by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 03, 2009

After a long absence from the game of magic the gathering the Merfolk returned with a vengeance in the lorwyn expansion set. They may not be the most powerful of tribes but they have some real value, and much of that value is built around the untap mechanic. But there is a problem with this, in order for a creature to use an untap mechanic they must be tapped and the only way to do this easily and reliably is to attack, but attacking with blue is often a dangerous idea as other players likely have bigger and better creatures.

Merrow Reejerey is an uncommon Merfolk soldier from the Lorwyn expansion set of magic the gathering. A 2/2 creature that costs one blue and two colorless he has two abilities both of which are very useful. The first of these is that he gives your melfolk creatures +1/+1. This is a valuable bonus in a merfolk deck, helping to make them a little more aggressive while not giving any advantage to your opponent's creatures. The second though is the more unique this reads "Whenever you cast a Merfolk spell, you may tap or untap target permanent."

The first, and often most useful way of using this card is to simply cast a small merfolk and then tap one of your opponent's creatures. This is something that you will want to use when there is only one creature that your fear on your opponent's side of the board. If you can get through with even one or two attacks this way there is a good chance that your opponent will begin to attack with the creature rather than waiting for it to be tapped again. If you can stay ahead in the damage race this is entirely fine.

The second value is creatures with an untap ability. There are a few of these in the merfolk tribe, some of them with abilities that you'll want to use as often as possible. This is useful when your opponent simply has too many creatures to safely attack into.

No matter how you use Merrow Reejerey there is the problem of over committing your hand. This is an especially important problem for blue, as if you do not have untapped mana and cards in your hand you are largely defenseless so don't over use this, instead get just a little ahead and then push your advantage while backing it up with counter spells and this card can help win games.

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