Craterhoof Behemoth Falls to Lowest Price in Years

Last updated on June 12, 2025

Craterhoof Behemoth | Illustration by Chris Rahn

What goes up must surely fall, and the hoof has finally fallen from one of Magic's long-standing green powerhouses. Craterhoof Behemoth isn't quite bulk-bin territory, but for hopeful Commander players on tight budgets, the card is currently sitting at the lowest price it's been at in years.

Hoofin' It

Despite being reprinted across seven different MTG sets, Craterhoof Behemoth has basically always been a money card of sorts. Gone are the days where it was creeping up into the $70-80 range, but even with somewhat steady reprints since its debut in 2012's Avacyn Restored, it's always been on the pricey side, sometimes dipping into the $20-30 range after a fresh printing, but always finding a way to climb back up.

Source: MTGStocks

Well, Tarkir: Dragonstorm did the impossible and managed to drop the ‘Hoof down to its lowest price since 2019. Original versions are currently sitting at a market price of about $22-23, with the cheapest version from Jumpstart bottoming out around $12. That's not exactly budget, but it is affordable compared to its behemoth pricepoint over the years.

That's the power of a Standard–legal reprint, as opposed to all the other versions, which existed in Secret Lairs or supplementary products like Commander Masters or Innistrad Remastered. Standard sets just get opened on a much wider scale, flooding the market with newer, cheaper copies.

Source: MTGStocks

Tarkir: Dragonstorm actually featured three version of the card: the baseline version, an alternate art, borderless clan-aligned version, and a fancy ghostfire version exclusive to Collector boosters. Those ghostfire versions are no joke, running over $100 a pop, but the other two versions are both sitting around $12-14 each, and they've been very steadily dropping a few cents at a time since the release of TDM.

Can't Keep a Good Hoof Down

Craterhoof Behemoth | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

It helps that Craterhoof Behemoth isn't an especially important part of Standard at the moment. Whatever green decks are viable in Standard right now are focusing on the low end of the curve, with Tifa Lockhart, Surrak, Elusive Hunter, Spinner of Souls, and other aggressive plays making up the bulk of what you'll find in green decks. There's just no room for an elfball-‘Hoof style deck in the format right now, though maybe there will be a shakeup with the Banned & Restricted announcement coming at the end of the month.

That means the demand for Craterhoof isn't going up any faster than it was before the most recent reprint, but the supply is much higher thanks to the sheer amount of Tarkir: Dragonstorm that was opened over the last few months. Of course, if Craterhoof were to ever break out in a top-tier Standard deck, things could take a sharp turn back towards the expensive side in a hurry. So for any aspiring would-be ‘Hoof owners who haven't already snagged a copy, you might see it dip below $10 soon, but now's as good a time as any to grab your copy for “cheap.”

You can look back at the card's Modern Masters 2017 reprint and see a very similar trend. That was the first time the card had been reprinted, and it hovered in the $10-15 range for over a year before slowly climbing back up the charts. The demand is always high thanks to Commander, so unless it gets the precon treatment anytime soon or gets a surprise uncommon downshift for some reason, there's a good chance a sub-$20 price point isn't sticking around forever.

Is Craterhoof Still a Commander Staple?

Finale of Devastation | Illustration by Bayard Wu

Definitively, yes. Even if you have a valid argument for why Craterhoof Behemoth has slipped over the years, it's clear that player sentiment still props it up very highly. It's still just one of the most decisive ways to end a game of Commander, even given accelerated speed of the format.

It is true, though, that the ‘Hoof has more competition than it's ever had. Finale of Devastation is just as decisive at ending games, and has more utility throughout a game. End-Raze Forerunners has always been a bit of a fan-favorite “budget Hoof,” and it gets the job done in lower-power pods. Overwhelming Stampede is an extremely underrated card given how lethal it usually ends up being, and it's nearly half as much mana and a buck a copy.

And green finishers in this vein go beyond the well-known ‘Hoof alternatives. WotC has printed “archetypal Hoofs” quite often over the last few years, they just tend to be a bit more niche. Demolisher Spawn lacks the all-important trample, but gives a colossal boost out of nowhere. Blossoming Bogbeast asks you to gain life, but converts that into a massive overrun effect on attacks. Motivated Pony‘s still relatively unknown, but also sports an “oops you're dead” overrun effect. There are a lot of these floating around, it's just a matter of finding the right decks for them.

But the truth of the matter is that if you're piloting a deck that's capable of playing to the board and reaching 8 mana on a regular basis, Craterhoof Behemoth is one of the cleanest ways to just end the game. The damage output is simply higher than what other alternatives offer, and it usually saves everyone the trouble of even bothering with combat math.