Merrow Reejerey

Creature — Merfolk Soldier

Other Merfolk creatures you control get +1/+1.

Whenever you cast a Merfolk spell, you may tap or untap target permanent.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

legendofa on Why is Untapping Lands a …

4 months ago

In blue, the Urza's Block hugely skew land untapping, and that block is widely considered to be an overpowered mistake, especially for blue. Urza's Saga and Urza's Legacy alone have ten cards that allow land-specific untapping, more than half of all the blue cards that allow untapping lands without untapping all permanents. They'll be included for the sake of completion, but I wouldn't take them as any sort of precedent. Pioneer legality is just five cards, with one of them being Standard-legal. Blue is the undisputed king of untapping permanents in general, but doesn't have any special focus on lands.

{U} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "land": Twiddle, Reset, Infuse, Jolt, Twitch, Mind Over Matter, Great Whale, Peregrine Drake, Rewind, Time Spiral, Turnabout, Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, Palinchron, Snap, Treachery, Trickster Mage. total 16

{U} Modern Border, "untap" + "land": Oboro Breezecaller. total 1

{U} 2015 Border, "untap" + "land": Pore Over the Pages, Unwind, Finale of Revelation, Kelpie Guide. total 3

{U} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "permanent": Telekinetic Bonds. total 1

{U} Modern Border, "untap" + "permanent": Dream's Grip, Psychic Puppetry, Toils of Night and Day, Tidewater Minion, Rimewind Taskmage, Coral Trickster, Merrow Reejerey, Pestermite, Fatestitcher, Merfolk Skyscout, Reality Spasm, Deceiver Exarch, Captain of the Mists, Ghostly Touch, Hidden Strings, Curse of Inertia, Tidal Force. total 17

{U} 2015 Border, "untap" + "permanent": Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Clever Conjurer, Nimbleclaw Adept, Ioreth of the Healing House, Forensic Researcher. total 6

{U} Ye Olde Bordere, "untap" + "Island": none.

{U} Modern Border, "untap" + "Island": none.

{U} 2015 Border, "untap" + "Island": none.

There's 44 mono-blue cards that can untap lands in some capacity, with 20 of them being more specific than untapping permanents in general. If Urza's Block is taken out, then there are 34 blue cards that untap lands, with just nine of them having any sort of restriction.

So in final summary, I see green land untapping increasing in recent years, and blue permanent untapping actually falling off slightly. There were 18 blue untap cards in the 12 years of the modern border, and nine cards so far in the nine years of the 2015 border. Discounting Urza's Block, there are slightly more green cards that can untap lands than blue cards, and many more green cards that untap lands than blue cards printed in the last ten years.

If I missed anything in this breakdown, please let me know. But I think the cards are there to support my initial position. Both green and blue are primary in untapping lands, if lands are counted as permanents, and blue is secondary in untapping lands specifically. Mark Rosewater's answer is is at best incomplete and missing nuance, and at worst totally wrong.

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Keeping the above because it took me a long time write and I don't want to undo the effort.

In response to wallisface, percentage of cards with a given effect doesn't matter to primacy of color.

• Primary – This is the color (or colors) the ability is seen in most. That means it shows up in the highest volume and usually at the lowest rarity that the type of effects get used at. The primary color will almost always get this effect in a set if it's an ability we do every set. It also tends to be the color that most often pushes the power level, if it's an effect we push the power level on. There's a wide range on what primary means, because different types of effects exist at different levels. A card secondary in flying can show up way more than a card primary in taking extra turns, for instance, because we have so many more flying cards than extra-turn cards.

• I want to stress one more time that primary, secondary, and tertiary are relative to how often an effect is used. Things that are secondary in a color, for example, may be far more prevalent in that color than things that are primary if the items in question occur at a higher frequency.

Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021

For example, MaRoo has repeatedly stated that red is primary in extra combat cards, with white as a contender for secondary.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021

https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/760377485190938624/can-any-color-aside-from-red-get-extra-combat

There are only 36 cards that grant an additional comabt. If primacy was considered as a proportion of cards that grant additional combats was considered only as a proportion of total cards of that color, I don't think any color would be considered primary.

So while there might be fewer cards that untap lands in green as a proportion of total green cards in recent years, that's not a relevant measure to color primacy. The relevant measure is how often cards that untap lands show up in green compared to other colors, which I think is demonstrated by the above lists that green has more land untap effects than any other color, with blue being nearly equivalent. That, according to MaRo's definition, means that land untapping is primary in green.

nuperokaso on

7 months ago

• Your mana curve is missing 1 mana drops, which is a problem in your aggro deck.

• Merfolk decks usually play a lot of creatures, since the lords add up. Each creature you play also taps something with Merrow Reejerey, acting as a removal. 25 creatures is thus a low number.

• Play Tide Shapers - it's a one drop creature which enables Islandwalk on your creatures and disrupts enemy mana.

• Play Lord of Atlantis and Vodalian Hexcatcher if your budget allows it.
• Svyelun of Sea and Sky may be better than Tempest Djinn since it's a Merfolk.
• Silvergill Adept is still somewhat playable.
• Unsummon was made obsolete by Fading Hope
• Sinister Sabotage is too expensive. Replace it by some 1 mana spells such as Dismember, Spell Pierce, Mist-Cloaked Herald.
• AEther Tradewinds - Don't play this at all. Your only permanents are creatures anyway.
• Boomerang - Don't play this. If your target is not a land, there are better options. And the only time you want to target a land is turn 2, on which you want to play creatures.

Icbrgr on Fish People

1 year ago

I've also been thinking about playing merfolk recently... (the new ixalan set is giving neat Lord of Atlantis art btw).... Nikachu has been on a Merrow Reejerey kick lately saying that its really good in the deck allowing you to {UNTAP} Aether Vial and create huge boards out of nowhere.

Dakomos on Fish, Inc.

2 years ago

I did not include Seahunter solely becuase I don't like to use too many tutors. My deck already is very strong and consistent and therefore often the target of my playgroup.

My best bet is to always swim under the radar and win out of nowhere. Seahunter always has a giant target on its back and is therefore not included. Additionally I found his effect to not be that insanely strong since most merfolk dont cost that much mana anyway and I found myself to nearly always tutor Tishana, Voice of Thunder as a result of that. But looking at my past games I think I'd more often than not tutor for the MVP of this deck Merrow Reejerey.

Do you have an idea which card(s) to cut for it?

Zobi on Merfolk 2

2 years ago

Maybe replacing Stonybrook Banneret because it only reduces the cost of the other Stonybrook Bannerets and the Merrow Reejereys. Something like Master of Waves or Svyelun of Sea and Sky could match.

Massacar on Tap/Untap Adavantage

3 years ago

Depending on competitiveness and mana curve etc. I avoided cards that use the exert mechanic and otherwise required combat phases to trigger their tap effects. All of these cards do something when either tapped/untapped or in some cases both. This is by no means an exhaustive list

Arbiter of the Ideal, Augusta, Dean of Order, Ballynock Trapper, Daring Thief, Fallowsage, Goblin Sharpshooter + Basilisk Collar/Gorgon's Head, Thermo-Alchemist, Wake Thrasher, Mikaeus, the Lunarch, Thraben Doomsayer, Merfolk Looter, Goblin Welder, Merrow Reejerey

Kazuhahaha on

3 years ago

zapyourtumor: vial isn't a guarantee, and in every game it's not drawn, counter spells become counter productive. the fact that "nobody uses" Aquitect's Will is irrelevant. Spreading Seas is inferior because it can be removed. i've won games against merfolk that i would have lost had they used Aquitect's Will instead. Tide Shaper does not make the will obsolete in the slightest. it costs extra mana and doesn't draw a card.

comparing vial to coco is irrelevant since i never said to use coco "instead" of vial. what i said was use both.

i know what Merrow Reejerey is, i can read. Phantasmal Image becomes a cheaper lord, and kopala offers better protection than svyelun. not anywhere near as good? maybe to scyelun, hence why i said use both. but kopala is leagues better than reejery.

in the future, don't comment just to argue with me. 24 lands in a coco deck would not be insane. i obviously would not suggest 24 lands in a deck where everything cost 3 or less. btw fetchlands exist to thin the deck, and Aquitect's Will offers card draw. so it's not as bad as you think.

zapyourtumor on

3 years ago

Kazuhahaha Merfolk has aether vial to get its creatures in, which is why it usually plays some counterspells since it can afford to hold up the mana. The Counterspell s could maybe be cut, but Force of Negation is an important piece of disruption for a merfolk deck.

No one uses Aquitect's Will because it says "in addition to its other types," which is why most used Spreading Seas instead. But now we have Tide Shaper so both of these are obsolete.

Taking out Tide Shaper for a total of 24 lands in a merfolk deck is insane.

The reason merfolk plays a playset of vial over coco is that a lot of the merfolk have 2 cmc. There is an increase in three drops due to Svyelun but it still isn't enough to warrant playing CoCo, while vial is a lot less mana intensive.

In the three drop slot, Merrow Reejerey is a lord and lets you tap down your opponent's creatures to let your attackers through, or tap down their lands, etc. Svyelun of Sea and Sky gives some protection to your whole team, is indestructible, and generates tons of card advantage. What does Kopala, Warden of Waves do in comparison? It gives a slightly improved version of the protection that Svyelun gives, on a 2/2 without any board impact and generates no card advantage. Not anywhere near as good.