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How Roar of the Crowd Draws on Real-World Myths in MTG Lore
Magic: The Gathering has always thrived at the intersection of fantasy and a whisper of history. The red sorcery Roar of the Crowd, printed in Morningtide, isn’t just a rules trick; it’s a nod to the timeless force of communal action found in real-world myths and legends. When a crowd roars, myths feel plausible; when a deck roars, a plan suddenly becomes reality. This card captures that electricity in a single play, turning the collective roar of your board into a precise, satisfying flame of red magic. 🧙♂️🔥
Tribal Focus with a Mythic Twist
The spell’s core is deceptively simple: you choose a creature type, and Roar of the Crowd deals damage to any target equal to the number of permanents you control of that type. The real myth-making moment comes from how this interacts with tribal strategies. Red is not typically the first color you think of for tribal dominance, but Morningtide offers a playful tilt toward community and identity. Choose Goblin, Human, or even Dragon if your deck tilts that way, and suddenly a handful of loyal followers becomes a furnace of raw power. The damage scales with your own board—your crowd’s size becomes the flame that scorches the target, whether it’s a pesky blocker, a planeswalker, or a bold attacker. It’s a clean reminder that in mythic storytelling, the crowd’s energy can swing a battle in a single moment. ⚔️🎲
Consider how a goblin-focused or a red-against-all-comers deck might lean into this spell. Goblins love massing small quantities of bodies; this card rewards that synergy with a sizable payoff. A Human-themed board—where the board is crowded with adventurers and mercenaries—also plays nicely, turning loyalty into literal damage. The flavor line from the card text—“Choose a creature type”—smashes the idea of a single, solitary hero, echoing the ancient idea that a chorus of allies can outshine any single champion. 🔥
Mythic Echoes: The Crowd as a Collective Force
One voice is but a pebble to the rest of the world. A thousand voices at once is an avalanche.
The flavor text isn’t accidental. It mirrors myths about the crowd as a living force—an avalanche of will that can break barriers, topple giants, or lift a hero on the shoulders of many. In ancient tales and modern legends alike, a chorus of voices can bend fate. MTG taps into that ancient energy with a simple mechanic that rewards you for building a robust, named crowd. The art and the wording together conjure a real sense of primal momentum: the roar isn’t just noise; it’s a measured, calculated blaze of power that emerges when many pieces align. This is red mythmaking in action, where passion, pace, and risk collide on the battlefield. 🧙♂️💥🎨
Design Choices: Color, Cost, and the Thrill of the Chorus
Roar of the Crowd hits the battlefield as a 3 mana plus red mana investment—totaling a four-mana spell with a {3}{R} cost. It’s a balanced point for a red spell that rewards deck-building depth without becoming a tempo-killer. The card’s rarity is common, which means many players first discover its tribal potential in casual formats or pet decks before it sees play in more optimized environments. The choice of a creature type, rather than a fixed tribe, invites imagination: you’re not locked into one identity—you’re pressing the “collective memory” of your deck into service. The artwork by Dave Dorman reinforces that sense of a living crowd, a chorus swelling with color and heat as the spell takes shape. The synergy here isn’t just about numbers; it’s about storytelling—your board becomes a myth, your threats a chorus of protagonists, and the opponent a chorus of skeptics trying to silence the crowd. ⚔️🧙♂️
- Strategic flexibility: you can pivot the chosen type to fit your current board state.
- Potential for dramatic finish: a wide board plus a single Roar of the Crowd can punch through an empty or thin defense.
- Flavor-friendly design: red’s usual flair for impulse and risk aligns with summoning a roaring, mythic chorus.
Art, Collectibility, and the Collector Mindset
Morningtide is remembered for its cheerful, communal energy—an echo of late-20th-century and early-21st-century MTG design that favored flavorful, narrative hooks. Roar of the Crowd captures that spirit with vigor. The common-ness of the card doesn’t dampen its charm; in fact, its accessibility invites newer players to experiment with tribal themes that casual tables adore. The artwork by Dave Dorman adds a tactile sense of scale: you can almost hear the roar as a wave of color and form sweeps across the frame. For collectors, the foil printings and non-foil options offer a spectrum of value and nostalgia, making this spell a neat centerpiece for a red tribal display or a playful casual deck. 💎🎲
In the broader MTG lore, the card’s emphasis on crowd-driven power resonates with the mythic idea that communities, not lone champions, have the true spark of destiny. It’s a gentle reminder that even in a world of dragons and planewalkers, there’s something deeply human about rallying together—whether to cheer a champion or to smite a rival. And yes, the moment you untap a board full of chosen-type permanents and unleash Roar of the Crowd, you’ll swear you heard a stadium erupt. 🧙♂️🔥
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