Common Design: Roar of the Wurm

We’re brushing off the dust and flashing it back. Let’s take a look at Roar of the Wurm and whether or not it could be a reasonable common in Modern Horizons.

You can check out this post to look at my guidelines. Needless to say, New World Order won’t matter much in a set built to impact Modern. 

Roar of the Wurm was a constructed caliber card back in its day. While a seven mana 6/6 is definitely on par for a common, a conditional four mana version is...well also on par for common these days. 

Ignoring Gurmag Angler for a moment - since that card costs one mana in reality - there are two cards we should look at when examining Roar of the Wurm: Walker of the Grove and Canker Abomination. Both of these touch on the different sides of Roar.

 Walker of the Grove can provide you two creatures, both of which are overpriced. The front half - 8 mana for a 7/7 - isn’t exciting. Similarly a 5 mana 4/4 is just average. Considering there are 4/4s four four mana available that do not see play, Walker is just not going to cut it. What it does showcase, however, is R&D’s willingness to print two-for-one creatures at common in Masters style sets. Walker is also a split card - it is either a 7/7 that leaves behind a 4/4 or it’s just a 4/4. Roar of the Wurm is similar in that you can try to cast the 7 mana version first, but then you have to invest more mana in the second half. The goal should be to get the cheaper version first.

This is where Canker Abomination becomes relevant. It is a conditional 4 mana 6/6. Sound

familiar? Roar of the Wurm fills the same role provided it has found its way into your graveyard. The difference here is that Canker Abomination could be smaller while the Wurm token will always be a 6/6. The point of this exercise was not to judge Roar of the Wurm against these existing commons - Roar is miles better - but rather to provide context as to whether Roar of the Wurm could be released as a lower rarity.

And I think the answer is a resounding “Yes!”. If you can get this card into the graveyard you can get a perfectly reasonable threat on turn four that just so happens to be incredibly vulnerable. Not only will the token die by conventional means, but it also falters in the face of the stiff breeze of Unsummon. Combine all of these factors with the supposedly higher level of Modern Horizons and I would be surprised if Roar of the Wurm wasn’t in the set.

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