The Storm Crow: A Memorable Bird in Magic: The Gathering Lore
The unassuming Bird with a most unfortunate profile has been very good to Magic: The Gathering over the years, even though its power level is a tad lower than in other creature collectables such as Pokémon and Zelda. This single-mana 0/2 flyer will never be Marill or Talonflame, but it’s certainly been more than serviceable throughout the long-running card game’s life cycle. Even so, it’s the poor bird’s awkward appearance that’s made it an unlikely fan favourite. The mainstream may know its name from Magic’s foil promo cards, and popular YouTubers and streamers have long taken the liberty of dubbing it “Marshall Mancat.”
The roots of the Storm Crow meme can be traced back to the very roots of Magic lore, and cards featuring the bird. The meme’s stronghold, however, can be traced mainly to two areas: The 1998 novel “The Brothers’ War” by Jeff Grubb and subsequent references to the card Force of Will in spoiler lists for the Alliances expansion.
In The Brothers’ War, one of the characters compares himself to “a Storm Crow on the horizon. A storm is coming, my friends,” indicating an imminent storm, or a brewing conflict. This line by the mighty Planeswalker, Urza, only served to kickstart the meme – all because he perceived himself to be as ominous as a crow. Cheeky.
The expansion Alliances also played a hefty part in cementing the Storm Crow meme by including a card called Force of Will, a powerful, mana-cheating control spell that players could exile their Storm Crows to cast for free. Alliances additionally bestowed upon Storm Crow the blue mana, signifying it as a rather playable card. Players could now exile a Storm Crow in order to cast a counter, or play it for a measly two mana to put their opponent on a devastating 23-turn clock, because, birds.
“When Force of Will was released as the first [fixed] card, people quickly noticed the flavourful parallel it had to the recurring Storm Crow meme, thus the meme was canonised in the lore,” Magic YouTuber, Mike B rolls, tells PC Game Spotlight. “Force of Will has been retired a number of times and is currently legal, so you’re practically obligated to include a Storm Crow in your blue deck.”
The meme’s power has escalated to the point where players can now chuck a cheeky Storm Crow art promo into their Rivals of Ixalan Standard deck at the cost of a couple of bucks extra, because of course they can. Even Magic’s frequent – and often bizarre – polls and content from its social media channels have served to play up Storm Crow’s strength, often sharing tongue-in-beak decklists featuring the bird.
