Memory Worm
Creature — Alien Worm
Paradox — Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, this creature deals 2 damage to target player. That player discards a card, then draws a card. Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #8313
Memory Worm taxes every player's hand at the same time — each opponent discards a card whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, which in a token-heavy or flicker-heavy Commander game adds up to a full table emptied of resources in just a few turns. The cost is real: at five mana it's a mid-game drop, and it does nothing the turn it lands without a follow-up creature play. In the right shell, especially alongside Ian Malcolm, Chaotician, that's a minor complaint.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician runs a chaos and randomness engine that constantly produces creatures as byproducts of its triggered effects, meaning Memory Worm converts every chaotic ping into forced discard — the two cards create a self-reinforcing loop where Ian Malcolm, Chaotician's unpredictable outputs become a reliable hand-destruction machine.
Loot, the Key to Everything
Loot, the Key to Everything rewards you for playing permanents across multiple types, and its draw-and-rummage effect incentivizes a high creature density; Memory Worm slots in as a pressure piece that punishes opponents for letting Loot, the Key to Everything resolve, since every creature you play to fuel Loot's ability also strips an opponent's hand.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Memory Worm does its best work — four opponents means every creature entry hits three hands at once, and decks that produce creatures in volume (tokens, ETB chains, reanimator loops) can drain a table's hand total in just a few attack steps. Legacy and Vintage technically allow it, but five mana for a symmetrical discard effect competes badly against the raw speed and interaction density of those formats, and it sees effectively zero play there. Oathbreaker is the sleeper format for Memory Worm: the lower starting life total and compressed game length make early hand advantage even more decisive, and two-player-plus dynamics mean the card rarely sits idle.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Memory Worm isn't available at time of writing, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for a current figure. Given its narrow but enthusiastic home in Ian Malcolm, Chaotician builds — which represent a significant portion of its adoption — demand is real but concentrated, so price tends to track that commander's popularity directly.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.