Voracious Wurm MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Wurm |
| Released | 2013-07-19 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Magic 2014 |
| Set code | M14 |
| Power | 2 |
| Toughness | 2 |
| Number | 200 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Igor Kieryluk |
Key Takeaways
- Leverage life gain for Voracious Wurm to convert health into a potent battlefield presence quickly.
- Instant-speed life boosts prior to casting can make Wurm a surprise threat your opponent must answer.
- While mana-specific and conditionally powerful, its strategic use in the right deck is undeniable.
Text of card
Voracious Wurm enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the amount of life you've gained this turn.
Shepherds in Kalonia know it's better to let sheep roam than have them be trapped when the wurms are feeding.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: With Voracious Wurm, the potential to gain significant life leads to virtual card advantage, indirectly negating the impact of opponent’s damage-dealing cards.
Resource Acceleration: Allows for an immediate board presence that’s proportionate to your life gain, essentially converting health into board state power, accelerating your momentum in the game.
Instant Speed: While Voracious Wurm itself is not an instant, it benefits greatly from instant-speed life gain spells played on the previous turn, setting up a surprise play and a substantial threat for your opponent to deal with.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Voracious Wurm doesn’t explicitly have a discard requirement, but to maximize its potential, it typically necessitates having gained life in the same turn you play it. This means you may need to sequence your plays or have other cards to facilitate life gain, which can potentially limit your options or waste valuable resources.
Specific Mana Cost: This creature card costs one generic and one green mana, which makes it exclusively a fit for green or green-inclusive decks. If your mana base can’t reliably produce green mana, including Voracious Wurm might result in it being a dead card in your hand.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost of two for a 2/2 creature, Voracious Wurm might seem cost-effective at first glance. However, without having gained life, you are merely putting a vanilla creature onto the battlefield. There are other two-mana creature options that provide additional abilities or have a higher power/toughness ratio without conditional requirements.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Voracious Wurm offers broad adaptability to various playstyles. Its power and toughness scaling with the amount of life you’ve gained makes it a flexible inclusion in life-gain decks or any strategy that incurs life increases.
Combo Potential: This creature card has significant synergy in decks that capitalize on life gain. Pairing it with cards that provide a substantial life boost can result in a massive Wurm, often turning the tide of the game in your favor.
Meta-Relevance: Given the consistent presence of life-gain themes across various formats, Voracious Wurm can be a strategic asset. Its ability to become a large threat quickly in response to life-gaining actions keeps it relevant in numerous meta scenarios.
How to Beat Voracious Wurm
Voracious Wurm is a unique creature card that presents a challenge with its ability to enter the battlefield with added power and toughness equivalent to the amount of life you’ve gained in the turn it’s cast. Besting this card in Magic: The Gathering typically involves preventing life gain strategies or removing the wurm before it becomes a sizable threat.
Strategies such as using instant-speed removal like Path to Exile or Fatal Push can effectively deal with Voracious Wurm before it accumulates more power. Exploiting its vulnerability when it’s cast, especially before life gain triggers are important. Also, employing cards that restrict life gain, such as Tainted Remedy or Erebos, God of the Dead, can nullify the wurm’s core strength. These methods ensure that even if your opponent casts Voracious Wurm, it won’t outgrow your control and dominate the battlefield.
Additionally, applying pressure with your own aggressive strategy can force your opponent to use resources defensively, limiting their ability to focus on life gain combos that make Voracious Wurm formidable. In essence, key tactics revolve around timing, disruption, and maintaining board control to prevent this card from tipping the scales in your opponent’s favor.
Cards like Voracious Wurm
Voracious Wurm is an intriguing creature in Magic: The Gathering, sharing parallels with other life-based creatures but also providing unique benefits. Serra Avatar is a creature whose power and toughness are each equal to your life total, presenting a clear comparison in terms of gaining monstrous size from life gains. However, Voracious Wurm begins smaller and gains a fixed amount of power and toughness, setting a limit on its growth potential compared to the boundless size of Serra Avatar.
Ajanis Pridemate is another creature that thrives on life gain, growing steadily with each instance of life gained. Unlike the one-time boost Voracious Wurm receives, Ajanis Pridemate has the potential to become increasingly formidable over time with each trigger. Wall of Reverence is also noteworthy, as it combines defensive utility with life gain effects that can steadily increase your life total. While it doesn’t grow in size like Voracious Wurm, it provides a repeated benefit that could indirectly affect the Wurm’s power.
All things considered, Voracious Wurm offers a unique advantage in decks focused on life gain, providing a substantial and immediate increase in power, particularly after a significant life boost. This makes it a noteworthy creature in its own right within various life-gain strategies in Magic: The Gathering.
Cards similar to Voracious Wurm by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Voracious Wurm MTG card by a specific set like Magic 2014, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Voracious Wurm and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Voracious Wurm has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Voracious Wurm card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2013-07-01 | In a Two-Headed Giant game, life gained by your teammate isn’t considered, even though it causes your team’s life total to increase. |
| 2013-07-01 | Voracious Wurm’s ability checks how much life you’ve gained during the turn, not what your life total is compared to what it was when the turn began. For example, if you start the turn at 10 life, gain 6 life during the turn, then lose 6 life later that turn, Voracious Wurm will enter the battlefield with six +1/+1 counters. |
