Master of the Pearl Trident, Merfolk Lord in Magic 2013

June 26, 2012 | Posted by Dee

In his column yesterday, Mark Rosewater said there would be lords in Magic 2013. Today, TCGplayer previewed one of those lords.

Master of the Pearl Trident is a two mana 2/2 creature that buffs your Merfolk creatures and gives them islandwalk. Check out the card below.

[Preorder Master of the Pearl Trident on eBay at a low price]

It’s pretty sweet to see a tribal theme in Magic 2013. Tribal cards are just cool. I think there will be four rare lords in the other colors because that’s how Wizards often designs these cards.

By the way, lord generally means a card that buffs up creatures of a certain tribe. Therefore, I wouldn’t count Krenko, Mob Boss as a lord. Goblins could get a lord in Magic 2013. That would help the Goblin tribe a lot.

Anyways, back to Master of the Pearl Trident.

I did a Gatherer search of existing Merfolk creatures in Standard. Sadly, there were only three cards: Coral Merfolk, Merfolk Looter, and Merfolk Mesmerist.

Out of these cards, Merfolk Looter is the only one I want to play. Coral Merfolk and Merfolk Mesmerist are just not very good.

Fortunately, there are three other spoiled Merfolk creatures in Magic 2013 and they are all pretty good. Not only that, they work well together.

1. Augur of Bolas

Augur of Bolas is similar to Sea Gate Oracle and that card saw a lot of play in Standard. Augur of Bolas is cheaper and digs deeper in the deck. However, it can only give you an instant or sorcery.

The ability kind of goes against the strategy of building a deck with a lot of Merfolk. You have to play enough instants and sorceries to make his ability worthwhile. However, you can play card draw spells like Ponder and Think Twice to help you find more Merfolk.

2. Talrand, Sky Summoner

Here’s a legendary Merfolk creature. Now we’re talking. :)

Talrand, Sky Summoner combos well with Augur of Bolas. I really like card draw instants and sorceries with him because they can find you more instants and sorceries to make more 2/2 flying Drakes.

3. Scroll Thief

Scroll Thief hasn’t been officially spoiled. That’s why I used the Magic 2011 image.

Someone leaked the card to MTG Salvation Forums. The source seems reliable especially since online retailers and eBay sellers are already selling the card as a preorder.

Scroll Thief is a solid creature since drawing cards is such a good ability. His ability fits right in with the previous two cards.

You want to draw cards to find more Augur of Bolas, which gives you instants and sorceries that draw more cards to find more Merfolk creatures. With Talrand, you want to draw more cards to find more instants and sorceries to activate his ability.

There may be more Merfolk creatures in Magic 2013 so keep an eye out. On MTG Salvation Forums, there are still 52 unspoiled cards.

Also, you can play clone creatures like Phantasmal Image to increase the number of Merfolk in your deck. Zombie decks have been using this strategy for a while. Clone creatures are good on their own too since there are many creatures you want to copy like Titans, Blade Splicer, Huntmaster of the Fells, and undying creatures.

In formats with older cards like Legacy and Modern, you have a ton of options for building a Merfolk deck. Merfolk is already a strong deck in Legacy so that deck will definitely like Master of the Pearl Trident.

He’s better than Lord of Atlantis because he doesn’t buff up your opponent’s Merfolk and give them islandwalk. Of course, you can play both and just flood the board with a bunch of lords to kill your opponent quickly.

[Preorder Master of the Pearl Trident on eBay at a low price]

Filed Under Magic 2013 (M13) Spoilers 

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