In the last couple of weeks, a classic MTG card has risen in price by around 200%. It’s everyone’s favorite giant-mawed reptile, Tarmogoyf. By the looks of things (and judging by MTG Goldfish’s price tracker) the Modern Masters 2017 version is the one that’s gone up in value the most, from $11.80 at the start of June to $35 now.
There’s one, very, very obvious reason why this once very expensive MTG card is trending upwards in price. It’s the release of the new MTG commander, Disa the Restless. Disa makes Tarmogoyf tokens, and if Lhurgoyfs hit the graveyard without touching the battlefield, they get to come right back out to play.
And, perhaps because Wizards thought it was just too redundant when you’re already making them as tokens, this Commander precon deck doesn’t contain the classic Tarmogoyf.
This card, once a scourge of Modern, arguably isn’t great in Commander – it’s just an overstatted vanilla creature, at the end of the day. But as it stands, there aren’t that many Lhurgoyfs in the Disa deck. Unless you use a card that alters creature types like Ashes of the Fallen (which has, not coincidentally, gone way, way up in price), you probably won’t gain too many free creatures over the course of an EDH match.
That’s why a fair few other cards like Detritivore and Terravore have risen in price – people are looking for cards they can add that will up the Lhurgoyf count. That’s why Tarmogoyf is spiking, too, though the nostalgia factor is probably also having an impact, and maybe some ballers are buying copies just to use as additional tokens.
We should note that there are many, many different versions of Tarmogoyf, and some have seen greater price changes than others. The Modern Masters version has gone from $12.60 to $25.60, while the Ultimate Masters version has risen $11.50 to $20.80. The more expensive Time Spiral version of the card with the funky border hasn’t seen much movement at all, only rising a smidgen, from $28 to $32.
Of course, no matter how much Disa drives up the value, Tarmogoyf is never going to come close to commanding the high prices it did in its heyday. Back when a two mana creature with a big statline was the scariest thing Magic offered, a single copy of this card cost hundreds of dollars. It’s hard to believe now that a foil Tarmogoyf cost more than $900 in 2017.
For more great content, check out our MTG release schedule guide, or our guide to every single MTG set.