Time Spiral Remastered Preview Recap: Green

We’ve got the Goyf!

Hello and welcome to our ongoing recapping of Time Spiral Remastered previews! As you’re probably well aware by now, Wizards of the Coast has been revealing cards from the upcoming reprint set color-by-color, and we’ve already gone over White, Blue, Black, and Red. Wizards showed us the latest Green cards today, and we are following suit. Tomorrow we will be seeing the other cards; that is to say, multicolor and colorless cards. For now, though, let’s stomp right into the green previews!

Elvish Mystic

Commander: Kaldheim | Common

Over time, many iconic cards have received reprints under different names than the original. This practice, known as “functional reprinting,” is generally done for very specific reasons. In the case of Elvish Mystic’s printing as a functional reprint of Llanowar Elves in 2013 through the Magic 2014 core set, it was strictly because Llanowar Elves was a pluralized creature depicted on a single card. Similar treatment was given to Grizzly Bears in the same set with Runeclaw Bear.

Until Time Spiral Remastered, Elvish Mystic was the only functional reprint of Llanowar Elves not reprinted in the original frame, so it’s clear that Wizards of the Coast saw a need to change that. It’s likely that this card, due to its high frequency of usage in Elf-centric decks across many formats and the novel use of the original frame, will fetch a somewhat higher price in secondary markets.

Farseek

Commander: Dominaria United | Common

When players are prompted to consider the best forms of instant or sorcery-based ramp for multicolored decks, one would be hard-pressed to ignore the versatility of Farseek. When it was originally printed in Ravnica: City of Guilds back in 2005, Farsek proved very useful in that it could search up any of the shocklands (cards like Temple Garden, Sacred Foundry, and the rest of their ilk). This facilitated quite a few strong multicolored decks, such as Zoo, in Standard and other formats. It’s interesting to note as well that Farseek’s heyday was at that time, when Ravnica: City of Guilds block and Time Spiral block both comprised Standard, in no small part due to Tarmogoyf. Therefore, Farseek’s inclusion as a “timeshifted” card in Time Spiral Remastered feels like a true homage to that Standard season.

Muraganda Petroglyphs

Time Spiral: Remastered | Rare

Muraganda Petroglyphs is a rather peculiar card. Many players have made the active attempt over time to make this card work in all manner of formats including Standard and Commander, but to limited avail. In fact, Muraganda Petroglyphs is a card that likely will not see a reprint in any other environment short of a future core set, if even that. In fact, Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater has stated before that Muraganda Petroglyphs is probably the biggest factor against going to Muraganda as a plane, because “vanilla” creatures, or creatures with no abilities, would have to be a theme, and that “theme” is simultaneously too weak for most formats, including Limited.

Tarmogoyf

Time Spiral: Remastered | Mythic

Market Price: $11.45

Tarmogoyf was the bogeyman of so many formats for such a long time that it was jokingly seen by many players as “the best blue card” in various formats at one point. (The joke here is that blue has typically been viewed as the best color in Magic, and this green card was seen as even better than the rest of blue’s arsenal.) In its prime, a single copy of Tarmogoyf commanded a price tag of well over $100 USD, with foils going for far more than that. 

Nowadays, Tarmogoyf is not quite as popular due to more current cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns or Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath in formats where they are all legal. Meanwhile, “Goyf”, as Tarmogoyf is often affectionately known, is only legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander (out of the currently supported formats, anyhow). Perhaps this reprinting of the card will cause a resurgence in its popularity.

Primeval Titan

Iconic Masters | Mythic

If you’ve ever played against an Amulet Titan deck, you’ll understand that this card is nothing to scoff at. Primeval Titan has gotten so much attention in various formats across its legality therein that it received a ban in Commander, and has been the subject of scrutiny in other formats as well. Ultimately, however, outside of Commander Primeval Titan was not determined to be the cause of degeneracy in Amulet Titan decks (a combo subset that revolves around Amulet of Vigor and Summer Bloom in conjunction with the aforementioned Titan), and Summer Bloom got the ban instead.

Keep an eye out for our coverage of the other cards to be reprinted in Time Spiral Remastered!