Even now, two years after its original release, Thunder Junction’s The Big Score is one of the best Bonus Sheets we’ve ever seen in MTG. Featuring 30 brand-new mythic rare cards, it added a ton of excitement to opening Thunder Junction packs and introduced some serious bangers in the process. While many of these cards are, deservedly, very pricey, some are still flying under the radar to this day. Worldwalker Helm is one such card, enabling all manner of wacky artifact combos in MTG Commander for a very modest price.
Worldwalker Helm MTG
Worldwalker Helm is the dictionary definition of ‘deceptively powerful.’ At first glance, it reads like a simple artifact value engine. It nets you extra Maps when you make tokens, and it lets you pay two mana to copy any of your artifact tokens in play. Together, these abilities set up the expectation of slowly grinding out value with Maps, which isn’t particularly exciting.
When you fully consider the possibilities here, however, the card starts looking like an attractive prospect. These days, incidental artifact tokens are incredibly common, so the first ability on Worldwalker Helm can make a ton of Maps with very little effort. You can then leverage these for all kinds of synergies, be it bursts of mana with Krark-Clan Ironworks or extra permanents to transform with Mirrorform.
The second ability here has plenty of depth, too. Only copying tokens sounds pretty lackluster, but there are plenty of ways to create token copies of ‘real’ artifacts, such as Mirrorworks or Three Steps Ahead. With these, you can start stacking up piles of specific artifacts, like Mesmeric Orb, to end the game in short order. Even if you stick to actual tokens, copying Karnstructs from the likes of Simulacrum Synthesizer is plenty strong, and a legitimate win condition in itself.
The Combo Factory
Of course, what’s really exciting about Worldwalker Helm is the mind-boggling array of combo lines it enables. Turns out there are plenty of ways to abuse both sides of the card, resulting in spicy infinite wins in Commander.
For starters, the card is excellent with legends that let you tap your artifacts for mana, specifically Urza, Lord High Artificer and Mm’menon, the Right Hand. With these, you can tap created tokens and Maps for mana instantly. Start by creating a token copy of Helm itself with something like Echo Storm, making a Map in the process. Then, tap both to use one Helm to copy the other, starting a loop that creates an exponentially huge number of tokens and infinite mana. Urza gives you a built-in outlet to spend it on, but you can also use the ol’ reliable Walking Ballista.
There’s also a ton of potential with Worldwalker Helm and Clock of Omens. Alongside any artifact that can tap to make a token, like Transmutation Font, you can tap your artifact, make a token and a Map, then tap both new tokens to untap the artifact and continue the loop. This doesn’t end the game by itself, but throw in an Altar of the Brood or Reckless Fireweaver and it certainly will.
There are plenty of niche, one-off combos here, too. In an Emry, Lurker of the Loch deck, for example, you can cast your Commander to make two tokens with Worldwalker Helm and Genesis Chamber. From here, you can sacrifice Emry to Phyrexian Altar, recast it from the command zone due to the Affinity discount, then rinse and repeat for infinite 1/1 tokens and Maps. You can also loop Ancestral Statue in and out of play with Krark-Clan Ironworks and Oltec Matterweaver, for a very similar result.
Hidden Treasure Of The Vault
Despite these far-reaching applications, Worldwalker Helm remains surprisingly underplayed in MTG Commander. According to EDHREC, only around 38,700 decks currently run the card. This sounds substantial, but only works out to a 1.07% inclusion rate in blue decks overall. Considering how popular artifact-based blue decks are in the format as a whole, this is a surprising statistic.
Perhaps because of this, Worldwalker Helm is also relatively inexpensive. A near mint copy will run you around $2.40 right now, which isn’t nothing, but is still well within reach for budget brews. Seeing any combo piece of this caliber so low is unusual, but that goes double in Helm’s case. Since this card hails from The Big Score, its drop rate in packs is significantly lower than that of a normal mythic rare. This puts extra pressure on the price, which has resulted in hefty tags in other cases, like Vaultborn Tyrant and Simulacrum Synthesizer.
What this means is that, if Worldwalker Helm does hit a price spike in the future, it’ll probably spike harder than usual. For that reason, if you want to give it a spin in your next diabolical combo creation, you may want to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.
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