MTG Salvation

My first exposure to MTG was way back when in 2000 or so, when I watched two kids battle it out at the lunch table with baited breath. Green was the name of the game, on both sides of the board - I remember Whiptail Wurm coming out to roost, and the game eventually boiled down to a stalemate between a one-shot size Lhurgoyf and a Stone-Tongue Basilisk. As such, it's not that surprising that when I entered the active MTG realm for a brief moment of time in 2004, I built a mono green deck based on various wurms, Thorn Elementals and the like. Ramp them out, and then slap on a few Blanchwood Armors for good measure because stopping at 20 is for chumps. My most common opponent fielded a deck with Isochron Scepters wielding Terminates, Counterspells and stuff of that nature, with a Psychatog finish. Needless to say I did not win often, but I still had fun playing Timmytastic fat to my heart's content. My EDH journey has been quite different, but I kept that "wurm deck" somewhere in my heart and remembered it fondly.

Given how kooky the UR walkers and GB creatures were from Battlebond, I got hopeful for the WR pair. Maybe we'll finally get something cool and weird in Boros and I'll be able to use my Purphoros, God of the Forge leftovers for something nice? After it turned out to just be a knight/dragon tribal thing, I kind of zoned out. Meanwhile, Grothama, All-Devouring was there all along, perhaps overlooked by me as I already have multiple decks with green in them, one of which I love to bits and consider my crowning achievement in janktastic EDH brewing. And then I watched the most recent Command Zone, and Josh and Jimmy's musings spoke to me for once. I don't ram Vedalken Orrery into everything I own (or in fact run it anywhere!), but their general spin on Grothama was quite nice.

The list came together with ease, and I did not expect it to resemble the "wurm deck" in any form. But then I took it out for a spin, and it played oddly similar to what I was doing back in the day - creating absolute and utter overkill out of terrible green beefslabs. Grothama doesn't have an easy time on the field, as the original plan to try to bait people into wiping their boards against it only to flash in indestructible quickly got outnumbered by beatsticks capable of taking down the commander and living to tell the tale. The only designated combat dudebro that falls over to the commander is Panglacial Wurm. What the hell is Panglacial Wurm doing in the list? The deck is consciously lower power. No Eldrazi titans, no Blightsteel, even Oracle of Mul Daya is impersonated by a Wayward Swordtooth and Eternal Witness is a snake. There's a touch of hug, the indestructible shenanigans are still in there (but as they're few and far in between something else took center stage), and pretty much the only package properly trying is ramp, as curving one drop into three drop into Grothama is nice. Even then, Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb are off somewhere else, and there are few doublers. There are no tutors at all. The removal is few and far in between. There's a bit of a land untap thing going on, which shouldn't be too surprising given an 8+ card refuel is pretty common during combat.



The list's design treats Grothama like a repeatable Soul's Majesty effect that you chase out on your board of weaponised dirt when you need to refuel, enabling said weaponised dirt to morph into maximum overkill. Having a Mossbridge Troll spread +25/+25 love around the team off a Grothama tap is hilarious as all hell though. I may only have one Blanchwood Armor, but that won't stop the hyper casual Timmygeddon "wurm deck" spirit (commanded by an actual wurm too!) living on.