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Massacre Wurm

Creature — Phyrexian Wurm

When this creature enters, creatures your opponents control get -2/-2 until end of turn.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, that player loses 2 life.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
mythic
Set
Mirrodin Besieged
Price
$4.86
EDHREC rank
#514
Buy on TCGplayer
Massacre Wurm card art
Massacre Wurm enters and immediately drains opponents for every creature they control, then shrinks those creatures by -2/-2 — meaning a token-heavy board can translate directly into lethal damage without combat. Six mana is real, but the effect is large enough that pairing it with Natural Affinity or a reanimation line can end games on the spot, and Massacre Girl, Known Killer runs it in over 84% of her decks for good reason.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Massacre Girl, Known Killer

Massacre Girl, Known Killer

84.7% of decks · synergy 0.68

Massacre Girl, Known Killer triggers on every creature that dies with a -1/-1 counter on it, and Massacre Wurm's static -2/-2 means any small creature that survives the ETB won't survive long — the two cards create a cascading board wipe that often clears everything while draining opponents to zero.

02
Rendmaw, Creaking Nest

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest

73.5% of decks · synergy 0.66

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest generates Horrors whenever creatures with counters die, and Massacre Wurm's -2/-2 aura turns an opponent's entire board into a death trigger waiting to happen — each creature that crosses zero feeds Rendmaw's engine.

03
Maha, Its Feathers Night

Maha, Its Feathers Night

79.8% of decks · synergy 0.63

Maha, Its Feathers Night cares about opponents losing life in large chunks, and Massacre Wurm's ETB drain scales directly with how many creatures are on the table — a wide board can hand Maha the life-loss threshold it needs to threaten a kill immediately.

04
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

67.9% of decks · synergy 0.62

Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos proliferates and spreads -1/-1 counters through Phyrexian incubation, so Massacre Wurm's blanket -2/-2 stacks with existing counters to kill creatures that would otherwise survive and drains opponents for each one that does.

05
Araumi of the Dead Tide

Araumi of the Dead Tide

70.2% of decks · synergy 0.62

Araumi of the Dead Tide can encore Massacre Wurm for three tokens that each trigger the drain and debuff separately — with three opponents, that's three independent -2/-2 wipes and three rounds of life loss hitting the table simultaneously.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Massacre Wurm does its best work: multiplayer boards are wide, tokens are everywhere, and six mana is easier to reach with a full ramp suite behind it. The drain scales with the number of opponents' creatures, so the worse the board state against you, the more punishing the Wurm becomes. In competitive 60-card formats — Modern, Pioneer, Legacy — it's almost never played; six mana for a creature that doesn't win on the spot is too slow against linear decks that either go under it or hold up a counterspell. Standard legality means it shows up occasionally in durdly midrange lists when the token meta warrants it, but that's the exception. Treat Massacre Wurm as a Commander card that happens to be legal elsewhere.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$4.86 cheap tier

At $4.86, Massacre Wurm sits at a price point that reflects real demand without the spike of a staple — cheap enough to slot into any black Commander deck without a second thought. Given its combo ceiling and its near-universal inclusion in Massacre Girl, Known Killer lists, that price is reasonable and unlikely to move much in either direction.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.