Is Craterhoof Behemoth Still The GOAT?

Tarkir: Dragonstorm releases in just a few days – on April 11th. While the set features lots of new and powerful cards that are likely to make an impact on Commander, there’s also one reprint in the set that aficionados of 100-card format are pretty excited for: Craterhoof Behemoth.

I love the new art, but is anyone else kind of annoyed that they made it look like an Elephant, but it doesn’t have the Elephant type? It probably should have been a more generic-looking Beast.

The Behemoth has long been one of the best game-ending effects in Commander. It’s also done some serious work in 60-card formats over the years, especially in Elf decks that are adept at going wide and ramping their mana. Buffing your whole board in a big way and giving it trample is tough to beat, especially because the Behemoth can immediately join the fray thanks to Haste. 

Simply ramping into the Behemoth is really good, but it gets especially nasty when you can reanimate it or otherwise cheat it into play ahead of schedule. For example, it’s one of the best creatures you can possibly put into play with Natural Order.

In this article, I’m going to take a look at some more recent creatures with similar effects, and discuss whether or not Craterhoof Behemoth is still the best you can do when it comes to a game-ending mass board pump. 

I’m limiting this to creatures who have effects that grant a massive buff to the entire board while also granting an evasive ability. It’s that combination that helps make the Craterhoof such a powerful card.

MOONSHAKER CAVALRY

When I think about Craterhoof Behemoth-like cards, Moonshaker Cavalry is the first to come to mind. This might be because it’s fairly new, only being released in 2023’s Wilds of Eldraine, but it’s also because Wizards of the Coast expressly designed this Spirit Knight as a White Craterhoof Behemoth.

They have similarly epic sounding names that convey how game-warping they are, they have similar mana costs (5GGG vs 5WWW), and they both give your whole board +X/+X where X is the number of creatures you control. However, the Cavalry comes with Flying instead of Haste, and grants that keyword to all of your creatures instead of Trample.

On most boards, Flying is better than Trample is. The only time it isn’t is when your opponent has an army of flyers, and while that can certainly happen, most of the time the Moonshaker lets you get in with enough huge flyers to do tons of damage.

There are a couple of areas where the Moonshaker isn’t quite as impressive, though. One of those is that it doesn’t have Haste. Craterhoof Behemoth can attack and take advantage of the mass buff, Moonshaker Cavalry can’t, not without some extra steps.

Additionally, simply not being Green is a significant knock on the Moonshaker. Green creatures are among the most easily tutored cards in the game thanks to the aforementioned Natural Order as well as Green Sun’s Zenith and Summoner’s Pact.

So, Moonshaker Cavalry is an excellent card in its own right, but I don’t think it has surpassed Craterhoof Behemoth. That said, if you’re in a deck that doesn’t have access to the Behemoth, Moonshaker Cavalry is an excellent inclusion.

PATHBREAKER IBEX

The Ibex is much easier to cast than Craterhoof Behemoth is. It also uses a different value to give your board the buff, instead looking at the highest power among creatures you control. This means it has a higher floor than the Behemoth, since at a minimum you’ll be getting +3/+3 here. In short, it can turn boards that are a lot less wide into lethal damage provided you just have one beefy creature.

However, the Ibex’s buff is an attack trigger. Not getting it immediately is a big problem, especially because as a 6-mana 3/3, the Ibex is very easy to kill for very little mana. So when you play the Ibex, you need to make sure you have a way to protect it – or at least cross your fingers and hope for the best.

For the most part, the Ibex isn’t better than the Behemoth. However, if you’re playing a Commander that is into high power and that can easily grant Haste to creatures – like Xenagos, God of Revels – the Ibex is likely to perform even more impressively than Craterhoof Behemoth.

END-RAZE FORERUNNERS

End-Raze Forerunner doesn’t have the same ceiling as the Behemoth. After all, the most it’ll ever grant is +2/+2. However, unlike the other non-Craterhoof examples we’ve seen so far, it does come with Haste, and any time you can have the creature offering the buff also get in for a big hit, we’re definitely getting closer to Craterhoof territory.

The Forerunners also does one thing that Craterhoof can’t – it grants Vigilance to your whole board, too. Now,  it’s true that Craterhoof Behemoth hitting the table often ends the game, so something like Vigilance isn’t very important. However, Vigilance does mean that if things go sideways (like you get Fogged), or you only have the juice to eliminate one player, you don’t leave yourself completely defenseless.

Is that enough to be better than Craterhoof Behemoth? Nope. But it does mean there are situations where the Forerunners are better.

DECIMATOR OF THE PROVINCES

The Decimator is basically an Eldrazi version of End-Raze Pathrunners. It’s also a 7/7 boar that gives +2/+2  and trample to your whole board. However, it does not grant Vigilance, nor does it have the keyword itself. It also costs a whopping 10 generic mana.

However, there is some upside here that none of the other mass pump creatures can off. First, because of Emerge, it’s possible to cast the Decimator for a lot less than Craterhoof Behemoth. It’s a little bit awkward to give up a creature to cast a card that buffs your whole board, but typically, adding this to the board will be worth it.

Additionally, like all Eldrazi, the Decimator has an “When you cast this spell” trigger instead of an “enters” trigger. This means that a counterspell won’t stop this buff from happening. Of course, the flip side of that is that most methods of putting the Decimator into play aren’t going to trigger that ability. That’s a pretty big problem.

PYREWOOD GEARHULK

Lastly, there’s the newest card that has Craterhoof-like potential – Pyrewood Gearhulk. While it doesn’t grant trample, it does give your whole board Menace and Vigilance which is a fairly potent combination. Menace allows lots of creatures to slip through entirely unblocked, while Vigilance keeps you from potentially shooting yourself in the foot with an attack that gets thwarted.

However, the Gearhulk is another Craterhoof wannabe that doesn’t come with Haste, so it’s not going to be taking advantage of the buff it offers. Furthermore, +2/+2 is going to be a lot less than the typical Craterhoof buff.

While I do think Craterhoof is going to be better on the vast majority of board states, Pyrewood Gearhulk does have one advantage over the Behemoth – it’s even easier to tutor up and reanimate. Not only can you grab it with all the same tutors that can get Craterhoof, you can also use your artifact tutors to grab Pyrewood Gearhulk – like Whir of Invention or Kuldotha Forgemaster.

You can also use artifact reanimation effects on it, like Daretti, Scrap Savant’s -2 or Goblin Welder.

So, if you’re in an artifact-centric deck that also likes the idea of a mass board bump, Pyrewood Gearhulk might actually be a better option than Craterhoof Behemoth. The ideal Commander for this strategy is probably Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy because he has a built in way to go wide, and he even adds Trample to the mix for an ever better Craterhoof-like effect.

IS CRATERHOOF BEHEMOTH STILL THE GOAT?

Craterhoof Behemoth is still king. While there are other very good mass buff effects out there, the Behemoth’s ability to buff itself and attack right away, combined with how easy it is to tutor up and/or cheat into play still makes it your best option when looking for this kind of effect.

Pathbreaker Ibex and Pyrewood Gearhulk can be better sometimes, but it takes a very particular Commander to get there. So, even though Pathbreaker Ibex is a Goat, Craterhoof Behemoth is the GOAT.

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What do you think? Is Craterhoof Behemoth still a Commander power house? Let me know your take over on Bluesky or X.