Do People Still Care About Tarmogoyf?

Welcome back to another edition of Variant Vault, where I organize Magic: the Gathering card variants by price from most to least expensive to determine which variant is best for you. Today I’ll be focusing on the once tyrant of Modern, Tarmogoyf. 

Tarmogoyf has crept out of Modern, and its astronomical price tag, as more powerful cards have been made since its original printing in 2007. But does this keystone of competitive Magic and its variants still excite players and the market, or has this legend gone the way of the Lhurgoyf?

The Lists

Tarmogoyf has 15 total variants across all of its printings. All prices used were gathered from the MTGStocks price database as of 12/12/2023. The full list of all these variants by price can be found below, in order from most to least expensive. 

Tarmogoyf Variant Prices:

Foil	Non-Foil
Future Sight (3494): $294.49	Future Sight (3494): $31.42
30th Anniversary Promo (Japanese Language) (94819): $59.98 (Prices don’t show on MTGStocks so I gathered an average based on various marketplaces.)	The List (Future Sight Printing) (64137): $14.39
Extended Art Box Topper (47160): $54.93	Modern Masters (20848): $11.71
Modern Masters (20848): $50.00	Ultimate Masters (42400): $10.07
Modern Masters 2017 (33484): $22.99	Modern Masters 2017 (33484): $9.63
Ultimate Masters (42400): $22.04	Modern Masters 2015  (28139): $9.29
Time Spiral Remastered (60501): $18.15	Time Spiral Remastered (60501): $8.22
Modern Masters 2015 (28139): $17.99

Most Collectible Variants

The most collectible variant of Tarmogoyf based solely on price is the Future Sight foil at $294.49. While this isn’t anywhere close to the $950 it was worth back in 2017, that is still a pretty penny. This variant holds such a premium in comparison to other Tarmogoyf foil printings due to its age and unique formatting. Future Sight, which was released in 2007, pondered what Magic’s future might look like with enduringly bizarre designs that had a special “future” frame. Tarmogoyf was one of the cards to receive this future frame. 

While Tarmogoyf has been reprinted with this future frame, The List printing only came in non-foil and the 30th Anniversary Promos doesn’t use the original Future Sight art and is not available in English. So if you’re after an English foil copy of Tarmogoyf with the original art in the “future frame,” you can only get that with the Future Sight foil. Your only options to acquire that printing today are to buy it individually as a single card at the aforementioned price, or try your luck at cracking Future Sight booster packs, whose foil drop rates are lower than recent sets (a 22.5% chance to get a foil card in a pack in 2007, compared to a 33.4% chance in 2019). Just don’t look at how much sealed Future Sight booster boxes cost, if you can even find them. 

But are Future Sight foil copies of Tarmogoyf actually selling at that price? Based on market data gathered from TCGPlayer, about 1-2 copies of this printing sell each month. So while not a regular transaction, people are buying it. It appears that the old Lhurgoyf still has some legs to stand on and love from players and the market, and that’s just for this one variant. I know at my local game store there was a lot of excitement surrounding the possibility of getting a flashy promo Tarmogoyf at the March of the Machine prerelease this past April. 

What about the floor for getting your hands on some Tarmogoyfs?  

Most Affordable Variants

The cheapest variant of Tarmogoyf is the Time Spiral: Remastered non-foil at $8.22. However, this can be said for most of Tarmogoyf’s non-foil, non-future frame printings, all of which are under $12, with most being at or under $10. The base non-foil variant being the most affordable is to be expected with most cards, and Tarmogoyf is no different. Therefore, if you’re looking to snag some copies of Tarmogoyf for your graveyard-themed Commander deck or your rogue Modern deck, it’s the cheapest it’s ever been, and that’s saying a lot considering there was a point where this card in non-foil was worth over $100. Now you can snag a playset for approximately $32.88 before tax and shipping, which is a few dollars less than the cheapest copy of The One Ring.

Jund Them Out

Thank you so much for reading! If you haven’t already, make sure to give MTGStocks Premium a look for more cool Magic finance stuff. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I’ll see you next time. 

Further Reading:

What's Good In Secretversary 2023?