Deeproot Waters – MTG Card of the Day

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

It’s something like a perpetual motion machine. Fueled by merfolk. That’s actually a very tempting proposition, as merfolk get even stronger and blessed with more and more options the further you get from Standard. It seems pretty random for the tokens to have hexproof – I mean, who uses their efficient removal spells on vanilla tokens? – but it paradoxically turns them into the sort of tokens someone will want to use those removal spells on. I’ve lost count of how many two-mana tribal lords merfolk have already, and that’s even before you start piling auras on them.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

Pity this isn’t Lorwyn, or this would be better. Or share the Merfolk type through being a Tribal permanent. Either way, Deeproot Waters is a nifty bit of inevitability for the Merfolk tribe; an army of 1/1 creatures with hexproof can get to be hard to remove outside of a mass removal effect, and Merfolk decks do tend to go deep in that regard. I feel like it plays best with Merfolk support from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, but it has a home just in Ixalan, thanks to a bevy of low-drop creatures that magnify your army size rather cleanly. It also has the added benefit of being a cast trigger on a Merfolk spell, protecting your investment slightly even if it gets countered. It’s probably too slow for Modern or Legacy Merfolk, but I can see trying to put one in the sideboard as a hedge against long, grindy decks.

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.75