“Call me king, call me demon. Water forgets the names of the drowned.”
Art:Merrow Reejerey
by Greg Staples
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Merfolk is one of magic’s oldest creature types and has been around for absolutely forever, because of this they have an absolute ton of support especially at common; we have merfolk new and old on display within this deck, some of the merfolk are in our deck our nothing more than support cards, but we have quite a few ways to make all of our merfolk unblockable which can be a great way to guarantee some damage, we can be aggressive in the early game, but I would say this deck falls into midrange because we have elements of both an aggressive deck and a control strategy without leaning heavily into both. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
Merrow Reejerey Merfolk!
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Why Merrow Reejerey?
Merrow Reejerey is a very strong commander for the deck and is a card we always cast as soon as we possibly can. Being able to untap or tap a permanent when we cast a merfolk spell is amazing for the deck; whether we use this offensively or defensively is situation-dependent, but it is extremely strong either way. Untapping cards like Merrow Levitator
or Silvergill Douser
provide a ton of value for the deck. While untapping or tapping our own stuff can be quite strong, being able to do it to opponents’ stuff as well is great and can help us take creatures we don’t want in combat out of it, or take out an opponent’s creature or commander who has a strong tap ability. Merrow Reejerey also provides a buff to all of our other merfolk, which makes our damage output considerably higher; the main reason we are packing a good amount of counterspells is for removal targeting our commander, which is typically happening pretty consistently. Reejerey is very strong, but is a removal magnet. Merrow Reejerey is a huge part of our deck and should be cast as soon as possible!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
To start, let’s go over some of the best creatures that interact very positively with our commander, like Caller of Gales
, Merfolk Looter
, and Merrow Levitator which are all very strong effects that interact very well with our commander. Now let’s start small, we have some pretty strong one-mana creatures that are unblockable like Mist-Cloaked Herald
and Triton Shorestalker
are great cards and with our commander out can represent two guaranteed damage a turn, which can be pretty great, while the damage is small it will allow us to consistently put pressure on our opponent’s life total. We also have quite a few creatures with Islandwalk, and when combined with our ways to turn an opponent’s land into islands we are able to make a ton of unblockable creatures, with some of the best being Rootwater Commando
, Streambed Aquitects
and Streambed Aquitects which are pretty small damage dealers but can still be pretty strong.
Instants:
We have some pretty strong counterspells like the namesake Counterspell
, Negate
, and Logic Knot
all of these are pretty strong and allow us to stop our opponents from getting to out of hand or protect our stuff if our opponents are coming with removal. Curfew
and all of our bounce effects are quite strong and allow us to retrigger our commander and if needed bounce an opponents creature back, we are quite heavy on these effects and they are strong when targeting our creatures or our opponents.
Sorceries:
Aquitect's Will
is a great way to cantrip and make an opponents land an island, which will give us a cheap and easy way to get our islandwalk creatures through unblocked. Whether we bounce one of our creatures or our opponents Crashing Tide
is quite strong, and since we almost always have a merfolk, we are able to cast it with flash, which is very strong. We have some pretty strong supplemental card draw at sorcery speed like Distant Melody
, Unexplained Vision
, and Borrowing 100,000 Arrows
which are a little expensive but are very strong sources of mass card draw. Ravenform
is some pretty interesting sorcery speed removal that we typically foretell and cast for one just a few turns later.
Artifacts:
We have a very small artifact package, but for a little bit of extra mana, we are packing Bonder's Ornament
and Sky Diamond
, which are both great sources of extra mana. Last but certainly not least is Goggles of Night
which is perfect for one of our unblockable creatures and gives us a strong source of information from our deck and supplemental card draw. Just a great piece of equipment for the deck.
Enchantments:
We have a trio of very strong enchantments that can make opponents not on blue susceptible to Islandwalker, we have Spreading Seas
, Phantasmal Terrain
and Sea's Claim
which are all cheap and amazing ways to let our islandwalk creatures through. Witness Protection
and Fall from Favor
are cards that I typically like to use to take out pesky commanders or really any creature that our opponent has that is a big threat. Diplomatic Immunity
is a card I almost exclusively put on our commander so they are considerably harder to kill and require enchantment removal. Psionic Gift
is a pretty cool aura for the deck that can be a great way to remove creatures or just straight-up damage opponents. Putting this on a merfolk with our commander out can get out of hand very quickly.
Land Base:
We are a mono-blue deck, so our landbase does not have a ton of interesting cards since it mostly consists of islands, but we do have some pretty cool ones. Since we are a deck that focuses on creature type, we, of course, have Path of Ancestry
. The scry can be very helpful in looking ahead for our deck. I love Skyline Cascade
because it locks down an opponent’s creature for a turn, which can be great in the early stages of the game or in the mid-late game. Mystic Sanctuary
is a great way to recur instants and sorceries, and in this deck, it is almost always online since we are in mono-blue. Beyond that, we have some draw and cycling lands, which are great sources of additional card draw, and a ton of islands. I like this landbase a lot and think it’s extremely effective for the deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We have quite a few ways to make our opponents unable to block in combat; this makes us decently strong, even against heavy combat decks.
- We have a decent counterspell suite allowing us to protect our stuff and stop opponents who are getting out of hand.
- We have quite a few valuable tap abilities on our creatures, and if we combine that with low-cost merfolk, we can easily activate a tap merfolk two to three times a turn.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Being in mono-blue, we don’t have a ton of ways to interact outside of the stack; if something resolves, we typically can’t remove it.
- We are generally weak to creature hate, as even with the buff, many of our merfolk are quite small.
- We can struggle against control decks as they can easily out-counterspell us, and winning counter wars can be tough as many of our counters cost two to three.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck in every way; although we are not your typical combat deck, we have quite a few creatures with Islandwalk and cards like Spreading Seas, Sea's Claim and Phantasmal Terrain which are all great ways to give our opponents island and not only deny one of their resources if they are not playing blue but make all of our Islandwalk creatures unblockable. The buff from our commander certainly helps our combat strategy as well.
Conclusion:
Merfolk is a classic creature type within magic and one that is very fun to build around. I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did. Merfolk is just a blast to play; I remember playing them in Modern as well as EDH and now in Pauper EDH, and every instance of them was an absolute blast to pilot. If you are looking for a blue deck that has a ton of synergy, a ton of combat, and fun combat at that, as well as a built around a well-supported creature type, this is the deck for you! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!