Witherscale Wurm
Creature — Wurm
Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, that creature gains wither until end of turn. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, remove all -1/-1 counters from it.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Shadowmoor
- Price
- $0.80
- EDHREC rank
- #19206
Witherscale Wurm lands as a 9/9 trample for six mana — that's an efficient rate — but the wither-counter clause means any damage dealt to it shrinks it permanently, and a single loss to a creature resets it to a 1/1. In Baru, Wurmspeaker specifically, the built-in death trigger and regeneration synergies paper over that drawback, but outside that shell the self-shrink cost is too steep to justify.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Baru, Wurmspeaker
Baru, Wurmspeaker triggers off Wurms dying and pumps them while they live, so Witherscale Wurm's reset clause becomes a repeatable death-trigger engine rather than a liability — it enters huge, trades or gets blocked down, dies, and feeds Baru's payoffs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Witherscale Wurm is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it sees no meaningful competitive play in any 60-card format — a six-mana creature that actively shrinks under pressure cannot keep up with Modern's threats or Legacy's efficiency. Commander is the only format where it earns a slot, and even there the field is narrow: Baru, Wurmspeaker is essentially the only home that turns the wither-counter drawback into upside. In other green Commander decks, a 9/9 trample for six is fine until the first blocked attack, at which point you have a 1/1 that demands a regeneration outlet to survive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.80 bulk tier
At $0.80, Witherscale Wurm sits in bulk territory, which is exactly where a card this narrow belongs. It won't appreciate — demand is essentially capped to Baru, Wurmspeaker builds, and that commander isn't popular enough to push the price.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.