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.
Posted By:
ParishInquisitor
(2/20/2013 6:58:44 AM)
Even if it cost 100$ each, I'll buy 4 copies of it. One by one, but I will.
Posted By:
Anzu-chan
(2/25/2013 8:17:52 AM)
I have a feeling this card would be much closer to balanced if it were a 0/0 by default instead of 0/1.
Posted By:
EGarrett01
(3/28/2013 5:35:24 AM)
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.
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... (see all)
Posted By:
SubstantiaNigra
(4/7/2013 11:42:55 AM)
@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.
Posted By:
Lifegainwithbite
(4/8/2013 5:16:07 PM)
@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.
Posted By:
supafly13
(4/9/2013 7:01:00 PM)
@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 g... (see all)
Posted By:
diabloknk
(4/10/2013 7:54:36 PM)
Ah, Tarmogoyf. Magic's cure for the heavy wallet.
Posted By:
snickerpuss
(5/13/2013 6:20:43 PM)
Life would be so much easier if this wasn't printed... We'd all be richer too...
Posted By:
TyomDrettar
(5/18/2013 10:50:20 PM)
@ 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.
Posted By:
Megadog
(5/24/2013 10:13:30 PM)