or whatever, definitely not overpowered and I really doubt this is worth $50 dollars.
Tommy9898
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(6 votes)
The only good side of this ever getting reprinted is then maybe the art will be better than this indiscernible blob.
Atmos
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(10 votes)
Typical "money wins" card. Anyone not giving this a 5 is doing so out of spite or because of the awful artwork; hey I can understand both. But this card really is in the highest tier of creatures, an indisputable fact.
Even Wizards admitted that printing this was a mistake...and yet they have done nothing further about it, huh. I imagine the outrageous market price has something to do with it (hint: it boosted Future Sight pack and box sales all by itself; so of course they aren't going to ban/restrict it. That would be stupid if they wanted to make more money.)
The good news is, combo decks become more powerful the further back you go (Extended -> Legacy, etc) so Goyf may be in several decklists, but there are many many more in which he isn't an auto-4-of, proving that while he can compete against other powerful strategies, he isn't the "auto-win" card he's made out to be.
The real reason this card is so powerful is that it grows with the game, and you can splash for it in any deck, any color, and (almost) any strategy. Most of all, it's a solid, consistent win condition for only 2 mana. Goyf simply outmodes 95% of the creatures in the game. Not unbeatable, but certainly overpowered relative to most other creatures out there.
rbwdeck
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I like the idea behind the card, but it's a little overpowered in Legacy. Not saying it should be banned, just really annoying when 2/3 of the competitive decks of the format run 4 of these guys. As long as it's not printed with shroud, it shouldn't and wont be banned.
True_Smog
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(42 votes)
"The specimen seems to be broken."
OpenSeasonNoobs
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(11 votes)
Bojuka Bog just made this card cry to it's mommy. So did just about all the removal in shards/zen/WW.Journey to NowherePath to ExileOblivion RingIona's JudgmentAdmonition Angel. BTW, I know this is obviously an answer to EVERY CREATURE CARD that doesn't have prot white or shroud, HOWEVER, deny tarmogoyf doesn't have the exact same problems as Mycoloth and I will laugh at you for days. Good card, but easily remedied. Hello, Doom BladeEradicate
Hovercraft
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(9 votes)
As a finisher in Legacy, if you cannot drop this spell as at least a 5/6 or 6/7 you don't know how to build a deck. To the n00bs saying he is not 'that' powerful, and doesn't have 'evasion' you are missing the fact that a creature immune to burn - the only color that can reliably play many removal spells in a turn - and with a cmc of 2 which is splashable, and can be supported by counter-magic easily.. I could go on.. IS evasion. I try to kill this card all the time. It is extremely difficult. It is not easy. It is really how quickly can you get your removal spell before jitte-equip ends the game? It is not comparable to any other creature because it's power-cost ratio makes it too aggressive to take any time to answer.Regrowth in the same color for the same splashable cost does not help.
Ameisenmeister
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(6 votes)
Call me a Noob, but I do not understand why this card is worth so much money. (around 70€!!) %-( What do you have to play first turn to turn this into a monster? Tome Scour? Of course I see that this is a very good card but it costs around twice as the new Jace and he is still in the actual tournament format. I never played with or against the Tarmoghoyf so maybe that's the reason why I do not understand why this card is often considered as broken.
Well, since it's now out of standard, it isn't really overpowered elsewhere than in Block. In extended it might be interesting for green aggro, but that you don't see too often. In Vintage you have to have turn 2 win or White-Blue control anyway.
spectermonger
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
yup, because of this guy, I run creature removal galore. Luckily, w/ Tombstalker, I can shave off the unnecessary parts of my graveyard so that the goyf won't get pumped on my account. It still makes it frightening to dredge a life from the loam, just knowing that you might be making this into a giant. I main-deck putrefies, just b/c every other legacy deck seems to be running this and jitte--two cards, that if you leave on the board for more than a couple turns, will end you. This might even make me SB bojuka bog...in LEGACY.
RafiqTheMiststalker
★☆☆☆☆ (1.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Planeswalkers came out after this I thought. ..? Future Sight seems like it was a fun pack :)
@Ameisenmeister: You can't tell unless you played against it. In Mill/Dredge/Whatsoever, this pwns. In everything else, it still pwns (A little less, thou). I do understand your opinion. Remember, this started of as a 25 cent crap-rare. You can't see how good it is until you've played with or against it.
If this starts of as a 2/3 or 3/4, thats pretty much ok. Next turn it probaly grows, and you may be attacking the opponent for 4, or even 5 damage, excluding any turn 1 or 3 drops.
"It dies to removal lololololol!!" <- Your mom does too. About 90% of all creatures dies to removal. Why shouldn't this do?
Doesn't change the fact, that its a great card.
Also, it has synergy with really many cards. For example, a Lightning Bolt usually gives it +2/+2.
I do, however, think it costs too much (Yer, it should only be 1 mana, lololol) <- not like that. 50-70 dollars is too much to pay for a piece of paper, after my opinion.
Tezz
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(5 votes)
why is the planeswalker type printed in this cards reminder text? there were no planeswalkers in its time!
ClowWizardEriol
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(6 votes)
@Tezz: In articles published by Wizards, Future Sight was designed to look at card mechanics that may or may not be used in the future. Some card mechanics were already being planned when Future Sight was made. It can be inferred from this card that Planeswalker cards were already in design during Future Sight's development.
Cute-Hydra
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(10 votes)
SHOCKINGLY AWFUL CARD AS LONG AS SLAY IS IN LEGACY IT IS NOT WORTH PLAYING
Robert_G
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Overrated.....
ion1000
★☆☆☆☆ (1.3/5.0)(6 votes)
To be truthful I don't get why this card is good.
boneclub
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@Tezz: They were going to print Planeswalkers in Futuresight, but the design team wasn't finished in time. They were released in the next block, Lorwyn.
GruesomeGoo
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(8 votes)
I heard a rumor that this card was supposed to cost 2G, but was misprinted and put at 1G. AND WIZARDS JUST WENT WITH IT. If that rumor is true, I will truly be disgusted.
iaiji
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(11 votes)
Funny how this card was once ignored, and found in crap rare collections. . . . . .. now it goes for an arm and a leg
CJM2
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(7 votes)
He's outta BOLT RANGE.
Lambi
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(9 votes)
Goyf existence has caused alot of collateral damage to other decks as well. Anything graveyard oriented (Flashback, Dredge, Reanimator) now has to contend with powerful graveyard removal, like Bojuka Bog and/or Relic of Progenitus.
Ontop of this, it feels unfair to all the other grizzlybear 1Gs who have struggled/evolved over these years against each other only to have a new start-up dominate so entirely.
I hope by the time this futuresighted card sees print again other graveyard decks and grizzlybears can contend.
TheSwarm
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(6 votes)
Broken? Not so sure.. To me, a broken card needs to be able to win the game when it hits the table, this guy isn't broken. He is fantastic, a card that grows with the game for 2 splashable mana provides an excellent early game aggro card and late game powerhouse but you neeeeeed to support him with other cards, by himself he isn't a game finisher or win condition by any means.
EvilCleavage
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(5 votes)
I wish I would have stockpiled these when they were going for .59 each hahaha I could make a living selling Tarmogoyf's! "Ya I had a good week, I sold about 10 Tarmogoyf, so that's about. . lemme see, 600 BUCKS!" Not a bad living eh?
SolidSoldier
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(7 votes)
Not an overrated card. A very overpriced (and I say that about any piece of cardboard that's $20+) and powerful card that wins games. You won't know until you've seen it in action. For those of you rating it low, get a brain.
channelblaze
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(12 votes)
Idk, it's good (ok, really good), but it's not as good as storm crow. Storm crow is a 1/2 flier, this thing has the potential to just be a 1/2. Who says green has better creatures than blue!
And no, I'm not really that stupid. This thing is friggin' amazing.
divine_exodus
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(19 votes)
Dies to duh. That's just more fun to say then "dies to doom blade".
jon9797
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(9 votes)
ok, people are mistaken ESPECIALLY Hovercraft (top comment) Saying Tarmogoyf is hard to kill is almost like saying a Craw Wurm is hard to kill. At most, he's a 7/8, he is still immune to anything, no shroud, no nothing, so path, stp, doom blade/terror, etc, he is a very cool creature, but he is NOT worth the money he's pulling, id rather purchase 2 Jace, The Mind Sculptors than 4 of these (yes the prices are close) Tarmogoyf is a good card, but is not worth all the fuss, remember at most he's a 7/8 vanilla creature after a while, so you got white, black, and blue to deal with. White's got O-Ring, Swords to Plowshares, Path To Exile, etc Black's got the blades, terrors, etc Blue has always got counters Just saying, he's good not "OMG $40 Rare all the way!"
justicarphaeton
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(28 votes)
@theSwarm Necropotence doesn't win you the game when it hits the table. Neither does Demonic Tutor, and those are both banned. Why? Because they enable you to win the game far sooner than one could achieve by other means.
The same goes with Tarmogoyf. At his best, his power is marginally better than Craw Wurm, but why does no one play that? Because Tarmogoyf can be cast on turn 2 and splashed into any deck colour for a cheap 1G. With a creature that grows so quickly and hit so hard, it demands that the opponent answer it RIGHT NOW or lose. Yes, it's nothing more than a dumb beater, but it is hands-down the best and fastest dumb beater that any deck of almost any colour can and will play, and one that the opponent MUST spend a card to answer, and that is why it's so expensive. Its price is high for the same reason rare lands are expensive.
--Nate--
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(6 votes)
How this does not have 5/5 baffles me.
In case some people don't trust what people here are saying about how good Tarmogoyf is, here's something to consider:
- In the top 8 decks in the 2009 legacy championships, Tarmogoyf was the most used creature, with 20 total copies being used. No other creature appeared even half as many times in those legacy top 8 decks.
- It's in such high demand that it costs more than the legendary Force of Will.
Orza
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
4.5/5
Noone can argue with this card being very good, but it's still overrated and consequently overpriced. Definitely not broken.
It's just a very cost effective, growing vanilla beater. Umm, well, maybe the most cost-effective, growing vanilla beater. Of course the 'dies to removal' argument is as dumb as ever, but there's enough cards to keep this at bay easily. Consequently it's excellent in control/removal, but merely good in other archtypes.
He doesn't win games by itself.
Now if he had Shroud or Trample.. then he might be broken.
tcollins
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Ach! Hans, run! It's the...
Kidrik
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(61 votes)
You know, I've never understood what possible kind of deck the "dies to removal" crowd builds. Entirely shrouded indestructible creatures? Removal can remove anything if it really wants to try.
Shroud? Wrath. Indestructible? Exile or Wither/Infect Protection? Sorry, we're still wrathing you. artifact? Naturalize/shatter/creeping corrosion/ putrefy/everythingunderthesun enchantment? Disenchant/etc.
EVEN BASIC LAND CAN BE REMOVED DO YOU PLAY WITHOUT LANDS BECAUSE THEY DIE TO LAND DESTRUCTION?
Why are goblin decks scary anyway? They die to removal--so do elves or fairies or merfolk! Even Painter's servant and Millstone die to removal but if you DO NOT have that removal at the EXACT moment you need it. You will die.
Hyroko
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
how many other creatures do you know that get stupid big for 2 mana? And do every single one of you have every single removal spell in your hand at every waking moment? how many removal spells does an average deck play? BTW maxxed out, he is an 8/9 not a 7/8...
plus, if you were to cast him on your second turn, here is a good play if you had the cards in hand.
first turn, no land in hand, cast land grant, thensearch for and play a taiga or a stomping grounds, and cast crop rotation for a dryad arbor. lay down a lotus petal, end turn, second turn, sac the lotus petal for red and cast rite of flame, and cast tarmogoyf. then cast either raze to destroy their only land, along with your creature land, or use need for speed to sac your dryad arbor and give tarmogoyf haste.
in that instance yes, you would need all of those cards to get a large effect when the goyf enters play, but if you had all 4 ofs and had similar cards that did the same things, then you could easily pull it off. this example makes tarmogofy a hasted 5/6 on turn 2... or a 5/6 without haste on turn 2 and your opponent has no land unless he drops another one.
and yes, we all know that there is removal out there.... so what? removal removes EVERYTHING... even the mighty Emrakul can die to removal i.e. executioner's capsule
Khias
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
When I leave for a Legacy tournament, I'm expecting to see this card. Just like I'm expecting to see reanimator, burn, and 43 land. It would be 5/5 if it were tricky, but b/c I will see it, it gets a 4.5. My sideboard knows you're on the way Tarmy : )
The_Sturm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Future Sight came out before Lorwyn yet the card references planeswalker as a card type. neato
landboysteve
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(4 votes)
First of all, I can't believe I've read this entire thread.
I don't even know where to begin to try to bring some sanity to this overpriced and overrated card.
Is it good? Sure, it's good. But it's too situational. You're depending on your opponent either playing a deck with many card types or playing one yourself with many means of getting cards into your graveyard. And if you're doing that, then you're not putting cards onto the battlefield to defend yourself.
If I were to play this card and IF I were crazy enough to pay $60 a pop for it (that's pretty much the going rate on Ebay right now) I would probably play this in a black deck running Liliana's Caress and a ton of card removal spells. Then hope my opponent isn't playing just creatures and lands. But unless you have some way of getting cards into the graveyard quickly, this card is above average at best.
I personally prefer something that isn't dependent on what somebody is playing and getting it into the graveyard.
For example, my one mono green deck revolves around these main cards.
The following happens more times than not with this deck.
Turn 1 - Land, elf Turn 2 - Land, Green Sun's Zenith grabbing Rofellos. Turn 3 - Land, tap the 3 lands and Rofellos and cast either Vigor or Primalcrux...whichever is in my hand.
By turn 3 I have either a 6/6 Trample that basically makes all my creatures indestructible or a 9/9 Primalcrux.
Those 4 cards will cost you about $63 given my deck construction in today's market.
I can MAYBE get one Tarmgoyf for that, though I have seen the occasional one go for about $40.
Comparing the strength of the card against the strength of other cards now out of standard as well, and then comparing the costs, there is no question this card is overrated and overpriced. Maybe back in the day when it was standard legal I could see it. But today? It's insane what this card is still going for.
Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that this card is not very cost efficient to cast and should, in the average match, become a 4/5 by turn 3, but it's no $60 card. I'm sorry, but it's not even close.
And I'm not even going to get into the whole "dies to removal" retarded argument because everything can be dealt with in some way. Even my Blightsteel Colossus, which by the way is going for a paltry $11 and it's in standard no less, can be killed with a plow or infect or any card that doesn't say "destroy". Still, I can get that card out turn 3 with a Tinker and finish the game turn 4 without having a black lotus or mox to help it along.
Good card? Yes.
Worth $60? No way, no how.
derpderpderp
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Anyone saying this card is overrated hasn't played it. Unfortunately those people probably also can't afford the legacy decks he belongs in.
stille_nacht
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
True, it dies to doom blade. But, doomblade costs two, and how much does this cost? two. in my view this card should be banned from legacy, simply because it is too efficient. As someone else said, it may be a dumb beater that dies easily enough, but it costs two mana and can ramp up to 5/6 easily enough. does vengevine end the game by itself? no. did frantic search end the game by itself? no. did Black Lotus end the game by itself? no. it is not because they are awesome game enders, its is because they are ridiculously efficient efficient enough for G to be splashed into top 8 legacy Fish decks, thats right, UG merfolk with the only green card being tarmogoyf
dragonking987
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
why dose this go for more then twice as much as entomb? Their is no easy way to get one of each card type in all graveyards by turn two especially in you are going to spend your mana one the secant turn on something else and especially if you want to produce green mana. Getting it up to a 8/9 on the third turn is unlikely and that is as big as he gets. Entomb can easily get you a first turn Iona, Shield of Emeria. I dont even want to think about how lucky you would have to get and what cards you would have to use to get him out and get him up to a 8/9 on the first turn and really which one would you rather have a 8/9 or a 7/7 with flying and that stops your appoints from casting spells of the chosen color. Yes its a good card but it shouldn't go for 68$.
Polychromatic
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This costs more than Force of Will, people.
stop-whining
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
@ Hyroko That's not a great example to make your point. Something like Kiln Fiend with rites of flame would actually be better.
That said, it was just a poor example, this is an extremely solid card
BattleFish
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Its true, this card is only above average but when you are playing a tournament, you need the biggest creatures you can get for your mana. Thats why its so expensive. Its can quickly become a 3/4 or 4/5 without even trying to feed it. It does die too easily but thats why this is used only in control decks. Its quite good even with all the graveyard hate and spell snares.
Anubisisking
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(38 votes)
Hans is screwed.
scorpiolegend
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
So how many people here slapped themselves when the price of this card went from $1 to $70?
BlackAlbino
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I've played against this card VERY frequently. I know what I'm talking about.
To both parties: 1 - STFU virtually EVRYTHING dies to removal
2 - this IS NOT broken and SHOULD NOT be banned. Why? Sure it's absolutely increadible as far as an efficient dumb beater goes. But that's all it is. It doesn't even have trample or any other evasion. Yes almost everything dies to removal, but this dies to almost all removal. It doesn't accelerate you in a broken way like black lotus, it doesn't give you broken card advantage like ancestral recall. It doesn't decimate your opponents board like balance. It just beats on them. I just wall it early and remove it late with plenty of answers to spare. And sometimes I'll let him be, I've outpaced my opponent. And this is with a $30 budget deck. And don't even try to tell me he can get to 8/9. When does that happen? He's usually between 3/4 and 5/6. For 1G? Yes very efficient, yes a great card. But I'll take him down with dust elemental. ( yes I use dust elemental, don't judge )
That being said, he is an amazingly efficient beater with no reason not to run him. He generates the pressure control decks need and in almost all cases is their only form of early board presence ( aside from phyrexian dreadnought among others ). An easy 5/5. Not broken but he's as close as a dumb beater will get without getting really stupid dumb.
@justicarphaeton goyf doesn't even come CLOSE to necropotence sorry
They should make a "Shapeshifter" card type, meaning that the card is every card type...there would be a lot of rules wrangling, but it would be pretty balanced...not like some cards have obscene synergy with it...
though i doubt this card will ever become rerinted, it was still a look into the future because back then planeswalkers didn't exist.
Cyberium
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
A card this powerful shouldn't cost only 1G, simple as that. It's degenerating to both games and wallets.
That said, the irony is within the card itself. It's a Future Sight, future card, but given its power level I doubt it will ever see reprint. At least I hope not.
mexikalifool
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(4 votes)
Picked up 3 packs of Future Sight at the M12 prerelease and ripped a foil 'goyf. Totally glossed over the fact that I did poorly in Sealed. Insanely efficient beater, 100% worth splashing green if your deck needs a significant threat. Plus, I always liked the future-shifted frame, thought it was a nice touch.
Ertai69
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
With cards that keep graveyards empty, strictly worse than Storm Crow.
Guest742242900
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Dies to Doom Blade.
UNHINGEDMAN
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
listen fools, people said that this card was a 7/8 max before planeswalker was an actual type. Planeswalker cards were previewed with goyf and were first printed in Lorwyn. So when you make fun of people that say this card is a 7/8 check the date on the comment.
The_Trendkill
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(28 votes)
This is the best blue creature of all time.
It may look like it's green, but it's actually blue. Trust me.
NoobOfLore
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(33 votes)
This card is very good, I will give it that much. It's excellent, it ends games. However, it does not belong in every single conversation about powerful creatures because it's not a mind-rendingly game-breaking as a lot of you are suggesting.
To be powerful, it requires powerful support and a quick mana base to make sure that you have the variety in your graveyard. It's only super-great if your deck was already awesome. The rest of us can use the power curve.
Think about it this way: If you drew this during a draft, how dangerous would it be in your deck? If you just toss it in any beatdown deck, does it make the deck better? It's not a card that needs to be built around, but it does need to be supported by a deck that's already really expensive.
In the decks that people without hundreds to spend on singles make, this card will grow slowly. There are two-drops with utility and conditional power that most cheaper decks would find easier to use.
It's only broken in professional legacy, and that is the format of broken cards.
If you don't agree with the people that say this card is broken, it's because you're not playing the same game that they are.
Gabriel422
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I bought a playset when it was $4, and I sold it for $40 apiece three months later. Today I'm regretting the decision.
CrowJonSnow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
more often than not is seems this will end up as 3/4 or 4/5, with the cards in the graveyard being sorcery, instant, creature, and enchantment. it's possible something like harrow might throw a land in your graveyard, or it could get milled, but it won't happen as often as the other 3.
now, a 4/5 for 2 is really great, but w/o another ability, it seems wasted. trample would give it power against chump blocking, maybe shroud against spot removal, but it doesn't have them. it really would've been cool to see the ability from battering wurm (not the bloodthirst)
interesting card, but i really think it's overrated. i've never seen it played, let alone at high power
3/5
tanuki-mario
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Reprint it or ban it in Modern.
What's the point of Modern if green still has a $400 (and rising) entry fee?
Jitte is banned and goyf got through???
There is a reason Jitte is $15 and Tarmogoyf is $100.
Akarian88
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(8 votes)
Storm Crow is better because it had flying.
lowman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I was always wondering why tribal is a card type and not treated like legendary in that matter. They both work as adjectives to the card type and there are no tribal cards that do not have another card type. So for me tribal seems to be a supertype but isn't. This rule just makes tarmogyf stronger and nothing else.
sonorhC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I think that "tribal" counts as a card type because, unlike Legendary or Snow, it has subtypes associated with it.
BuffJittePLZ
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@iaiji: I remember it being sought-after from the beginning.
@NoobOfLore: In a deck with card like Terramorphic Expanse, Ponder, Lightning Bolt, etc. this card would still be great. It does NOT take an expensive deck for it to be extremely powerful, but a deck that caters to it, regardless of budget. Would it be better with more budget? Maybe because of fetch-lands, but that is about it. In fact, the decks that run this card tend to be cheaper to make than many other top-tier decks.
Shadoflaam
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(40 votes)
Ach! Hans, run! It's fucking broken! -Saffi Eriksdotter, last words
LeoKula
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(17 votes)
Storm Crow flies over this dude all game long.
DacenOctavio
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(5 votes)
@ NoobOfLore:
"Think about it this way: If you drew this during a draft, how dangerous would it be in your deck? If you just toss it in any beatdown deck, does it make the deck better? It's not a card that needs to be built around, but it does need to be supported by a deck that's already really expensive."
If you pluck a $100 card out of a $15 draft, who cares if playing it in your otherwise terrible draft deck loses you the draft. You get to play 6 more drafts with some change left over for the resale value of Goyf. But screw that, just hug your Goyf close to you. You will want to put him in any and every eternal format deck you create, because he's amazing in all 3 of the eternal formats he's legal in.
ax_morph
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
"Ach! Hans, run, it's the Tarmogoyf!"
Wait a minute...
Undertakerx7
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This Mechanic is VERY useful in graveyard manipulation cards from Odyssey block and the Mercadian Masques block spellshapers throw in 4 Wild Mongrels and Tarmogoyf works perfectly.
Arachibutyrophobia
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
"it's just a beater without evasion" -lead Future Sight developer
theis999
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The 100$ card. Yes that is right, the introduction of modern almost doubled the value of tarmogoyf.
MagnaLynx21
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Beyond over rated. Is it just me?
D34D2R1T35
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I don't play magic everyday and havent played magic since BEFORE TIME BEGAN
Can someone please explain to me how this card is broken, the "card type" text makes it seems like it would be difficult to make this thing into a heavy beater without 2 or more extra cards
Seems like it would be nice for a multiplayer format though, maybe G/W with akroma's vengeance?
rainbowdash
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
overrated? no. overpriced? yes.
Pandapwnium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
This needs to be reprinted in Innistrad block.
deadapult13
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@D34D2R1T35
Not, broken, but still the dumbest big creature you can get with that mana. It is good because it's extremely easy to get the card types in today's modern and legacy formats:
-Almost every deck is running a lot of fetch lands. You or your opponent sacs your a for a dual: there's one card type
-Path to Exile, Bolt, Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, Swords to Plowshares, Chain Lightning, all give your a sorcery or instant card type in the graveyard for one mana, and are all highly played staples: there's two more easy types.
-Creatures die all the time. If you're playing zoo, your deck is full of one-drops that will probably stay on the field for one turn max. Also, if you bolt a creature, that's two card types in the graveyard with one spell.
just with these alone, you're getting a 4/5 for 1G. People used to think Ernham Djinn was good (and it was at the time). This is half as much to cast and has the added bonus of being able to grow even bigger once artifacts, enchantments, and walkers start hitting the graveyard. Not broken, just as big and stupid as they come.
Rikiaz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Honestly I think Ghoultree will be better than Tarmogoyf. Not in zoo but as a big creature that cares about the graveyard. On average Tarm will be a 3/4 for 2 and Ghoultree will be a 10/10 for 3 in a dedicated dredging deck (Dredging being any kind of self-mill, not just Narcobridge.) Plus I doubt Ghoultree will be a $90 card, as it is a precon rare. Sorry Tarm but you've outstayed your welcome.
buddy2
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@justicarphaeton:
Necropotencedoes win you the game the second it hits the table. If you want to be really nit-picky then technically you win the game on the next turn, since you don't actually get the cards until then. But you are still guaranteed a win.
BloodDragon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
So in the unliked situation that all card types have landed in your graveyard the biggest he'll get is 11/12? Realistically you'll normally see him around the range of 5/6 - 6/7, which is still scary enough.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I was one of those players that had respected 'Goyfs potential to be way above the curve at 2 mana, but had never actually used him. "I just haven't made the right deck for him yet", I thought.
So I eventually made a GB deck with him and Lord of Extinction, simply designed to be beefy - and try to do so by getting the various card types in the bin (for example, going with Executioner's Capsule over an instant or sorcery to force an artifact in there).
Having now experienced him first hand, I can just say "wow". It's totally different actually using him. It's remarkably easy to get 3+ card types in the grave (land, creature, instant/sorcery - the contents of most decks), and then as a 3/4 he's well worth the 2 mana cost. Get into the late game with the 7 predominant card types in there (tribal cards aren't all that common compared to the other card types), and you're still swinging with a 7/8 for 2 mana. Awesome saucesome.
So, chances of them actually reprinting this as the Futureshift would suggest? None, or none?
Scormio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Was there just no removal in standard while this was in it? Absolutely no protection or anything. A 2-drop fatty is really good, but its only so good when it dies to doom blade.
gman92
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This is a really good card. The reason it isn't banned is because its power is proportional to the relative power level of the format you're in. In the formats where this card is a 4/5 early game to 8/9 late game for , Green really needs a boost to be able to keep up with Blue and Black. As for other decks splashing Green to run this? Well, GG I guess. ^^
qwertycrap
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Reminder text: (The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land,planeswalker, sorcery and tribal) Future sight =/= Plansewalker cards, guess it really was future sight
adrian.malacoda
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(7 votes)
@qwertycrap
Allegedly they actually were going to print Planeswalkers in Future Sight but had to push them off to the next set (Lorwyn). This is evidenced by the fact that the Planeswalkers have no connection whatsoever to the flavor of Lorwyn Block (one of the distinguishing points about the plane of Lorwyn is that there are no humans).
flyersfan9191
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
idk what the big deal is, this card is aweful.... a vanilla 1/2, 2/3, 3/4,etc... to 8/9 for 2 is trash... but all jokes aside this card should not be 100 dollars.... its embarrassing.
a-slice-of-cake
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I hear people say that Tarmogoyf is overrated because he doesn't do anything. This is absolutely not true. Tarmogoyf does one very, very good thing.
He makes the opponent dead for minimum investment.
Comparing him to Bob is unfair. Comparing him even to Ooze is silly. All three of these cards are incredibly useful, and all three are wanted for completely different reasons.
Nevermoore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
It's not THAT great. It combo's well with ALOT of other spells. No protection and minor cast. On my T3 I will cast Threads of Disloyalty . Thanks.
WarioMan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
It's not $100 because it's the best card ever. Price has next to nothing to do with how good something is. USAGE IS EVERYTHING, PEOPLE. If every Legacy/Modern deck that ran them only runs one instead of fours, this card would probably be somewhere in the $12-20 range, lower if it was reprinted. Baneslayer Angel is just as good as it was a year and a half ago, but it's dropped $45 since then. Does that mean that it's only 10% as good as it was then? No. It's still ridiculous and annoying, it's just not seeing any play, really. Conversely, look at Sword of War and Peace. It WAS $12, and it shot up to almost $50. That doesn't mean it got REALLY good, it's still mediocre and Sword of Feast and Famine is still better by far, Standard just loves it a LOT right now, and when it rotates out in October, it'll drop to $10 or so again.
The point is, when nearly EVERY Legacy AND Modern deck plays something if it's in the colors of the deck, it tends to get VERY expensive. The only problem is I don't see the price going down in the near future until graveyard abuse ends... HA! Yeah right...
Suddsy12
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Oh Goyf....
Phage123
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Probably the best two-drop in the game. After Storm Crow, that is...
Paolino
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(6 votes)
"... just a beater without evasion..." - Mike Turian, dropping mana cost from to What followed is history...
SuicidalTendancies
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@CorkBulb
This guy isn't replacing a huge green creature in that type of deck. Green doesn't really stand a chance in any serious tournament as it is.
When you've got your opponents top decking, with a hand full of counters and kill spells or whatever other terrible thing a legacy/vintage/whatever deck has in it, a 5/6 or 6/7 two drop that keeps mana open is absolutely nuts.
Or, you're running graveyard shenanigans. A good deck can have a dozen cards in its graveyard by like turn 3. And even more than that even sooner is entirely possible.
Any high end deck is also always going to have a land in one of the graveyards. There is almost no way neither person wont have a fetch land, a wasteland, a strip mine, a ghost quarter or any other number of good stuff.
Basically, in most control match ups, splash some green with dual lands and throw in a Goyf, you wont be disappointed. Even though he's losing some of his steeze to Scavenging Ooze
Bobth
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@CorkBulb I see you've never played against him. Decks using him have ways of easily getting different types of cards in the graveyard, for example, the mentioned fetchlands and Nameless Inversion. That's adding Land and Tribal to your list, for a 6/7 for 2. The former costs no effort to put into a deck, and the latter is good removal anyway. There's also self-milling, which will pump him up in no time flat. Just go on MWS (Magic Workstation) and play Modern, then come back and edit your comment with your results. If you genuinely don't have a problem with him because of something you're doing, that's fine too, I'd like to hear about it :P. This is one of my least favorite cards in the game.
Justin133Nivmizzet1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
wow now scavenging ooze is the legacy 2 drop of choice. It hoses this. Dies to Duh! But this is still insane! T2 5/6es are good
KnexWiz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@any one complaing
before i start i wil just say thet i have never played any format in wich Tarmogoyf is leagal, and i know how powerfull this is;
you dont make a deck built around this, this belongs in dredge or jund-type decks;
remember that birds or delver you bolted that fist turn? well now your turn 2 goyf is a 2/3 for , but guess what hapens? you or your opponent will most likely play fetch lands or more removal or some mill, and goyf will probably be a 4/5 by then. shure its a "conditional" 4/5 for but last time i checked a 4/5 for was powerfull, and you dont even need to try for it if your at least playing good removal, fetch lands and maybe some cheap graveyard fillers that will help you even if you never use those cards in the graveyard. shure your opponent can easily remove this but, like i said, you arent playing a deck built souly around this so you'd much rather them remove this instead of some thingimportant.
CorkBulb
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(6 votes)
WHAT is with this CARD!?
I don't get it. How is this a tournament winner? What is all the hype about it? Why is it *imperative* to have 4 in every green deck? I simply have to comment on this card and bring up some things because I can't stand it how everybody is drooling and having seizures over it.
Sure, it gets bigger as the game goes on, but the biggest it can get is 8/9, and that's even assuming that there is at least every card type between both decks AND they are drawn, played, and split between the graveyards. Not all decks have planeswalkers, and they have to be destroyed somehow, or atricfacts, especially in the graveyard, OR ENCHANTMENTS, especially in the graveyard, OR TRIBALS in the entire deck, OR LANDS IN THE GRAVEYARD!!. And, even so, this may take many, many turns, enough so that later on even if he is 8/9, he won't be too nasty anyway compared to some of the other huge green creatures out there (or in any other color) My 3 most powerful decks have only 3 spell types each, plus lands. Typically, the biggest this guy is going to reliably be is 4/5 AT THE MOST (sorcery, instant, enchantment and creature). for , you could have a Leatherback Baloth, who will always be a 4/5.
And he doesn't have evasion or trample.
And of course, as everybody has said, DIES TO REMOVAL. If he becomes too much of a problem I'll just get rid of him. And there's always deathtouch. My Tidehollow Strix will end his day in no time, plus countless other creatures.
If you people think he is a game winner, (and especially if he really is a tournament winner) you need to see some of my group's decks in action (and I need to sign up for tournaments). A Wellwisher scares me a heck of a lot more than this thing does.
Unless he is part of some crazy combo or synergy that I am unaware of, he is cool but I'm not going to waste an Oblivion Ring on him anytime soon.
3.5/5 for power/growth 1/5 for unreliability 2.5/5 total
EDIT: Ok fine, so you build a special deck around him JUST to make him really big, but it's still just another combo deck! Why is a "Tarmogoyf combo deck" so much better than any other? There are hundreds of cards to build a special deck around and thousands of turn 1, 2 and 3 combos. None of them cost nearly as much as Tarmogoyf, and none of them have all this hype. I'm commenting more on what's up with all the hype and why everybody is defending him and saying "he's a tournament winner" and "absolutely broken" and "you *have to* put him in every deck" and "OMG BEST CARD EVA *_*". No *one card* is a tournament winner. Time Walk never won a tournament, it was whatever else he during the course of the game and on his extra turn that actually did the winning. It's all about the player and the deck. This just means that Tarmogoyf on his own isn't that good, he needs a special graveyard shenanigans deck to work. Well, all combo decks have different strengths and weaknesses. This one would be built around pumping a single creature. If you build some kind of special deck around him, I will be sure to save removal *just* for him. Not to mention a single deathtouch creature stops him in his tracks. AND later in the game, he may be no bigger and no better than other fatties of any color, other than his CMC, which doesn't matter if you're topdecking.
Yeah he is cheap, yeah he can be big, but he is still just another creature in your deck I can counter, block, and remove. You better have other ways of winning in that deck than just him or you're never gonna win against me. Using all these "graveyard fillers" to pump him makes me think that you are using up a lot of slots in the deck and not leaving room for much else. I just don't see this guy anywhere near broken.
@KnexWiz:
Well, looks like you beat Tarmogoyf down to what he should be. A good addition in an appropriate deck not Best creature ever. I agree that he grows nice and is a decent beatstick early on, but I've seen, had, and dealt with, better.
First, I wouldn't bolt a Birds of Paradise or any other utility card unless it was causing me trouble. Second, I typically run 2 playsets of removal in each of my decks, that's 8 burn cards. I often have 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 if I'm lucky, often with a board wipe like Earthquake or Mutilate. By the time you get another problem creature out I will probably have drawn another, and besides, I have creatures too ya know that can do something called "blocking" in case a fatty attacks.
Sorry, I don't see the "Uber Power". I am a very experienced player who has played hundreds of games with dozens of decks against countless opponents and your deck over there doesn't impress me.
hate me for this, but i believe that Nivmagus Elemental is pretty much strictly better. a reliable, attacking 5/6 on turn two beats a card that COULD but almost certainly WON'T be an attacking 8/9 on turn THREE. Really, NME is cheaper ("x or y" costs are always wonderful), STAYS BIG when you buff it, and doesn't require a ridiculous level of preparation. just a few one-drop instants.
you're move, targargablorf. I'm gonna beat you with a card i can actually pronounce, dammit.
MithosFall
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
One thing I found interesting about this card is that it mentions "planeswalker" in the reminder text even though planeswalkers wouldn't see print until Lorwyn.
RedAtrocitus
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(14 votes)
Tip: Don't Bolt a 2/3 Goyf with no instants in the graveyard.
canucks123
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Best buddies with Jace, the Mindskulpter
CammyWhite
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(8 votes)
ANNOUNCED TO BE REPRINTED IN MODERN MASTERS
COMING SOON TO A GAME STORE NEAR YOU, AFFORDABLE GOYFS
SyntheticDreamer
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Finally, now everybody can have a Goyf.
Totema
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(5 votes)
Actually, I don't expect the "reprinting" of good old Tarmy to lower his price much. Modern Masters is supposed to be a conservative and limited release with the size of a large set, like a Core Set. So, while there will be new Tarmies in circulation, there's not going to be that many. Which makes sense, because they're freaking REPRINTING TARMOGOYF, of course they're not going to destroy Modern by giving everyone easy access to him. The new availability will definitely help, maybe even enough for one to save a considerable amount of cash on him, but not as much as everyone initially thinks.
DarthParallax
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(5 votes)
I predict the Modern Master's Tarmogoyf to cost as much as the "Cover Prize" of a From the Vault: Box, or the price I consider reasonable for a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, *pre-banning*: between $55-65 depending on condition.
Which is an improvement still! :D
Nyan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you really want to know why Tarmogoyf is good, you should play modern/legacy. Fetchlands, removal, disruption, efficient creatures... Cards go to the graveyard by just playing.
Yeah, he's just a beater, and I don't think he "deserves" his price. But cards aren't priced by their power.
And last, you don't need him for legacy/modern/anything. Those formats have several competitive deck archetypes, and you can try any of them and just don't play Tarmogoyf.
I'll give this card 5/5 for efficiency. Although I'll never buy one for such an insane price. 100 dollars... lol
swords_to_exile
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Overhyped, but not by much, here's why. Turn two he comes down usually as a 2/3 (fetch, brainstorm turn one). This is fair, compare with Nissa's Chosen.
What makes goyf so good is his annoying ability to grow with the game. While there aren't many (any?) matchups where he'll be a full 8/9, he is still way too efficiently costed at turn 3, if turn two is instead spend on something like faithless looting to make him even bigger then next turn, dumping an artifact and a creature.
So now turn three he comes down as a 5/6 for 2, which is way too good.
However, he has no evasion, so while he's huge, my 0/1 plant will champ him all day, and his abilities rely on graveyards to work. Any type of graveyard hate will decimate him.
In extended a few years ago, the extended world championships were won by white weenie, in large part due to their ability to exile graveyards against the finalist Jund - packing goyfs. (it was relic of progenitus, for anyone who cares)
I feel that 80 -90$ is a stupid price for him, and am excited about it possibly going down with Modern Masters. Still this was definately a mistake of stoneforge proportions
tl/dr: Good, too efficient, but can be chumped and vulnerable to graveyard hate. Not quite worth his price now, but was definitely a mistake.
Kirbster
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Ach, Hans, run - it's powercreep!
TheWrathofShane
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(4 votes)
If they made a vanilla 4/4 or even a 5/5 for , would that sound fair at all? This card is 100$ because he only saw one printing and its clearly overpowered. Not broken, because that term is saved for cards that every deck needs to win in the format.
My rating = .5/5 because its just not balanced. I could understand why this past testing, but they underestimated how easy and fast this could grow.
Wizards needs to avoid last minute changes at all costs. It leads to this and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. You cant release a balance patch after its in stores. If you cant play-test a version dont release it.
Throw Gaddock Teeg and possibly Linvala, Keeper of Silence into the mix and near-immortality has been achieved! I say "near" because there are STILL answers to this ludicrous board position, believe or not. There truly is an answer to everything...
Broken or not... can someone please explain me the artwork? I really don't see a lhurgoyf there
Mr.Wimples
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The biggest design flaws in Tarmogoyf is that it can get really big, really fast for a measly and is also a great counter for itself. This means many legacy/modern players mainboard or sideboard it to take advantage of enemy goyf strategy, counter other goyfs, or use it as some sort of wincon for themselves. This results in an increasingly boring meta.
Continue
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(10 votes)
Fun fact: At the time this guy was released, he had the potential to be a 7/8, but only barely. There had been exactly one tribal card ever printed: Bound in Silence, also a Future Sight card. Planeswalkers were, of course, released in the next expansion, Lorwyn, as were more tribal cards. He, along with the aforementioned Bound in Silence, were the first mentions of tribal cards, but Tarmy is better known for revealing that planeswalkers were coming soon.
I'm trying so hard to squint and tell what the hell is going on with its picture. Still no luck. Never played with this. Only started Modern recently and faced this thing maybe once, so in experience, I can't say much about it. Conceptually though, having played Magic as a Spike for a while now, I can definitely see the power in this. I think this card's biggest draw is its relevance throughout the entire match with minimal assistance (Just play the game, it'll get big) for just 2 mana. That's power you only see in a few Magic cards out of the thousands printed.
FaceClaimer
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(6 votes)
i've played both this guy and wight of precinct six and the wight was always getting stronger than this thing...don't know what my friend was talking about saying wight was awful in comparison to this.
ParishInquisitor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Potentially really powerful, but I wouldn't say broken. It takes a lot of careful (and expensive) deck-building to really break this. For anyone not playing a lot of modern and/or legacy, this is a quaintly powerful creature. It isn't super hard to remove- Abrupt Decay does the trick. So yeah, a pricey, sometimes-broken beater.
Anzu-chan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Even if it cost 100$ each, I'll buy 4 copies of it. One by one, but I will.
Smoke_Stack
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(5 votes)
I don't get it. I know this guy is supposed to be bomb and I could see that later in the game he could be. At best, he's a 14/15 for 2 (which is amazing) but I would rather have already won by that point. I just think there are better and cheaper cards out there. Call me a noob or whatever but I wouldn't waste the $$ or the space in my deck for this guy
demidracolich
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
@Smoke_StackThe whole point is his ridiculous efficency. In competitive format where he is played in fetchland are everywhere and pretty much every deck has instants sorcerys and creatures. Considereing only those he is already likely to be at least a 4/5 for 2 which is ridiculous. Goyf is basically the most efficent cheap dumb green beatstick out there.
strider24seven
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
@Smoke_Stack Turn 1: Island, Ponder Turn 2: Misty Rainforest, crack for Forest, drop Tarmogoyf Turn 3: Island, Brainstorm, punch with Tarmogoyf
In cases like these (read: most of the time in legacy/modern), Tarmy comes out swinging on Turn 3 as a 3/4 for 2 mana. And he gets bigger as the game progresses.
He is either a 2-mana threat that either protects your board-state by eating removal, or wins the game on his own. He is probably a better way to fill your deck than whatever else you'd be packing- even if you're not running green.
EGarrett01
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I have a feeling this card would be much closer to balanced if it were a 0/0 by default instead of 0/1.
Taudisban
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
In Modern, this guy is just solid. That is it. He comes down early enough to play as a wall against aggro decks (or to be an aggressor for them) and he beats face really well for attrition style midrange decks like Jund. He is the best option most of the time and, unlike a lot of cards in his price range, he is fun to play against. Not broken.
Here's the thing: His price range. It actually doesn't make sense. I'm not saying this as some poor player who just wants to have their very own tarmy (got all the goyfs I need already) but just comparing it to other creatures in realistic ways. Jace's Phantasm can be swinging for five before you even lay this guy down. Nivmagus Elemental and Blistercoil Weird fall into the same category. I know these cards require you to do things you weren't already going to do, whereas the goyf grows naturally. So does Quirion Dryad, and she's still no where near as costly.
So why? How could this cost so much? It's because of us. We gave this card such a huge reputation that there was no other choices. We didn't look on gatherer, we didn't check out our options, we netdecked. And this became a hundred dollars. He's good, but not that good.
Silverwarrior
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
There are twelve card types in all. So he could be a 12/13. Don't Believe me. The Twelve. Artifact Creature Land Enchantment Instant Sorcery Basic World Planeswalker Snow Tribal Awesome Card
SubstantiaNigra
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In eternal formats such as Legacy where everyone uses a non-basic fetch-land, an instant/sorcery, and a creature by turn 1/2, you can easily have a second turn 3/4 for . The best part is he doesn't stop growing after that, or alternatively, your opponent spends 1 or 2 to remove your spell (cf Baneslayer Angel's ). So you're not really losing either way.
@surrealwebs: Well done you'll either have run a card that is only useful for playing against this (which even costs the same) or you'll have wasted some great mass removal (which costs twice as much) just to deal with a 2 cmc.
@substantialtigra: Doesn't sound very casual.
supafly13
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Silverwarrrior.
I hope that your trolling about the card types. Smh
Not withstanding that, ol' Tarmogoyf now goes for WELL OVER $100 (like $130) now. Is he necessary to win? Not hardly.
However, Is he the single best option for several archetypes/builds? Absolutely. Is he rare/mythic? Yes. Has he only (still) been printed in one set? Yes. Can he be played/splashed easily? Yes. Is he an incredibly short clock when unanswered? Yes. Can he stop other beaters in their tracks? Yes.
No other creature fits these criteria. Period. Hence his outrageous price/value.
diabloknk
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@taudisban - It's not just how powerful his effect is, it's also a function of his rarity. None of the cards you just mentioned are anywhere near as rare as tarmogoyf. To give an example - deathrite shaman sees nearly as much modern/legacy play at this point as tarmogoyf, yet is about $13 at the time of this writing, whereas goyf is about $115. However, deathrite shamans are MUCH more commonplace.
A card's cost is not directly related to its power. Tarmogoyf isn't 100X better than its possible replacements - but it is still better. And that edge is enough to mean the difference between winning and losing tournaments. That edge is enough to drive demand up well beyond the demand any of those replacements - competitive players look for any advantage they can get.
Also, as a side note, he is a HELL of a lot better than dryad. If you drop him early, he's usually already a 3/4, and thus dodges bolt and pyroclasm effects. Dryad stays small and vulnerable for at least a turn. As for late game - tarmogoyf is still good. Dryad is probably pretty bad at this point as you've likely used up a lot of your hand. This becomes especially crucial if you're in topdeck mode - tarmogoyf is instant value, dryad is a 1/1 that will grow slowly (likely only +1/+1 each turn, if that) when you really need something better. The only major advantages dryad has are that it's not affected by graveyard hate and that it can theoretically get bigger than goyf (very unlikely though).
Doaj
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Tribal is a card type for good reason, even if it seems arbitrary. Certain card types have certain subtypes. For example, Mountain is a subtype of Land. Pirate is a subtype of Creature. Sorceries and Instants don't have subtypes. So Nameless Inversion couldn't be a Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter if it didn't have a card type that allowed it to have a subtype. So WotC invented Tribal as a new card type that could give spells subtypes. Legendary is a supertype, but not a card type. You'll never see cards that are Legendary but not creatures or artifacts or some other card type. You'll never see a card with a subtype without a card type.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(4 votes)
Let's all pray his price will go down when he gets reprinted in Modern Masters, maybe $40 or so?
snickerpuss
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ah, Tarmogoyf. Magic's cure for the heavy wallet.
TyomDrettar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Life would be so much easier if this wasn't printed... We'd all be richer too...
Megadog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ Doaj, while I understand the points you are making and think that tribal should be a type and not a super type, I can see some problems with what you said.
1. What would the rules for a "Tirbal -- " card be? Most importantly, is it a permanent, or not? 2. Arcane is an instant and sorcery subtype. It's specifically giving non-creatures a creature subtype that it is used for.
Goobldorf
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He came from the future to take our money. Now he is returning from the past to do it again.
EdgarPoeAllen
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@RedAtrocitus: The Bolt would resolve then go to graveyard, so Goyf would die
RAT666
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I guess the idea behind this card would be to build a mill deck and just start milling the hell out of your opponent and then use blue to start drawing a ton of cards so that you can discard them then play a few goyf and pummel your opponent.
Demonic_Math_Tutor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The only creature out there that can simultaneously win games, lose friends, and make your wallet cry.
DarkmageRector
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@Edgar, actually the card goes to the graveyard before the spell is finished resolving as part of the final step. Creatures don't die during the resolution of spells because state-based actions aren't checked during the resolution of a spell.
demonknight18
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is way too overrated. Not bad, just overrated.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I figured out the art.
Look where the chest is and you'll see a toothy bottom jaw with things like insect pincers around it (one on each side) and it's eyes are where you expect them. The right arm (his right) is grasping a human and the other is going out of view. The white stuff in front of his eyes are the teeth for the top portion of the jaw, so he's "screaming" in the art, if that makes sense..
If you blow it up (zoom in) you'll see what I'm talking about, it's actually really cool looking art when you figure it out; he's about to swallow a guy whole.
SilentOppressor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I still have a price guide from back when he was 7 bucks. Good times.
DimirOverlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Forgive me for being retarded but if this guy is worth $140.00 why isconsuming aberration only a few dollars$ is 3 mana worth over $130.00?!?!
NARFNra
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@DimirOverlord
This isn't comparable to Consuming Abberation. What are you even talking about?
CogMonocle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@DimirOverlord
Yes, 3 mana and being monochrome IS worth $130. Because when your opponent is casting 2 mana 4/5s you die before consuming aberration hits the field. Because even if you do manage to cast the fucker you have now tapped out and you're going to die to whatever else they have.
The point isn't to have a "graveyard based stats" creature, which is why you cannot compare the two. We don't care where he's getting his power from, just that can easily be a 3/4 or a 4/5 on turn two with easy color requirements (ie, your opponent does a T1 ponder, you cast some T1 instant and crack a fetchland, or your opponent does a T1 Birds of Paradise, which you Lightning Bolt, and a fetchland goes off).
He's not filling a slot of "creature with power scaling with graveyard". He's filling a slot of "Two mana 3/4 that grows as the game goes on".
If you notice that otherwise best P/T you get for 2 mana is Watchwolf or Kalonian Tusker you see why basically any aggro deck that can run him has to. He's consistent, and *** huge.
Kontrah
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Unfortunately I started playing Magic during the Time Spiral block. It was a great block, the unfortunate part is that I was too much of a noob to realize that the Tarmogoyf I opened in my first few packs of Future Sight would turn out to be what it is. Traded it away for jank from the experienced player who got my friends and I into it. Looking back, it's always a dick move when some sly player tries to make a shit trade like that while pretending that Magic trades are "all about playability", didn't even mention the price or anything. grrrr
Sasquatch_1999
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Wizards nerfed the Goyf' by giving incomprehensible art, duh All jokes aside 5/5 it's Tarmogoyf, what else is there to say
commandozacko
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't see what the big deal is guys. He's just a dude, man. 5/5
Hunter06
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wow, I just noticed the soldier he is holding, lol
4/5 Stars
Lazrbeams
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is a 5/5, we all know it, the people who voted .5/5 know it too. It's simply the strongest 2 drop beater they'll ever print. He's not broken either, mess with the graveyard a bit and he shrinks, leave it unchecked and someone gets a 5/6 for {G1}.
Comments (209)
;)
As long as Tarmogoyf is legal, green decks cost 200$ more to play.
Your blue deck needs four, and green sources.
it's a very powerful card, yet not necessarily broken.
but seriously, who decided to give this creature a default toughness of 1? that's really something this creature wouldn't have needed in my opinion.
By the way, a friend of mine bought a total of two packs of Future Sight. His rares were Daybreak Coronet and this. His pack-opening luck is unrivaled.
Terror/Dark Banishing
BURNBURNBURNBURN
Counter
Oh noez! Tarmy can be beat?
I killed 4 tarmogoyfs using 3 terrors and a dark banishing in the same game. Needless to say, my opponent was ***ED.
Terror
Boomerang
Remove Soul
Deathmark
Counterspell
Wrath of God
Vengeance or whatever the new black reprint of it is.
In other words, it's good against anything that isn't blue or black, since those two really don't give a crap how big your creatures are. If it had Shroud, it would be gawd and would have to be illegal. As it is... It's a very good card that sees way too much use in my opinion.
In Legacy deck development threads this is the response I hear to every interesting card choice: Why not Tarmogoyf? But how is this going to deal with Tarmogoyf? You should splash green for Tamogoyf. TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF TARMOGOYF.
It's like Dredge... When it's good, it's great... when it's not... it's horrible.
Awesome card... Wish I had some now lol.
TokenMaster (10/13/2009 5:23:09 PM)
THANK YOU!! I get so tired of people pointing out how this and that can be bested by removal!
Finally someone who gets it, anything and everything can be removed but it's not about IF it can be removed, it's WHAT it can do if not removed quickly!
It's a great card, don't get me wrong - but you need 3 card types in the graveyard by turn two to make it better than watchwolf, at least in aggro terms. It shines as a control finisher, but $50 a pop? It's worth a tenth of that max, especially with the ugly future sight card face.
Great creature, but nowhere near broken and certainly not on the level of auto-win cards like jitte.
Joking aside, Tarmgoyf is an excellent creature, but there ARE ways to deal with it - it's not an auto-win in the same league as Umezawa's Jitte.
@ TokenMaster, AbyssalManZero, Hovercraft and various other people:
The fact that Tarmogoyf 'dies to removal' is not a bad thing. The point is that people who go 'OMG Tarmogoyf is unbeatable and overpowered and should be banned!' are tiresome fools - I count roughly 25 cards in M10 alone which single-handedly nullify it. Tarmogoyf is powerful but ultimately fair. It's above the curve but has no protection and while it's undoubtedly one of the very best cards printed in recent years, it is absolutely NOT the case that casting it equals winning. I can only ạssume the people who consider Tarmogoyf unfair don't remember how dominant cards like Jitte, Psychatog or Tolarian Acadamy were in their day, cards which frankly make Tarmogoyf look like small fry.
Just to reiterate, this is a GOOD thing. Overpowered cards are getting less and less frequent. I suppose one slight downside of that is the fact that when something comes close but doesn't actually quite break the glạss ceiling of total format-warping - like Goyf - people still act like it's too much for the meta to handle. If anything, Bloodbraid Elf has been the real format-warper of recent years.
Even Wizards admitted that printing this was a mistake...and yet they have done nothing further about it, huh. I imagine the outrageous market price has something to do with it (hint: it boosted Future Sight pack and box sales all by itself; so of course they aren't going to ban/restrict it. That would be stupid if they wanted to make more money.)
The good news is, combo decks become more powerful the further back you go (Extended -> Legacy, etc) so Goyf may be in several decklists, but there are many many more in which he isn't an auto-4-of, proving that while he can compete against other powerful strategies, he isn't the "auto-win" card he's made out to be.
The real reason this card is so powerful is that it grows with the game, and you can splash for it in any deck, any color, and (almost) any strategy. Most of all, it's a solid, consistent win condition for only 2 mana. Goyf simply outmodes 95% of the creatures in the game.
Not unbeatable, but certainly overpowered relative to most other creatures out there.
What do you have to play first turn to turn this into a monster? Tome Scour?
Of course I see that this is a very good card but it costs around twice as the new Jace and he is still in the actual tournament format.
I never played with or against the Tarmoghoyf so maybe that's the reason why I do not understand why this card is often considered as broken.
..? Future Sight seems like it was a fun pack :)
If this starts of as a 2/3 or 3/4, thats pretty much ok. Next turn it probaly grows, and you may be attacking the opponent for 4, or even 5 damage, excluding any turn 1 or 3 drops.
"It dies to removal lololololol!!" <- Your mom does too. About 90% of all creatures dies to removal. Why shouldn't this do?
Doesn't change the fact, that its a great card.
Also, it has synergy with really many cards. For example, a Lightning Bolt usually gives it +2/+2.
I do, however, think it costs too much (Yer, it should only be 1 mana, lololol) <- not like that. 50-70 dollars is too much to pay for a piece of paper, after my opinion.
SHOCKINGLY AWFUL CARD AS LONG AS SLAY IS IN LEGACY IT IS NOT WORTH PLAYING
If that rumor is true, I will truly be disgusted.
Ontop of this, it feels unfair to all the other grizzlybear 1Gs who have struggled/evolved over these years against each other only to have a new start-up dominate so entirely.
I hope by the time this futuresighted card sees print again other graveyard decks and grizzlybears can contend.
And no, I'm not really that stupid. This thing is friggin' amazing.
White's got O-Ring, Swords to Plowshares, Path To Exile, etc
Black's got the blades, terrors, etc
Blue has always got counters
Just saying, he's good not "OMG $40 Rare all the way!"
The same goes with Tarmogoyf. At his best, his power is marginally better than Craw Wurm, but why does no one play that? Because Tarmogoyf can be cast on turn 2 and splashed into any deck colour for a cheap 1G. With a creature that grows so quickly and hit so hard, it demands that the opponent answer it RIGHT NOW or lose. Yes, it's nothing more than a dumb beater, but it is hands-down the best and fastest dumb beater that any deck of almost any colour can and will play, and one that the opponent MUST spend a card to answer, and that is why it's so expensive. Its price is high for the same reason rare lands are expensive.
In case some people don't trust what people here are saying about how good Tarmogoyf is, here's something to consider:
- In the top 8 decks in the 2009 legacy championships, Tarmogoyf was the most used creature, with 20 total copies being used. No other creature appeared even half as many times in those legacy top 8 decks.
- It's in such high demand that it costs more than the legendary Force of Will.
Noone can argue with this card being very good, but it's still overrated and consequently overpriced.
Definitely not broken.
It's just a very cost effective, growing vanilla beater. Umm, well, maybe the most cost-effective, growing vanilla beater.
Of course the 'dies to removal' argument is as dumb as ever, but there's enough cards to keep this at bay easily. Consequently it's excellent in control/removal, but merely good in other archtypes.
He doesn't win games by itself.
Now if he had Shroud or Trample.. then he might be broken.
Shroud? Wrath.
Indestructible? Exile or Wither/Infect
Protection? Sorry, we're still wrathing you.
artifact? Naturalize/shatter/creeping corrosion/ putrefy/everythingunderthesun
enchantment? Disenchant/etc.
EVEN BASIC LAND CAN BE REMOVED
DO YOU PLAY WITHOUT LANDS BECAUSE THEY DIE TO LAND DESTRUCTION?
Why are goblin decks scary anyway? They die to removal--so do elves or fairies or merfolk! Even Painter's servant and Millstone die to removal but if you DO NOT have that removal at the EXACT moment you need it. You will die.
plus, if you were to cast him on your second turn, here is a good play if you had the cards in hand.
first turn, no land in hand, cast land grant, thensearch for and play a taiga or a stomping grounds, and cast crop rotation for a dryad arbor. lay down a lotus petal, end turn,
second turn, sac the lotus petal for red and cast rite of flame, and cast tarmogoyf. then cast either raze to destroy their only land, along with your creature land, or use need for speed to sac your dryad arbor and give tarmogoyf haste.
in that instance yes, you would need all of those cards to get a large effect when the goyf enters play, but if you had all 4 ofs and had similar cards that did the same things, then you could easily pull it off.
this example makes tarmogofy a hasted 5/6 on turn 2... or a 5/6 without haste on turn 2 and your opponent has no land unless he drops another one.
and yes, we all know that there is removal out there.... so what? removal removes EVERYTHING... even the mighty Emrakul can die to removal i.e. executioner's capsule
neato
I don't even know where to begin to try to bring some sanity to this overpriced and overrated card.
Is it good? Sure, it's good. But it's too situational. You're depending on your opponent either playing a deck with many card types or playing one yourself with many means of getting cards into your graveyard. And if you're doing that, then you're not putting cards onto the battlefield to defend yourself.
If I were to play this card and IF I were crazy enough to pay $60 a pop for it (that's pretty much the going rate on Ebay right now) I would probably play this in a black deck running Liliana's Caress and a ton of card removal spells. Then hope my opponent isn't playing just creatures and lands. But unless you have some way of getting cards into the graveyard quickly, this card is above average at best.
I personally prefer something that isn't dependent on what somebody is playing and getting it into the graveyard.
For example, my one mono green deck revolves around these main cards.
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Vigor
4 Primalcrux
8 mana producing elves and one Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
The following happens more times than not with this deck.
Turn 1 - Land, elf
Turn 2 - Land, Green Sun's Zenith grabbing Rofellos.
Turn 3 - Land, tap the 3 lands and Rofellos and cast either Vigor or Primalcrux...whichever is in my hand.
By turn 3 I have either a 6/6 Trample that basically makes all my creatures indestructible or a 9/9 Primalcrux.
Now, let's look at the prices of these cards.
Vigor - $2.97
Primalcrux - $1.91
Green Sun's Zenith - $8.86
Rofellos - $7.71
Those 4 cards will cost you about $63 given my deck construction in today's market.
I can MAYBE get one Tarmgoyf for that, though I have seen the occasional one go for about $40.
Comparing the strength of the card against the strength of other cards now out of standard as well, and then comparing the costs, there is no question this card is overrated and overpriced. Maybe back in the day when it was standard legal I could see it. But today? It's insane what this card is still going for.
Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that this card is not very cost efficient to cast and should, in the average match, become a 4/5 by turn 3, but it's no $60 card. I'm sorry, but it's not even close.
And I'm not even going to get into the whole "dies to removal" retarded argument because everything can be dealt with in some way. Even my Blightsteel Colossus, which by the way is going for a paltry $11 and it's in standard no less, can be killed with a plow or infect or any card that doesn't say "destroy". Still, I can get that card out turn 3 with a Tinker and finish the game turn 4 without having a black lotus or mox to help it along.
Good card? Yes.
Worth $60? No way, no how.
in my view this card should be banned from legacy, simply because it is too efficient.
As someone else said, it may be a dumb beater that dies easily enough, but it costs two mana and can ramp up to 5/6 easily enough.
does vengevine end the game by itself? no.
did frantic search end the game by itself? no.
did Black Lotus end the game by itself? no.
it is not because they are awesome game enders, its is because they are ridiculously efficient
efficient enough for G to be splashed into top 8 legacy Fish decks, thats right, UG merfolk with the only green card being tarmogoyf
That's not a great example to make your point. Something like Kiln Fiend with rites of flame would actually be better.
That said, it was just a poor example, this is an extremely solid card
To both parties:
1 - STFU virtually EVRYTHING dies to removal
2 - this IS NOT broken and SHOULD NOT be banned.
Why? Sure it's absolutely increadible as far as an efficient dumb beater goes. But that's all it is. It doesn't even have trample or any other evasion. Yes almost everything dies to removal, but this dies to almost all removal. It doesn't accelerate you in a broken way like black lotus, it doesn't give you broken card advantage like ancestral recall. It doesn't decimate your opponents board like balance. It just beats on them. I just wall it early and remove it late with plenty of answers to spare. And sometimes I'll let him be, I've outpaced my opponent. And this is with a $30 budget deck. And don't even try to tell me he can get to 8/9. When does that happen? He's usually between 3/4 and 5/6. For 1G? Yes very efficient, yes a great card. But I'll take him down with dust elemental. ( yes I use dust elemental, don't judge )
That being said, he is an amazingly efficient beater with no reason not to run him. He generates the pressure control decks need and in almost all cases is their only form of early board presence ( aside from phyrexian dreadnought among others ). An easy 5/5. Not broken but he's as close as a dumb beater will get without getting really stupid dumb.
@justicarphaeton
goyf doesn't even come CLOSE to necropotence sorry
turn 2: land, this
@Kidrik: They use Norin the Wary
Doesn't matter who.
That said, the irony is within the card itself. It's a Future Sight, future card, but given its power level I doubt it will ever see reprint. At least I hope not.
It may look like it's green, but it's actually blue. Trust me.
However, it does not belong in every single conversation about powerful creatures because it's not a mind-rendingly game-breaking as a lot of you are suggesting.
To be powerful, it requires powerful support and a quick mana base to make sure that you have the variety in your graveyard. It's only super-great if your deck was already awesome. The rest of us can use the power curve.
Think about it this way: If you drew this during a draft, how dangerous would it be in your deck? If you just toss it in any beatdown deck, does it make the deck better? It's not a card that needs to be built around, but it does need to be supported by a deck that's already really expensive.
In the decks that people without hundreds to spend on singles make, this card will grow slowly. There are two-drops with utility and conditional power that most cheaper decks would find easier to use.
It's only broken in professional legacy, and that is the format of broken cards.
If you don't agree with the people that say this card is broken, it's because you're not playing the same game that they are.
now, a 4/5 for 2 is really great, but w/o another ability, it seems wasted.
trample would give it power against chump blocking, maybe shroud against spot removal, but it doesn't have them.
it really would've been cool to see the ability from battering wurm (not the bloodthirst)
interesting card, but i really think it's overrated. i've never seen it played, let alone at high power
3/5
What's the point of Modern if green still has a $400 (and rising) entry fee?
Jitte is banned and goyf got through???
There is a reason Jitte is $15 and Tarmogoyf is $100.
@NoobOfLore: In a deck with card like Terramorphic Expanse, Ponder, Lightning Bolt, etc. this card would still be great. It does NOT take an expensive deck for it to be extremely powerful, but a deck that caters to it, regardless of budget. Would it be better with more budget? Maybe because of fetch-lands, but that is about it. In fact, the decks that run this card tend to be cheaper to make than many other top-tier decks.
-Saffi Eriksdotter, last words
"Think about it this way: If you drew this during a draft, how dangerous would it be in your deck? If you just toss it in any beatdown deck, does it make the deck better? It's not a card that needs to be built around, but it does need to be supported by a deck that's already really expensive."
If you pluck a $100 card out of a $15 draft, who cares if playing it in your otherwise terrible draft deck loses you the draft. You get to play 6 more drafts with some change left over for the resale value of Goyf. But screw that, just hug your Goyf close to you. You will want to put him in any and every eternal format deck you create, because he's amazing in all 3 of the eternal formats he's legal in.
Wait a minute...
Can someone please explain to me how this card is broken, the "card type" text makes it seems like it would be difficult to make this thing into a heavy beater without 2 or more extra cards
Seems like it would be nice for a multiplayer format though, maybe G/W with akroma's vengeance?
overpriced? yes.
Not, broken, but still the dumbest big creature you can get with that mana. It is good because it's extremely easy to get the card types in today's modern and legacy formats:
-Almost every deck is running a lot of fetch lands. You or your opponent sacs your a for a dual: there's one card type
-Path to Exile, Bolt, Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, Swords to Plowshares, Chain Lightning, all give your a sorcery or instant card type in the graveyard for one mana, and are all highly played staples: there's two more easy types.
-Creatures die all the time. If you're playing zoo, your deck is full of one-drops that will probably stay on the field for one turn max. Also, if you bolt a creature, that's two card types in the graveyard with one spell.
just with these alone, you're getting a 4/5 for 1G. People used to think Ernham Djinn was good (and it was at the time). This is half as much to cast and has the added bonus of being able to grow even bigger once artifacts, enchantments, and walkers start hitting the graveyard. Not broken, just as big and stupid as they come.
Necropotence does win you the game the second it hits the table. If you want to be really nit-picky then technically you win the game on the next turn, since you don't actually get the cards until then. But you are still guaranteed a win.
Realistically you'll normally see him around the range of 5/6 - 6/7, which is still scary enough.
So I eventually made a GB deck with him and Lord of Extinction, simply designed to be beefy - and try to do so by getting the various card types in the bin (for example, going with Executioner's Capsule over an instant or sorcery to force an artifact in there).
Having now experienced him first hand, I can just say "wow". It's totally different actually using him. It's remarkably easy to get 3+ card types in the grave (land, creature, instant/sorcery - the contents of most decks), and then as a 3/4 he's well worth the 2 mana cost. Get into the late game with the 7 predominant card types in there (tribal cards aren't all that common compared to the other card types), and you're still swinging with a 7/8 for 2 mana. Awesome saucesome.
then
Surgical Extraction and Extirpate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GL6LH6ufhM
Allegedly they actually were going to print Planeswalkers in Future Sight but had to push them off to the next set (Lorwyn). This is evidenced by the fact that the Planeswalkers have no connection whatsoever to the flavor of Lorwyn Block (one of the distinguishing points about the plane of Lorwyn is that there are no humans).
He makes the opponent dead for minimum investment.
Comparing him to Bob is unfair. Comparing him even to Ooze is silly. All three of these cards are incredibly useful, and all three are wanted for completely different reasons.
The point is, when nearly EVERY Legacy AND Modern deck plays something if it's in the colors of the deck, it tends to get VERY expensive. The only problem is I don't see the price going down in the near future until graveyard abuse ends... HA! Yeah right...
- Mike Turian, dropping mana cost from
What followed is history...
This guy isn't replacing a huge green creature in that type of deck. Green doesn't really stand a chance in any serious tournament as it is.
When you've got your opponents top decking, with a hand full of counters and kill spells or whatever other terrible thing a legacy/vintage/whatever deck has in it, a 5/6 or 6/7 two drop that keeps mana open is absolutely nuts.
Or, you're running graveyard shenanigans. A good deck can have a dozen cards in its graveyard by like turn 3. And even more than that even sooner is entirely possible.
Any high end deck is also always going to have a land in one of the graveyards. There is almost no way neither person wont have a fetch land, a wasteland, a strip mine, a ghost quarter or any other number of good stuff.
Basically, in most control match ups, splash some green with dual lands and throw in a Goyf, you wont be disappointed. Even though he's losing some of his steeze to Scavenging Ooze
T2 5/6es are good
before i start i wil just say thet i have never played any format in wich Tarmogoyf is leagal, and i know how powerfull this is;
you dont make a deck built around this, this belongs in dredge or jund-type decks;
remember that birds or delver you bolted that fist turn? well now your turn 2 goyf is a 2/3 for
I don't get it. How is this a tournament winner? What is all the hype about it? Why is it *imperative* to have 4 in every green deck? I simply have to comment on this card and bring up some things because I can't stand it how everybody is drooling and having seizures over it.
Sure, it gets bigger as the game goes on, but the biggest it can get is 8/9, and that's even assuming that there is at least every card type between both decks AND they are drawn, played, and split between the graveyards. Not all decks have planeswalkers, and they have to be destroyed somehow, or atricfacts, especially in the graveyard, OR ENCHANTMENTS, especially in the graveyard, OR TRIBALS in the entire deck, OR LANDS IN THE GRAVEYARD!!. And, even so, this may take many, many turns, enough so that later on even if he is 8/9, he won't be too nasty anyway compared to some of the other huge green creatures out there (or in any other color) My 3 most powerful decks have only 3 spell types each, plus lands. Typically, the biggest this guy is going to reliably be is 4/5 AT THE MOST (sorcery, instant, enchantment and creature). for
And he doesn't have evasion or trample.
And of course, as everybody has said, DIES TO REMOVAL. If he becomes too much of a problem I'll just get rid of him. And there's always deathtouch. My Tidehollow Strix will end his day in no time, plus countless other creatures.
If you people think he is a game winner, (and especially if he really is a tournament winner) you need to see some of my group's decks in action (and I need to sign up for tournaments). A Wellwisher scares me a heck of a lot more than this thing does.
Unless he is part of some crazy combo or synergy that I am unaware of, he is cool but I'm not going to waste an Oblivion Ring on him anytime soon.
3.5/5 for power/growth
1/5 for unreliability
2.5/5 total
EDIT: Ok fine, so you build a special deck around him JUST to make him really big, but it's still just another combo deck! Why is a "Tarmogoyf combo deck" so much better than any other? There are hundreds of cards to build a special deck around and thousands of turn 1, 2 and 3 combos. None of them cost nearly as much as Tarmogoyf, and none of them have all this hype. I'm commenting more on what's up with all the hype and why everybody is defending him and saying "he's a tournament winner" and "absolutely broken" and "you *have to* put him in every deck" and "OMG BEST CARD EVA *_*". No *one card* is a tournament winner. Time Walk never won a tournament, it was whatever else he during the course of the game and on his extra turn that actually did the winning. It's all about the player and the deck. This just means that Tarmogoyf on his own isn't that good, he needs a special graveyard shenanigans deck to work. Well, all combo decks have different strengths and weaknesses. This one would be built around pumping a single creature. If you build some kind of special deck around him, I will be sure to save removal *just* for him. Not to mention a single deathtouch creature stops him in his tracks. AND later in the game, he may be no bigger and no better than other fatties of any color, other than his CMC, which doesn't matter if you're topdecking.
Yeah he is cheap, yeah he can be big, but he is still just another creature in your deck I can counter, block, and remove. You better have other ways of winning in that deck than just him or you're never gonna win against me. Using all these "graveyard fillers" to pump him makes me think that you are using up a lot of slots in the deck and not leaving room for much else. I just don't see this guy anywhere near broken.
@KnexWiz:
Well, looks like you beat Tarmogoyf down to what he should be. A good addition in an appropriate deck not Best creature ever. I agree that he grows nice and is a decent beatstick early on, but I've seen, had, and dealt with, better.
First, I wouldn't bolt a Birds of Paradise or any other utility card unless it was causing me trouble. Second, I typically run 2 playsets of removal in each of my decks, that's 8 burn cards. I often have 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 if I'm lucky, often with a board wipe like Earthquake or Mutilate. By the time you get another problem creature out I will probably have drawn another, and besides, I have creatures too ya know that can do something called "blocking" in case a fatty attacks.
Sorry, I don't see the "Uber Power". I am a very experienced player who has played hundreds of games with dozens of decks against countless opponents and your deck over there doesn't impress me.
you're move, targargablorf. I'm gonna beat you with a card i can actually pronounce, dammit.
COMING SOON TO A GAME STORE NEAR YOU, AFFORDABLE GOYFS
Which is an improvement still! :D
Fetchlands, removal, disruption, efficient creatures...
Cards go to the graveyard by just playing.
Yeah, he's just a beater, and I don't think he "deserves" his price.
But cards aren't priced by their power.
And last, you don't need him for legacy/modern/anything.
Those formats have several competitive deck archetypes, and you can try any of them and just don't play Tarmogoyf.
I'll give this card 5/5 for efficiency.
Although I'll never buy one for such an insane price.
100 dollars... lol
Turn two he comes down usually as a 2/3 (fetch, brainstorm turn one).
This is fair, compare with Nissa's Chosen.
What makes goyf so good is his annoying ability to grow with the game. While there aren't many (any?) matchups where he'll be a full 8/9, he is still way too efficiently costed at turn 3, if turn two is instead spend on something like faithless looting to make him even bigger then next turn, dumping an artifact and a creature.
So now turn three he comes down as a 5/6 for 2, which is way too good.
However, he has no evasion, so while he's huge, my 0/1 plant will champ him all day, and his abilities rely on graveyards to work. Any type of graveyard hate will decimate him.
In extended a few years ago, the extended world championships were won by white weenie, in large part due to their ability to exile graveyards against the finalist Jund - packing goyfs. (it was relic of progenitus, for anyone who cares)
I feel that 80 -90$ is a stupid price for him, and am excited about it possibly going down with Modern Masters. Still this was definately a mistake of stoneforge proportions
tl/dr: Good, too efficient, but can be chumped and vulnerable to graveyard hate. Not quite worth his price now, but was definitely a mistake.
My rating = .5/5 because its just not balanced. I could understand why this past testing, but they underestimated how easy and fast this could grow.
Wizards needs to avoid last minute changes at all costs. It leads to this and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. You cant release a balance patch after its in stores. If you cant play-test a version dont release it.
...
...
I'm sorry, what was your argument again?
Apocalypse or Worldfire
Throw Gaddock Teeg and possibly Linvala, Keeper of Silence into the mix and near-immortality has been achieved! I say "near" because there are STILL answers to this ludicrous board position, believe or not. There truly is an answer to everything...
He's also known for owning. 5/5
Living the dream
Never played with this. Only started Modern recently and faced this thing maybe once, so in experience, I can't say much about it. Conceptually though, having played Magic as a Spike for a while now, I can definitely see the power in this. I think this card's biggest draw is its relevance throughout the entire match with minimal assistance (Just play the game, it'll get big) for just 2 mana. That's power you only see in a few Magic cards out of the thousands printed.
Turn 1:
Island, Ponder
Turn 2:
Misty Rainforest, crack for Forest, drop Tarmogoyf
Turn 3:
Island, Brainstorm, punch with Tarmogoyf
In cases like these (read: most of the time in legacy/modern), Tarmy comes out swinging on Turn 3 as a 3/4 for 2 mana. And he gets bigger as the game progresses.
He is either a 2-mana threat that either protects your board-state by eating removal, or wins the game on his own. He is probably a better way to fill your deck than whatever else you'd be packing- even if you're not running green.
Here's the thing: His price range. It actually doesn't make sense. I'm not saying this as some poor player who just wants to have their very own tarmy (got all the goyfs I need already) but just comparing it to other creatures in realistic ways. Jace's Phantasm can be swinging for five before you even lay this guy down. Nivmagus Elemental and Blistercoil Weird fall into the same category. I know these cards require you to do things you weren't already going to do, whereas the goyf grows naturally. So does Quirion Dryad, and she's still no where near as costly.
So why? How could this cost so much? It's because of us. We gave this card such a huge reputation that there was no other choices. We didn't look on gatherer, we didn't check out our options, we netdecked. And this became a hundred dollars. He's good, but not that good.
Artifact
Creature
Land
Enchantment
Instant
Sorcery
Basic
World
Planeswalker
Snow
Tribal
Awesome Card
On another note, I remember a casual game I played recently involving this guy, it went somewhere along the lines of:
Turn 1: Verdant Catacombs, Overgrown Tomb, Dark Ritual, Buried Alive, 3x Vengevine into the graveyard.
Turn 2: Swamp, Mox Diamond (discarding Dryad Arbor), Tarmogoyf, Deathrite Shaman.
This meant a 1/2 Deathrite Shaman, a 4/5 Tarmogoyf and three 4/3 Vengevines with haste by turn 2.
@substantialtigra: Doesn't sound very casual.
I hope that your trolling about the card types. Smh
Not withstanding that, ol' Tarmogoyf now goes for WELL OVER $100 (like $130) now. Is he necessary to win? Not hardly.
However, Is he the single best option for several archetypes/builds? Absolutely. Is he rare/mythic? Yes. Has he only (still) been printed in one set? Yes. Can he be played/splashed easily? Yes. Is he an incredibly short clock when unanswered? Yes. Can he stop other beaters in their tracks? Yes.
No other creature fits these criteria. Period. Hence his outrageous price/value.
A card's cost is not directly related to its power. Tarmogoyf isn't 100X better than its possible replacements - but it is still better. And that edge is enough to mean the difference between winning and losing tournaments. That edge is enough to drive demand up well beyond the demand any of those replacements - competitive players look for any advantage they can get.
Also, as a side note, he is a HELL of a lot better than dryad. If you drop him early, he's usually already a 3/4, and thus dodges bolt and pyroclasm effects. Dryad stays small and vulnerable for at least a turn. As for late game - tarmogoyf is still good. Dryad is probably pretty bad at this point as you've likely used up a lot of your hand. This becomes especially crucial if you're in topdeck mode - tarmogoyf is instant value, dryad is a 1/1 that will grow slowly (likely only +1/+1 each turn, if that) when you really need something better. The only major advantages dryad has are that it's not affected by graveyard hate and that it can theoretically get bigger than goyf (very unlikely though).
1. What would the rules for a "Tirbal -- " card be? Most importantly, is it a permanent, or not?
2. Arcane is an instant and sorcery subtype. It's specifically giving non-creatures a creature subtype that it is used for.
The Bolt would resolve then go to graveyard, so Goyf would die
Look where the chest is and you'll see a toothy bottom jaw with things like insect pincers around it (one on each side) and it's eyes are where you expect them. The right arm (his right) is grasping a human and the other is going out of view. The white stuff in front of his eyes are the teeth for the top portion of the jaw, so he's "screaming" in the art, if that makes sense..
If you blow it up (zoom in) you'll see what I'm talking about, it's actually really cool looking art when you figure it out; he's about to swallow a guy whole.
This isn't comparable to Consuming Abberation. What are you even talking about?
Yes, 3 mana and being monochrome IS worth $130. Because when your opponent is casting 2 mana 4/5s you die before consuming aberration hits the field. Because even if you do manage to cast the fucker you have now tapped out and you're going to die to whatever else they have.
The point isn't to have a "graveyard based stats" creature, which is why you cannot compare the two. We don't care where he's getting his power from, just that can easily be a 3/4 or a 4/5 on turn two with easy color requirements (ie, your opponent does a T1 ponder, you cast some T1 instant and crack a fetchland, or your opponent does a T1 Birds of Paradise, which you Lightning Bolt, and a fetchland goes off).
He's not filling a slot of "creature with power scaling with graveyard". He's filling a slot of "Two mana 3/4 that grows as the game goes on".
If you notice that otherwise best P/T you get for 2 mana is Watchwolf or Kalonian Tusker you see why basically any aggro deck that can run him has to. He's consistent, and *** huge.
All jokes aside 5/5 it's Tarmogoyf, what else is there to say
5/5
4/5 Stars