I find the lack of hype over Quilled Greatwurm bizarre. This MTG Foundations mythic is an absolute menace in +1/+1 counters decks in Commander, and even more terrifying in a Limited environment. If you ran into this wurm during your prerelease, you likely have a newfound respect for it.
Quilled Greatwurm
Quilled Greatwurm and Twinflame Tyrant have a major similarity. These cards may not look too impressive at first glance because of a lack of Haste. Both these creatures care about dealing damage, but neither of them can attack on entry. This gives your opponent an entire turn cycle to find an answer to them, which is a lot of time in constructed formats.
These cards get a lot better, however, when one realizes that they don’t need to deal damage to impact the board. Twinflame Tyrant doubles all damage you deal, and Quilled Greatwurm can grow your other attacking creatures whether it attacks or not. All it cares about is your creatures dealing combat damage. They can even be blocked, and they’ll still receive the substantial buff. That said, because this is a triggered ability, they do need to survive to receive Quilled Greatwurm’s boon.
This makes Quilled Greatwurm fantastic in any Commander deck that either cares about +1/+1 counters or wants to turn a bunch of big creatures sideways. Unless your opponent has a boardwipe to deal with your massive board, it will be very difficult to beat Quilled Greatwurm in combat. As long as a few creatures get some damage in while Quilled Greatwurm is in play, targeted removal may also fail to solve the problem.
A Persistent Problem
Quilled Greatwurm’s second ability is a big part of what makes this card so deadly. Should you get in just one successful swing, you should have plenty of +1/+1 counters across your board. Not only does this turn your creatures into threats, but it allows Quilled Greatwurm to resurrect itself. While this will shrink your creatures, timing this right will let you quickly attack again, restoring them to their former glory.
Of course, exile-based removal easily deals with this. This is rather prevalent in Commander but may be a taller order in limited. Board wipes also do the job, but any counter-based decks can get the Quilled Greatwurm back out at a later time. This survivability combined with the massive impact on a large board makes this Wurm a menace to mess with.
Where Will it See Play?
Sadly, Quilled Greatwurm will likely only see play in Commander and Limited. Six mana is absolutely massive for a constructed format, and Quilled Greatwurm does need a board to provide value. Most creature-based decks cannot afford to play six-drops. Even graveyard-focused decks that may want to primarily cast this from the graveyard need six mana to do so.
Regardless, Quilled Greatwurm is certainly a great inclusion in any Commander decks focused around +1/+1 counters, and should be extremely frustrating to deal with in limited. That said, MTG Foundations limited may be a surprisingly powerful format. There’s even a two-card infinite combo in it!
