Times have truly changed for MTG, with new cards becoming more powerful all the time, and fans have noticed how far Tarmogoyf has fallen.
Magic: The Gathering has managed to keep itself relatively fresh and stable as a game in its 30-year lifespan. Still, with a game that long-lived, a degree of power creep is inevitable.
Power creep can often be felt in TCGs, where new releases and mechanics can render older cards underpowered and obsolete, leading to them being effectively phased out of use. MTG suffers less rampant power creep than many games of its kind, but fans have realized that a one-time powerhouse has been hit by it quite badly.
Tarmogoyf goes from champion to chump in MTG
First appearing in Future Sight, Tarmogoyf is a card that has achieved legendary status among the MTG community. For a cost of just two mana, Tarmogoyf’s power and toughness could ascend to truly ridiculous levels, being based on the number of cards in all graveyards. Tarmogoyf’s potential power and toughness weighed against its mana value led many to consider it as MTG’s best creature for some time, and its price was suitably high.
However, A Reddit post by u/Past_Honey7578 titled “Tarmogoyf is really dead” highlights Tarmogoyf falling from its previously hallowed heights. As the post illustrates, Tarmogoyf is now valued as low as $5.99 on TCG Player, ranking lower than a simple Goblin Shaman Token from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
How did such a previously coveted card fall off so hard? Unfortunately for Tarmogoyf, being the biggest monster around just doesn’t cut it in the present-day MTG competitive environment.
This isn’t to say that creatures with high power are obsolete in Magic now, green players would cease to exist if that were the case. But MTG players now want a little more bang for their buck beyond creatures that just hit hard.
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Reddit recognizes the issue with Tarmogoyf
As Reddit commenter Richard_TM points out:
“Now the best creatures are big dumb dudes for cheap that also do stuff.
“Look at a deck like Rakdos Scam and you can see that having a big vanilla dude isn’t really what people want to be doing anymore.”
Tarmogoyf remains a reliable beater in MTG, but the game’s increase in complexity means that it will likely never return to its previous price and popularity. Additional effect are required in order for cards to really compete at a competitive level.
While this card may have a special place in the hearts of many MTG players, once being the benchmark against which all new cards were compared, it now serves as an example of just how much a game can change.
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