Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Baru, Wurmspeaker!

Baru is a four mana 3/3 that gives Wurms you control +2/+2 and trample and for seven and a green and tap Baru, you create a 4/4 green Wurm creature token and that ability costs X less where X is the greatest power among Wurms you control.

Wurms are a fun creature type because they are just big green creatures that work to get a bunch of damage through, and getting the power boost and trample from Baru does help things quite a bit.

In fact, I think with this build we try to build our entire creature suite as Wurms. No mana dorks, no Changelings, just pure unadulterated Wurms that can swarm the battlefield in all their glory.

The first thing we do need to do is get our low mana Wurms into play, as well as get some decent stats on board for Baru to use.

Teething Wurmlet is the cheapest Wurm available, and since we are not going to be relying on mana dorks, that leaves mana rocks and other forms of ramp spells to get our Wurms out. Using mana rocks helps Teething Wurmlet get bigger as well as gives it deathtouch when we have three or more artifacts.

Our other options for low mana Wurms are limited since most of them do have some form of significant downside. Among the low mana Wurms, Voracious Wurm and Boneyard Wurm are Wurms that we can use with little consequence until we hit three or four mana.

When we hit that threshold, Wurms get significantly better like Hazard of the Dunes, which not only is a decent body with trample and reach, but can put three+1/+1 counters on itself to make it an even bigger threat.

Argothian Wurm is also an excellent early game Wurm, because if our opponents aren’t willing to get rid of a land, then there is a 6/6 body in play, and even then spinning it back to the top of the deck is just delaying the inevitable.

Now, since all of our creatures are going to be composed of Wurms, our support suit has to make up for it.

Entish Restoration is going to be a massive help in this instance because it helps get two lands into play, but since most Wurms err on the higher power side, we will more than likely be able to get three basics onto the battlefield.

Since our creatures are going to bigger, we can also play Traverse the Outlands as a way to get a huge number of basic lands into play to help us play our bigger and bigger Wurms much quicker.

With Baru giving all of our Wurms trample, we can also use some of the slower buff spells like Overwhelming Stampede to give our creatures a huge swing of power and can usually guarantee that some damage gets through. In that realm, something like Preposterous Proportions is also an option for a flat +10/+10 damage as well as giving our Wurms vigilance.

If the game is going longer than expected, then Sandwurm Convergence can be a way to make sure that you always have at least one Wurm on the battlefield to help propogate more Wurms via Baru’s ability.

Now that we have set up a solid base, we need to start getting the bigger Wurms out in play in order to close out the game.

Wurmcoil Engine has become much cheaper recently, and the fact that not only does it have deathtouch and lifelink, but it can make two more Wurm tokens with decent stats and each taking one of those abilities means that we always have a threat on board.

Similarly, the biggest Wurm we can get is Worldspine Wurm, which is a 15/15 which when it dies becomes three 5/5s and shuffles itself back into the deck when it goes to the graveyard from anywhere, meaning that exile removal is the best option aside from bouncing. Heck, its much more of a threat if it dies and Baru is on the battlefield because three 7/7s with trample are bigger threats than one 17/17 with trample.

Plated Slagwurm is a big body with hexproof, Pelakka Wurm gains you life when it enters and draws you card when it dies, and Impervious Greatwurm is a massive body that has indestructible.

You can also play Panglacial Wurm if you happen to draw a late game ramp spell and have the mana to cast it, which while not the most effective use of your mana is definitely a fun story for the table.

And that’s the idea with Baru, its a straightforward big green aggro strategy, but if we happen to limit our creature options to purely Wurms, then we have to play a wider variety of support spells to get it to work.

More often than not you will see people saying that green doesn’t need mana rocks because of the ramp options they have, but if you take out one of those options in mana dorks, then you need artifact options to fill in the void, as well as other support spells to fill in the holes that taking out other support creatures leaves.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual