#7 mana value

[magicwurms]

New wurm! New... Phyrexian wurm...

I should have seen this coming, but here we are. Trust those lovable scamps the Phyrexians to give us probably the most pushed wurm ever printed! 7 power lifelink is ridiculous to begin with, making this card immediately compete with the best of the best life-gaining wurms. And that ward cost? That’s horrendous, mmmm.

Prototype seems interesting as a Cleave-for-creatures and/or inverse Kicker (but you get to keep the silly high mana value! Sifter Wurm loves that) and means this is also one of the cheapest-to-cast, best-statted wurms ever. Artifact synergy is, again, nice to see but it just feels a tad less like a ‘real’ wurm because of it. Still, I’m very excited to add this to the deck, but which common wurm will have to get cut for it, and how much budget will it require...

[magicwurms]

Quilled Slagwurm

Sometimes you’ve just gotta appreciate a bizarre, fairly-priced chonker, right?

Matt Stewart’s art for this card is one of the more unique interpretations out there- I see no dragon in here, except maybe those nostrils? And this must be the leggiest wurm ever! Which makes its lack of trample funny, especially in combination with its flavour text, which really implies it should be trampling on to the next kill? Cool to see mention of my second most hated card in Standard on this one though...

[magicwurms]

Don’t want to forget to mention the new wurm in March of the Machine Commander, making possibly my favourite use of the backup ability. Attack with it to get something that costs 7 or less out for free, or live the dream by backing up onto your Impervious Greatwurm to dig NINETEEN cards deep (And, disappointingly, not finding anything that costs 19)

The art on this one is unnerving to me in a way most wurms aren’t... that mouth is so wide (looks happy??)

[magicwurms]

Yes, there’s a second wurm in The Brother’s War! And I’m sad it won’t be called Brechmaschine in English.

The text says “when this attacks, target attacking creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is this creature’s power” - notably not ‘another’ creature. So a seven-mana 4/6 is... among the worst wurms we’ve ever seen, BUT an 8/6 is something! a four-mana 4/5 isn’t too shabby either.

This one probably more has a home in artifact-centric decks than most of the artifact wurms and the lack of any keywords hurts (especially because it is, in the most literal sense, trampling, in the art) but hey, maybe Wulfgar would find it funny.

Is there any significance in how this is in the exact same pose as Pouncing Wurm? No, but it is neat. This is Filip Burburan’s fourth wurm though, wow.

[magicwurms]

Havenwood Wurm

You know that notable thing about wu/orms in media? Think Dune... yep, they're known for being able to pop up anywhere and only give a little notice. Magic's wurms, however, are rarely able to really surprise your opponents with their attacks, mostly lacking haste (though, the number of times I've 2-for-1ed by Back for Moreing a Greater Sandwurm while I'm being attacked is innumerable). Havenwood Wurm is an exception!

Yes, that's right, this is a wurm with flash. Paying 7 for a 5/6 had better be worth it, but the possibilities to dump this in front of a fairly hefty (non-flying, non-deathtouch) attacker during someone else's turn then swing with it the next must justify it! You still get the trample for the crackback so overall I'd say yes, there are situations where this is priced pretty nicely as a combat trick/chonker.

The flavour text here refers to whatever the heck was happening during Time Spiral, and makes me feel for those other poor wurms who got crushed under what I'm assuming is the minecraft bedrock.

The art here is by Stuart Griffin, who really sells the unexpected emergence of this almost mole-like wurm and its unfortunate victim. Fun fact: Stuart Griffin is bizarrely extremely obscure as an artist, and what little information I could find out about him comes from Mark Rosewater explaining the not-originally-magic-art origins of Maro.