Tidewater Minion

Creature — Elemental Minion

Defender (This creature can't attack.)

(4): Tidewater Minion loses defender until end of turn.

Tap: Untap target permanent.

Legality

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

Discussion (49)

legendofa on Why is Untapping Lands a …

9 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.

Rhadamanthus on How do abilities that let …

1 year ago

Season of the Witch's effect looks at creatures that could have been declared as attackers during the Declare Attackers step but weren't. The ruling you found means you won't be penalized for not taking any additional actions to enable a creature to attack if it is currently unable. For example: if you choose not to activate Tidewater Minion's first ability, then it can't attack, so Season of the Witch won't destroy it. However, an enchanted/equipped Novice Knight who doesn't attack will get destroyed, because it could have been declared as an attacker. Likewise for any Defender while Arcades, the Strategist is around.

isaiahnixon on Help slim down to 100 …

2 years ago

This isn't necessarily sliming, but I was just destroyed with the infinite combo - Illusionist's Bracers, Codex Shredder, and Tidewater Minion. You can supplement the Tidewater Minion with a lot.

But, this was an easy combo for them to pull off and destroyed me easily. you already have Illusionist in your deck, so could easily work.

darkmage2003 on Confusing Question About Tapping/Untapping

3 years ago

Let's say I have Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith. I tap Basalt Monolith, giving me 3 colorless, then use that three colorless to untap itself. Upon activation of the untap ability, Rings triggers, allowing me to untap Monolith twice. Is it legal to untap monolith and before the 2nd untap resolves tap monolith for mana and then untap monolith again?

Similarly, if I double Tidewater Minion's untap ability, can I tap Goblin Fireslinger for damage, activate Tidewater's untap ability, pay 2 for Rings to double Tidewater's untap ability, untap Fireslinger, tap fireslinger for damage, and then untap Fireslinger again?

mrdoctorman on Kenrith Tap/Untap

4 years ago

I really reccomend Aphetto Alchemist if youre interested in copying activations. Its one of the few untapper cpable of untapping itself. With Magewright's Stone equipped, youve just gennerated infinite mana. Same is true for Tidewater Minion .

Also Rhythm of the Wild ove Fires of Yavimaya ?

king-saproling on Target opponent is your teammate [BANG!]

4 years ago

Cool deck!!! I really dig the intent here. You might like these: Null Chamber, Vizier of Tumbling Sands (can untap your friend's lands or mana rocks), Aphetto Alchemist, Unbender Tine, Hyperion Blacksmith, Tidewater Minion, Fatestitcher, Ghostly Touch, Nin, the Pain Artist, Captivating Glance, Act of Treason (steal an opp's creature, then use Zedruu to permanently give that creature to your friend), Braingeyser, Arcane Artisan, Proteus Staff, Diviner Spirit

Delphen7 on Blue/White Infinite Combos

4 years ago

Nice deck, the ONE card that could probably beat it easily is Slaughter Games, so maybe have a back-up creature that does something similar like Tidewater Minion. Otherwise, nice job!

SynergyBuild on RambIe

4 years ago

Hey, I love the discussion, but don't want to clutter @StopShot's page. I am someone who pioneered multiple of those Netdecks, which sort of makes the cEDH variants on the old Captain Sisay (I made the Seton, Krosan Protector/Mox Amber setup into my own version of a Bow of Nylea finish in the Paradox Engine lists, pre-ban) decks, as well as the Aminatou/Tezzeret line, the more popular current Yisan and multiple semi-popular new Sisay, Weatherlight Captain lines.

When it comes down to it, many people in the cEDH community work to optimize the lists other people (myself included) pioneer. Someone makes the shell, the combos, the innovations, the others metagame it, tune it for optimization, and though people take my combos, my innovations, I love what they do with them.

I've optimized lists too, Control Zur, various Consult piles, etc. I understand I am better at innovation. Assuming people that takes popular combos are net deckers is often incorrect, the cEDH community is small, and everyone I've ever seen or heard of has been tuning decks to their metagame. I don't know who you've met who honestly just netdecks, but many of my friends are amazing deckbuilders and players. Not to mention even if they 1 for 1 buy a deck whole, they can still innovate in playing.

@dingusdingo isn't someone I know particularly well. They have always been helpful, and after checking through their decklists, I found they (No idea if it was by coincidence, or they read my primer, or someone who was inspired by it) to show off my Prime Speaker Vannifar line, featuring Spellseeker -> Vitalize into Archaeomancer -> Disciple of the Ring in the description of his list, and Chakram Retriever as his (assumedly) go-to 5 drop untapper.

Both 5 drop lines were originally my (only, I worked with a group to make a working line for PSV in the hours following it being spoiled) innovations (Tidewater Minion was the original it was summoning sick however) on the cEDH list. Despite this, he innovated on top of it. I had seen the Ezuri pile brought up by @Soren841 (not sure if he pioneered it or was the one to find it fit in the shell) but the lines to get there weren't the exact same as any other lists.

This, alongside the goal of redundancy in untapping left the list still powerful, but simply more in the combo than the interactivity of the list. Testing this idea is the birthplace of innovation, no one I've seen goes into cEDH copying checklists, they are inspired by other pioneers and support the format. The best decks in the format and the best combos aren't all stolen, someone made them, they were improved time and time again, and many are being improved as we speak. Assuming that you know immediately how to beat them and assuming your opponents are too stupid to beat you is a fallacy, and the people you have gone against are either extremely bad cEDH players or people that don't understand the community and leech on it. I love this niche community. I don't respect your distaste for it, but feel that you've only met some bad cookies.