@Vedalken Arbiter Hopefully they will change that.
axiobeta
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Damn Garruk, you got complicated. The $45 preorder price tag (overzealous as it may be) makes me think he'll be the deciding factor in people getting on board with DFC's. That said I really hate how they handled this in gatherer... Maybe that's why G man here is so pi.ssed off :/
I mean, I like him, but he's about as durable as a pile of leaves.
ThisisSakon
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
@TherealphatMatt: Then consider Garruk, the Veil-Cursed the snake hidden among the leaves...
.Blaze.
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Part of what made Elspeth so good was cause she made 1/1, so one being able to make 2/2 puts it on a good footing. Add on being able to bolt creatures, and the insane flip version and you have a great card.
Vedalken_Arbiter
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(9 votes)
The front and back have separate entries in the gatherer? Oh my.
1919
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Garruk Relentless is the second most underated planewalker at the moment. HE WILL DESTORY THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND HIS POEWR!!
Vividice
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Garruk the DFC Plague. Possibly the only reason why Transform Cards where implemented as annyoing doublefaced cards instead of superior neo-flip cards.
Zefaris
★★☆☆☆ (2.3/5.0)(5 votes)
Got it foil today at pre release :D
Tokosan
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
more dangerous than it seems.
Drewsel
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(17 votes)
Makes sense flavourfully when you think about it. He's so consumed with Liliana that he's let his guard down. His focus isn't on his own survival, it's dealing with Vess, ala him rushing headlong into a battle with his first ability. He doesn't care how he deals with what's in front of him, it's that he is able to press on unhindered, even at the cost of his well being. Even his summoning powers have weakened. It's interesting how his loyalty abilities don't increase or decrease upon activation either. Sort of like he just doesn't care.
It makes me think that Wizards actually plans these things out.
deth2munkies
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(9 votes)
This is probably the worst planeswalker ever printed. You're forced to (most of the time) go down to 1 loyalty to flip him, and once you do his abilities are completely underwhelming. +1 stalls the ground board in limited, but it seems like it wouldn't be too much of a problem in constructed. -1 is the poor man's fauna shaman/survival, and his last ability is 90% of the time going to be a pathetically small Overwhelming Stampede.
Quibbleflux
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I came across him twice during the Prerelease. He must be one of the most common Mythic Rares. Both times I took care of him with very little concern.
Both times I just sort of swung with Delver of Secrets and moved on.
MasterOfEtherium
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(6 votes)
AMAZING *** Da Haters
Lyoncet
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(7 votes)
Well with Lightning Bolt rotating out, I guess Spellskite needed to find a different card to troll the crap out of.
ShadyBabs
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Seems like he'll be strong in a pod deck
Camu-Camu-Lemon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you use his second ability, what happens? He goes down to 0 loyalty counters, then flips but... dies? *Edit: ignore that, sorry. I misread - he doesn't get 3 damage back - just damage equal to the target creature's power
Nagoragama
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
New Garruk is very powerful. He removes one of their small creatures and transforms or spits out 2/2 wolves for free every turn. When he is transformed he becomes a nightmare for your opponent, creating dangerous deathtouching wolves that can attack with near impunity or block and kill anything that attacks you. He tutors for whatever creature you need, and his final ability can end the game.
2pcsofcandy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@Lash_of_Dragonbreath: You can't redirect damage you do to yourself to your own planeswalker, so you can't just pull a counter off with a Goblin Fireslinger.
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Awful against Red, given that it dies to Incinerate and, after using his fight ability, to Shock. Not sure how it would work against other colors.
It would also be hylarious to see someone casting Titanic Growth or whatever other instant pump on their creature in response to their opponent activating Garruk's first ability, so the aforementioned creature eats Garruk's head (and survives to brag about it).
Another bad thing that could happen to him would be Invisible Stalker attacking him after he transforms. That wouldn't be cool, would it?
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm being so mean about this card. It could be that there have been already two other Garruks printed recently (Garruk, Primal Hunter in M12 and Garruk Wildspeaker in Commander), both of which are cooler and more playable, or that I really hate this new transform mechanic, or that he's a Mythic Rare and I really hate Mythic Rares, but unless the next sets in Innistrad block give it a lot of support or someone builds a whole new combo or deck archetype involving it, I doubt it will ever see serious play.
Okay, maybe that is a bit harsh - if you can use something like a Goblin Fireslinger or any other pinger to remove one counter from him so he transforms, then activate his +1 and next turn go ultimate. It can go ultimate in one turn that way, so he could be useful if you can get a way to remove exactly one counter from him and to fill you graveyard (and battlefield) with creatures quickly. But I wouldn't bet on it. And it still sucks against Red.
EDIT: So you can't use fireslinger with him. And he still sucks. Not to mention I've just noticed you could play Overrun, which is only slightly weaker than his ultimate, for only one more mana. Tell me if THAT doesn't make him redundant. Not to mention how much it sucks against red.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Well he can kinda fight another creature and summon wolves. Wats so bad about that?
hatchc2
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like him, he saved me in sealed limited on a few occasions, but I was also able to take one someone else had out with an invisible stalker holding onto a butcher's cleaver so...yeah.
Tsunaki
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
5/5
Ability: Not hard to accomplish with his +0 ability. Just use his ability, and make sure the creature has less then 3 power, or some way to give him some other form of damage.
+0 (1st) :: Great for triggering his "When I have less then 2 loyalty counters" effect. +0 (2nd) :: WOLF TOKENS!!! Get 2 of them with Parallel Lives Although, not as usefull as his other effect.
goodlyknight
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
5/5
Love the free creatures, and creature tutor ability... Easily splashed with only one green needed (a step up I'd say)... My only gripe is the weakness of his ultimate; But how many planeswalkers do you know of with FIVE abilities...
...haven't heard talk of hex parasite, seems like a good way to transform him. The parasite is easily tutorial with a Birthing Pod deck and one of his wolves...
rinoh20
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
garruk thank you for getting my spike friend to play green. i am forever in your debt. now if you could stop him from running control that would be great.
gtamaster503
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
My only gripe is how low of loyalty he starts at. Five would've been nice. Really wouldn't have been broken at all. Gideon starts at six and goes up to eight when you first get him out and he costs {3}{W}{W} but that's because he cause himself to be damaged. So it would make sense for Garruk to start at a little higher loyalty then his CMC. Or perhaps have a plus one. But I pulled him and I like him and I'm running him. I haven't played him yet, because for some reason he won't get freaking drawn but one day he will rage. Oh. His DT Wolves and Gideon Jura=nightmare.
CannibalChris
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Bad planeswalker, bad card. Won't see much play in any format.
Jax1x3
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Got him at the pre-release. I'm so happy!
infernox10
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Hmm... Hex Parasite. You know, just in case you don't want to deal 3 damage to any particular creature (or can't).
Paleopaladin
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Three is the limit--I do not want to see a new Garruk, Chandra, or Jace again.
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
The point of Garruk Relentless is to become Garruk, the Veil-Cursed. It's as simple as that. If you try to use just the Relentless side, chances are it'll die. It might be good as a token-generating 'Walker-as-meatshield', but since the only planeswalkers that see play are the ones that can do that, AND MORE, then Relentless will rise or fall according to if Veil-Cursed cuts the mustard. They would hardly even bother to give the DFCs all the trouble with rules baggage and whatnot if the second side wasn't supposed to be really freaking worth it.
Personally, I'm sort of an evil Johnny-Vorthos-Spike at heart, and I wish that they'd made Moonmist into a Curse instead of just a normal enchantment- Curse of the Wolf Moon, or something like that, with the text 'at the beginning of each upkeep, Transform all double-faced permanents you control'.
Reword any and all of that however you see fit until you have a Moonmist that works on Garruk. That's all I want. :P
Grimble_Gromble
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love this card. And for the ultimate. I must say that a deck builtwith it in mind. Heck yeah. http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=243076
Philosophy
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Got this at pre-realease. Garruk was not the only one green that day!
Cybrax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Terrible Planeswalker, wizards really tried to play it safe. So far of all the flip cards the only one I like appears to be the Mayor but even that one is kinda weak. I knew wizards was going to either make flips powerful or very tame. I own two of these guys and have been really trying to get them to work but no dice.
God_Of_The_Smurfs
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I just pulled this and a snapcaster mage in the same pack. XD
CuriousThing
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Well everyone loves Liquimental Coating + March of the Machines combos, so here's a fun one: if you target Garruk with Coating, play March, and then play Xenograft choosing "Human," you can transform Garruk with Moonmist. For something that makes sense flavor-wise, that sure is complicated.
kiseki
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I organized a 6 player round-robin draft tournament and asked everyone to throw their tokens/rules/lands/checklists into the center of the table. Imagine my shock when I saw Garruk Relentless sitting in the piles of "trash". It messed up the draft because we had already passed twice. The player who tossed it into the token pile has been playing continuously since 1994. I was horrified, and won't let him hear the end of it.
shotoku64
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
@DarthParallax You can get Garruk to flip with Moonmist.
Honestly, to everyone saying Garruk the Relentless is a weak Planeswalker "BUILD A BETTER DECK" I've been running mine extremely successfully, my record if I can remember is 26 2/2 green wolves and 9 1/1black wolves with deathtouch. then with some strategic use of his tutor ability I get + 17/17 and trample. Now tell my he's wimpy.
Inkbender
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I actually had an interesting interaction with this card recently. Using a planeswalker-based "superfriends" deck in standard, I had Garruk Relentless out (green side) along with Chandra, The Firebrand and Elspeth Tirel. I used Chandra's -2 Forking ability to duplicate a Volt Charge, and the double proliferation raised Garruk's loyalty to 5. At first this seemed pointless, but I then realized that it made it possible for him to kill a 3/3 creature with his first ability and still survive.
Proliferate ends up being beneficial to this version of Garruk, regardless of which side is facing up.
Splizer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I'm sure there are some wonderful green planeswalkers that can be concieved, but out of the five(six, of you count flipped), three/four have been Garruk? This doesn't even count that Sarkhan Vol is black/red now.
As for Garruk, Veil-Cursed, it doesn't feel like a Green/Black walker has been ticked off until I see a Black symbol and a Green symbol in the mana costs in the top-right corner. But this is coming from a guy who doesn't think Tezzeret, Agent Of Bolas is a good representative for Black/Blue.
Let's get some Duels planeswalkers like Kiora Atua and Ral Zarek in there, they seem to be interesting two-colour walkers!! And what about a Black/White one? That seems like it would fit in with Innistrad, especially the transform mechanic!
EDIT: Huh, Wizards saw my comment and responded within the next set, with Sorin, Lord Of Innistrad. That's the second time they've done that.
Belliarch
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The card itself isn't spectacular but it beats some. I like it because of the flavor and story behind it.
Simon.G
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is not as bad as it looks. First it is really great against Fiend Hunter, and the flip side is not upgrade or downgrade of another version of Garruk. It is a different version of the Liliana Vess Card to search you library (but for a creature, so you have to have a really bad ass one in your deck) and take it in to your hand insteed of putting it on the top of your library. When you cast him, kill something, even if it's your little drop one that's still on the battlefield. If you can't you can play with tokens! Free 2/2 every turn is not bad at all! And for his last hability when he is on the flipped side... Do anyone see this and don't think: Dredge Deck! ;) And what about this hability and kessig wolf run ;).
tupu0212
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Think'n he'll be a contender in Golgari decks coming up.
Ferlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Green gets a burn spell? Uhh... Yes?
It is only 3 damage, at sorcery speed, and can kill Garruk himself, but still... Green's burn spell!
It's just a shame that you can't play him in Mono-Green EDH.
EGarrett01
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Show this card to an M:TG player from 1996 in order to make their head explode.
CG1248
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
How can you rate this lower then 5? All I see when I look at it is options. His first 0 ability gives him a way to provide options at a strong but slow move on the battlefield. His second 0 ability shows your opponent he must attack Garruk before he can't. A 2/2 is nothing to laugh at on turn 4, threatening your opponent's control of the board. After the 1st or 2nd option, your Garruk is probably at 2 or 1. He flips (btw you can flip that thing the turn you put it down if you have a 1 or 2 dmg spell in hand). You now have 3 new options. It's +1 is for when a 2/2 doesnt suffice to stop an attack. This 1/1 Deathtouch should. His -1 gives you Survival of the Fittest abilities. Can always be appreciated in a Jund deck I'm sure. And a not so costy -3 Overrun with a twist. I think its crazy good.
TheWaddleDeeKing
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like the idea of this Garruk but it seems that attempting to transform him leaves him at too much risk, leaving him too close to death to ever get use out of his alternate form. I'd rather have any of the other Garruk's, honestly.
CogMonocle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is really strong. I was playing gruul aggro up against RUG midrange, he got incredibly mana flooded, no huntmasters, no thragtusks, and was basically sitting there do nothing all game. Then he drops this, kills one of my creatures outright, starts pumping out deathtouch wolves...I won, but only because I was able to fiish him off with burn. After nearly a perfect goldfish this card nearly singlehandedly defeated me.
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Garruk's Relentlessness Enchantment
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Quite good actually. His color-lightness make him easy to cast; he's a green lightning bolt; and he produces endless tokens; after flipping these can take out just about anything.
His tutor ability is quite relevant as well. If your deck has high-value creatures you can exchange bitty-tokens for. All of these abilities pair very well with Master of the Wild Hunt. Have creatures fight your deathtouch tokens, sacrifice your free wolves for big creatures (or utility) creatures, create tokens after Master uses his "fight" ability to allow you to still have blockers.
Fantastic little card in the right deck.
absreim
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It turned out to be much more powerful than I thought when I first saw this card. It's fragile for sure, but when left unchecked it is removal, board presence, a tutor/card advantage as well as an overrun effect. There aren't many situations where none of those abilities is useful.
Burningsickle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
dam.. garruk is relentless about showing up in every set... "relentless"...
Comments (55)
The $45 preorder price tag (overzealous as it may be) makes me think he'll be the deciding factor in people getting on board with DFC's.
That said I really hate how they handled this in gatherer... Maybe that's why G man here is so pi.ssed off :/
I mean, I like him, but he's about as durable as a pile of leaves.
It makes me think that Wizards actually plans these things out.
Both times I just sort of swung with Delver of Secrets and moved on.
*Edit: ignore that, sorry. I misread - he doesn't get 3 damage back - just damage equal to the target creature's power
It would also be hylarious to see someone casting Titanic Growth or whatever other instant pump on their creature in response to their opponent activating Garruk's first ability, so the aforementioned creature eats Garruk's head (and survives to brag about it).
Another bad thing that could happen to him would be Invisible Stalker attacking him after he transforms. That wouldn't be cool, would it?
Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm being so mean about this card. It could be that there have been already two other Garruks printed recently (Garruk, Primal Hunter in M12 and Garruk Wildspeaker in Commander), both of which are cooler and more playable, or that I really hate this new transform mechanic, or that he's a Mythic Rare and I really hate Mythic Rares, but unless the next sets in Innistrad block give it a lot of support or someone builds a whole new combo or deck archetype involving it, I doubt it will ever see serious play.
Okay, maybe that is a bit harsh - if you can use something like a Goblin Fireslinger or any other pinger to remove one counter from him so he transforms, then activate his +1 and next turn go ultimate. It can go ultimate in one turn that way, so he could be useful if you can get a way to remove exactly one counter from him and to fill you graveyard (and battlefield) with creatures quickly. But I wouldn't bet on it. And it still sucks against Red.
EDIT: So you can't use fireslinger with him. And he still sucks. Not to mention I've just noticed you could play Overrun, which is only slightly weaker than his ultimate, for only one more mana. Tell me if THAT doesn't make him redundant. Not to mention how much it sucks against red.
Ability: Not hard to accomplish with his +0 ability. Just use his ability, and make sure the creature has less then 3 power, or some way to give him some other form of damage.
+0 (1st) :: Great for triggering his "When I have less then 2 loyalty counters" effect.
+0 (2nd) :: WOLF TOKENS!!! Get 2 of them with Parallel Lives Although, not as usefull as his other effect.
Love the free creatures, and creature tutor ability...
Easily splashed with only one green needed (a step up I'd say)...
My only gripe is the weakness of his ultimate;
But how many planeswalkers do you know of with FIVE abilities...
...haven't heard talk of hex parasite, seems like a good way to transform him. The parasite is easily tutorial with a Birthing Pod deck and one of his wolves...
Hex Parasite.
You know, just in case you don't want to deal 3 damage to any particular creature (or can't).
Personally, I'm sort of an evil Johnny-Vorthos-Spike at heart, and I wish that they'd made Moonmist into a Curse instead of just a normal enchantment- Curse of the Wolf Moon, or something like that, with the text 'at the beginning of each upkeep, Transform all double-faced permanents you control'.
Reword any and all of that however you see fit until you have a Moonmist that works on Garruk. That's all I want. :P
Garruk Relentless -> Liquimetal Coating -> March of the Machines -> Xenograft -> Moonmist.
XD
Proliferate ends up being beneficial to this version of Garruk, regardless of which side is facing up.
As for Garruk, Veil-Cursed, it doesn't feel like a Green/Black walker has been ticked off until I see a Black symbol and a Green symbol in the mana costs in the top-right corner. But this is coming from a guy who doesn't think Tezzeret, Agent Of Bolas is a good representative for Black/Blue.
Let's get some Duels planeswalkers like Kiora Atua and Ral Zarek in there, they seem to be interesting two-colour walkers!! And what about a Black/White one? That seems like it would fit in with Innistrad, especially the transform mechanic!
EDIT: Huh, Wizards saw my comment and responded within the next set, with Sorin, Lord Of Innistrad. That's the second time they've done that.
It is only 3 damage, at sorcery speed, and can kill Garruk himself, but still... Green's burn spell!
It's just a shame that you can't play him in Mono-Green EDH.
Enchantment
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.
His tutor ability is quite relevant as well. If your deck has high-value creatures you can exchange bitty-tokens for. All of these abilities pair very well with Master of the Wild Hunt. Have creatures fight your deathtouch tokens, sacrifice your free wolves for big creatures (or utility) creatures, create tokens after Master uses his "fight" ability to allow you to still have blockers.
Fantastic little card in the right deck.