Tribal Vignettes One

Lorwyn Tribal Vignettes #1
"Vignette - a brief literary description"

MERROW (Merfolk)
Today is the first of several posts we will provide giving a broad overview of each of Lorwyn's Tribes. In this post, I hope to furnish the casual Magic Player some insights into Lorwyn's Merfolk which are limited to the colour blue, with some white. For beginers, this means that these merfolk use primarily blue 'mana' or the magical energy resource used to cast spells.

Merrow or Muirruhgach is the Irish name given to Merfolk. In 'Magic: The Gathering', these water bound creatures may bear down upon otherwise 'land-locked' opponents with the use of aquitect cards such as 'Aquitect's Will' which will flood an opponent's land, or, 'Streambed Aquitect', which may target an opponent's land cause it to become an island until end of turn. The flavour text for 'Aquitect's Will' offers this; "There is nowhere on Lorwyn that the Merrow Lanes cannot go".

Here is a brief slideshow providing a glance at the Lorwyn set Merfolk.


A very good ability among some Merfolk are their power to tap or untap which make available or withhold the use of a card during a turn. Some Merkfolk creatures may be used to tap or untap your own or the opponent's creature while others may be used to do the same to any permanent. A permanent is any object in play and includes land (or mana) cards. This may be used to starve your opponent and deny them the mana they require to play a spell. Some Lorwyn Merfolk would be a decent choice for inclusion in a player's constructed 'Control Deck'. Control decks include cards which attempt to interfere with, prevent, deny, or otherwise cancel the opponent's actions.

In general, individual Lorwyn Merfolk, as with other Merfolk in previous sets, do not deliver heavy blows to an opponent, but when played together, may provide bonuses that increase the power and/or toughness needed to do battle against larger creatures. A smart move may be to also include a larger Elemental creature which may provide some muscle for the tribe. Unfortunately, the card previews for the new Morningtide set show no additional Merfolk with increased power and toughness. There are also no fliers within this tribe, it there may be a need to provide within your deck some Faeries or Changelings which are able to use the same-coloured mana base.

Here is a list of Merfolk within the Lorwyn set.
For card details, visit the official card look-up database at MTG Gatherer.