#4 mana value

[magicwurms]

I am speechless.

HE IS SO GOOD! AAA

In any self-respecting Wurm deck, this is a 1-mana Rootbreaker Wurm every turn, on top of buffing the rest of your board. And he only costs 4 to cast himself! The art is lovely, he’s standing on a Serpentine... this is a good day for the best tribe in Magic :)

[magicwurms]

Predatory Wurm

I think I agree with Garruk on this one, this makes a wonderful pet.

Chompy eater wurm here is from Core Set 2021, but you’d be forgiven for never having encountered it considering it’s exclusive to the Garruk planeswalker deck. I’m so glad, but now I think of it not surprised it’s not called ‘Garruk’s Wurm’!

Predwurm is actually the only wurm to innately have vigilance (though Vigorspore Wurm grants it for a turn) and as a 4/4 for 4, it’s pretty decent, and would make a nice lower-mana-value creature in a tribal deck without resorting to 2/2s or wurms that sacrifice themselves. Plus that buff from being close to its BFF Garruk is not completely irrelevant, especially if it gives you a great way of protecting him until you get to Primal Hunter‘s ultimate ability, with the vigilance letting you continue to attack for 6 each turn!

The art here is by Jason A. Engle, whose MTG portfolio turns out to contain most of the Theros constellation alternate arts! I really appreciate the lush greens in the forest and the spooky skeletal face on the monster. Jason explains that he specifically designed the face of the wurm to resemble Garruk’s horned helmet, which is a pretty neat detail. The reptilian look of the creature is a conscious callback to our old friend Craw Wurm as well, wonderful!

Now I just need to spend £9 on that planeswalker deck...

[magicwurms]

Advent of the Wurm

Look at that consciousness of Mat’Selesnya go! I only just spotted that this must be Rakdos territory! And looks oddly modern and apocalyptic.

I shan’t ring the praises of Advent of the Wurm myself because it seems AJ Satcher has done that job for me at Star City Games! But it’s... a good card. 4 mana, instant speed, dump a 5/5 with trample to block or attack! Plus, it’s a token which has its own benefits (think Esika’s Chariot)

The only place it isn’t so great is in creature reanimation decks where you’d much prefer a proper creature card in your graveyard, or an Aid From the Cowl deck where you want as much as possible to be permanent cards. But compared to most of the wurms I’ve showcased here so far, that cost-to-creature-size ratio is great!

It was first printed in Dragon’s Maze, which is known for being underpowered as a set- which makes this one of the notable Selesnya exceptions. The art here is by Lucas Graciano, who has done a lot of quite... realistic art? I’m especially a fan of Foe-Razer Regent.

[magicwurms]

Momentous Fall

Pictured: not a wurm (as we know them...), but a really decent card in a wurm deck. If you are, like me, running Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose alongside your wurms to take advantage of some of their lifegain abilities, it’s even better. Gain a tonne of life and draw a tonne of cards at instant speed, who can complain? Oh yeah, the poor wurm you killed.

Granted, the reason I’d ever heard of this card was because it came in one of the more disappointing Jumpstart packs I opened (the other rare was Ravenous Baloth, which is a bad card even by my janky standards, mostly ‘cos that’s a rare?! Still, it has a home in my beast tribal cube.) but I immediately recognised its uses! 4 mana is a lot to keep open in case of a board wipe, but it’ll really pay off when you do. I can imagine how strong this would have been in Rise of the Eldrazi draft.

Got a spare Worldspine Wurm? Wanna draw 15 cards, gain 15 life, and still get your three 5/5s? And during an opponent’s turn so handsize is less of an issue? Just imagine. If you sacrifice something you can reanimate, that’s good too.

The art here is by the prolific Tomasz Jedruszek, and depicts some people who don’t look very elf-y to me, posing with their eldritch catch. The sky is the real star here though and the feeling of elation is tangible. Tomasz has done some of my favourite art in the game and I’m sure we’ll see him mentioned again...