Wurms are the best!
A budget (for Legacy) take on the classic Reanimator angle that focuses on Wurms, which are the best. They all have useful abilities on top of their huge reptilian 5/5 - 7/7 trampling bodies so they cause an enormous swing in board presence when we ideally cheat two of them in on turn 3.
Rather than use the usual Reanimate/Goryo + Griselbrand list I decided to go with Wurms and Victimize, which is such a fun card when it works. The non-optional sacrifice cost is only targeted and paid for when Victimize resolves, so a removal spell from the opponent can fizzle it or force you to sacrifice something you didn't really want to. This drawback is somewhat mitigated by the fact that a counterspell means you don't have to sacrifice at all.
The nonbasic lands are mostly cheap Origins painlands for now until I can trade into more Fetches/Shocks and maybe a Boseiju, Who Shelters All.
- Wurms! 4/5 have Trample!
- 4 Massacre Wurm lacks Trample but has two extremely relevant abilities. Extra potent in pairs or in multiplayer games.
- 4 Armada Wurm creates 10 total P/T with Trample and hilariously looks like penises with metal hats. A great foil card.
- 2 Penumbra Wurm leaves a body behind against removal or after sacrificing for Victimize / Dread Return. One of my favorite cards from my early days of playing Magic.
- 2 Elderscale Wurm has seven sevens and seven lines of text on it, and is a Wurm which automatically makes it way cooler than Platinum Angel/Emperion or Fortune Thief. Sometimes it's outright unbeatable against decks with soft removal like burn or -X/-X, or is CMC-dependant like Fatal Push.
1 Pelakka Wurm gains life back from a slow start or pain lands, and gives a card when it dies. Simple and sustain-y.
Reanimation!
- 3 Victimize gets two creatures back! Two Armada Wurms gives 20 total power with trample across 4 bodies (2 untapped!), two Massacre Wurms will Languish the opponent's board and kill them outright if they have 4 creatures with 4 toughness or less. Victimizing a plant token into any two wurms (12-20 power) plus two attacks from a Lotleth Troll (4 + (>=4) ) or Noose Constrictor (4 + (>=2) ) is enough to win turn 4 against a fishbowl.
- 2 Dread Return can be used twice! Sometimes it's beneficial to sacrifice a previously-reanimated wurm (Massacre, Penumbra, Pelakka)
- 3 Unburial Rites can be cast twice and doesn't hurt when we flip it with Grisly Salvage or Stinkweed Imp
1 Diabolic Servitude is reusable forever!
Ways to get Wurms to Graveyard!
- 3 Lotleth Troll is a free discard outlet with a permanent benefit; also has Trample / Regeneration. Sometimes completely runs away with games on its own.
- 3 Noose Constrictor stops fliers, also free repeatable discard outlet for any card. It's Wild Mongrel V2.0!
- 3 Greenseeker ensures land drops, lets you discard, is CMC1. Usually plays like Khalni Garden 4-6.
- 4 Grisly Salvage hurts when we hit Victimize or Maelstrom Pulse, but it digs 5 cards deep to grab a land so we don't miss our very important 3rd or 4th land drop. Has a really good ~$1 promo foil.
- 2 Stinkweed Imp can block and kill pretty much anything, dredges for 5.
1 Rot Farm Skeleton can pseudo-dredge for 2BG instead of replacing a card draw.
Supporting cards!
- 3 Khalni Garden makes a sacrifice for Victimize.
- 3 Maelstrom Pulse kills just about anything!
- 2 Putrefy kills creatures/artifacts at instant speed.
Best case scenario:
Turn 1: Khalni Garden
Turn 2: Swamp, Lotleth Troll
Turn 3: Any untapped Land, discard any two Wurms to Lotleth Troll, attack for 4. After combat sacrifice the plant token for Victimize and bring both Wurms into play tapped.
Turn 4: Untap, attack for lethal. Make a 'Killed by Penis Worms' joke even if there was no Armada Wurm in play.
