Witzig Wurm

by Daniel Garrido

Hello! My name is Daniel Garrido. I´m 17 years old and a passionate Spoils player from Germany.

I would like to dedicate my first article to my favorite card: Witty Worm! Why? Because I think this card is always a good choice. It already supported me in many matches against my friends as well as in the German Nationals 2011.

The first reason why I like it so much is its brilliant artwork. For me, the artwork of the cards and the story they tell are two of the most exciting and extraordinary features of The Spoils.

Witty Worm is absolutely a very interesting character. He fits perfectly into the unique and flavorful world of The Spoils. Moreover, it matches the Arcanist theme well as it combines worms with sorcery and arcane research, three essential Arcanist ingredients!

And I also like the name of this card because it stays in mind and describes the character very well. Also, the effect of this card is good and useful!

Worm Facts

Let´s begin with the costs. With two threshold you have to play some Obsessions or other cards that provide [O], but this also shows that it is absolutely an Arcanist card. Nevertheless, meeting two threshold is not impossible, even in a deck with two or more trades, so that´s absolutely fine.

The cost of this card is four, which is also fine for what this card does, but this cost is almost irrelevant because of this card´s great effect, which I´ll come to now.

First of all, this character has two strength, two life, and three speed, good stats for a character in the earlier turns as well as for some support in battle later.

But that´s not everything this little worm can do. You can play him for only one resource while you are playing a resource, which is really cheap for his stats and his effect! This makes him a good character to start with or play later in the game. It also has another very outstanding effect: “When this card enters play, you may put a resource you control into its owner's hand. If you do, you may play a resource.”

A Can of Worms for Every Situation

Now, what different ways can you use this effect, you ask?

First, if you have the resources and meet the Worm´s threshold, you can actually play him for free while playing a resource. It is possible to pick up the resource you have attached to pay for the Worm and just play this or any other resource from your hand, so in the end, you have as many unattached resources as before you played the Worm.

Secondly, you are able to pick up a face-down resource, a very useful effect. Everyone has faced the sticky situation where you have to put a good card as a face-down resource. With Witty Worm, you can get this card back and play a new resource directly afterwards, so you still have the same amount of resources and the cool card back in your hand.

Thirdly, another interesting way of using Witty Worm is to play him on your opponent´s turn by using his effect. This allows the Witty Worm to attack on your next turn, or block on the opponent's turn if need be.

Moreover, one resource triggers the effect of all Witty Worms in your hand. Therefore, it is possible to play a second, third, or fourth Witty Worm while playing the resource the prior Witty Worm brought into play. This means you can surprise your opponent with many little worms that support your other characters.

Furthermore, the rarity of this card is only common, which makes it easy to obtain this powerful card from boosters.

A Hazy Worm?

A very important point I want to mention is that the wording of the Witty Worm is unclear at the moment. A fact which is not explicitly outlined in his rules text (but has been cleared up on the forums) is that the Witty Worm hits the table before the resource that triggered him enters play. This means the threshold provided by this resources does not count towards the two [O] you need to play the Worm. This also means that you cannot bring this resource back to your hand, nor can you bring it into play with the second effect of the Worm.

Now let's take a look at the Worm's synergies with other cards.

A very nice support card is for the Worm is Inadequate Wand. With this item, if you deplete it and pay two, you can put your Witty Worm back into your hand. Then, the Inadequate Wand allows you to search your deck for a tactic with numeric cost of four (the Witty Worm´s numeric cost) or less. You have to reveal the chosen tactic and then you can put it into your hand. As a bonus, the Witty Worm is in your hand again and you can use his nice effect again.

Another good combo for Witty Worm is the Wanton Wizard. When the Wizard enters play, you may pick a tactic in your discard pile and put it into play as a face-down resource under your control. Then, the Witty Worm can return this tactic to your hand with his second effect. This provides an interesting way to get back your tactics that don't have Flip-Up.

I believe there are many other combinations with the amazing Worm, so I´d love to hear from you regarding which ways you use this awesome card!

Summing It All Up

All in all, Witty Worm is a nice addition to every deck with enough Arcanist threshold to play it. You have a cheap (usually free) but quite strong character and you have the possibility to pick up cool cards you had to use as face-down resources. Moreover, you can play him whenever you´re playing a resource.

To describe this card in one sentence: This versatile worm is always a surprise for your opponent!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed my first article!