The MTG card Worldfire has a ridiculous effect. It exiles everything, including lands and all the cards in your hand or graveyard, and it sets each player to one life. Fortunately, it’s prohibitively hard to play – costing nine mana – which is the main reason it was unbanned. But, thanks to a new Bloomburrow commander that can cast it for free, Worldfire has seen a significant price spike.
Worldfire cost $15.70 this time last month, but it’s now sitting at $35.45 (according to MTG Goldfish). That’s because it’s a desirable card that goes well with one of Bloomburrow’s most popular MTG commanders: The Infamous Cruelclaw.
Cruelclaw is a weasel mercenary that can help you cheat the mana cost of spells. He just needs to deal damage to an opponent (and he’s got menace already to help with that) and you can cast any spell in your hand by discarding a card rather than paying its mana cost. How will players take advantage of this? Mostly by stacking their decks with enormous MTG dragons, Eldrazi, and big splashy spells like Worldfire.
The idea of playing Worldfire on turn four or maybe even earlier is pretty appealing – just think how many more matches you could fit in now that each one takes just 20 minutes! But how does Cruelclaw win the game after casting Worldfire?
Your MTG colors mean you can’t phase out with Teferi’s Protection, and your deck is naturally geared towards ridiculously large spells, not cheap damage-dealing creatures that can chip in for the win once you’re all top-decking. Perhaps you can do something with Suspend?
For the most part, you don’t win, is the honest answer. Your best bet is to pack the deck with as many damage-dealing lands as possible. However, some players are aiming to make this strategy pay off with meme decks that use Worldfire, and then as few other cards as possible. It’s wacky, but it might just work.
Worldfire cost about $6 at the end of 2023, but it was bumped up thanks to all the new suspend cards in the Doctor Who release (suspending cards is one of the few ways you can protect some value from Worldfire).
Because there’s only been one printing of Worldfire total, the value shows no sign of dropping. We feel like, now this card has been off the MTG banlist for a good while, it’s high time for a reprint. If Wizards felt really brave they could even stick it in a Commander precon deck!
For more Magic: The Gathering content check out our full guide to the MTG release schedule – or take a look at this list of every MTG Arena code that’s still working.
Source: Wargamer
