Goblin Chirurgeon - MTG Card of the Day #3

Welcome to MTG Card of the Day, where I show off one rad-as-heck Magic: the Gathering card, explain what I think makes it so cool, and share some interesting facts. You don’t need to know anything about Magic! Just have an appreciation for cool fantasy art, nerd history, and potentially broken game mechanics.

I love how the goblin getting his leg sawed off doesn't give a single, solitary F***. And yeah, this could help a casual goblin deck, for sure. If a mass-destruction effect hits, you get to keep half of them! - Lord_Ascapelion

Goblin Chirurgeon is an MTG COTD selection specifically for its art. There probably won’t be many of these.

There’s hundreds of examples of incredible MTG art out there. Even from the early days, when Magic artwork in general wasn’t held to the same universally high standard it is held to today. But this art, created by Dan Frazier, is the first time as a kid I can remember looking at a card and saying “oh dang” just from the artwork alone. 

Are there better MTG card illustrations? Absolutely. Is this the most graphic piece of MTG art? It’s in the running, but no, probably not. And yet this is the only piece of classic MTG art to form a permanent wrinkle in my kid brain and form a long term memory.

I think it’s something about how non-plussed the Goblin is, and how center-frame the amputation is, vs. most pieces of art that would more likely just hint at or evoke the scene. 

As for the card itself? It’s…. fine. It’s very goblin-y. If a big creature-wiping spell is dropped you can sacrifice a tiny goblin to save your big guy, which is very on-brand for goblins. But it’s not the card’s function that made Goblin Chirurgeon memorable.

(As an aside - Appetite for Brains is probably my vote for the most overtly scary or graphic piece of MTG card art, but we’ll explore other examples in more detail later).

Have a hard you want to see appear in MTG Card of the Day? Leave a comment and lemme know!