For the most part, Magic’s philosophy on legendary creatures has totally transformed over the years. Thanks to the meteoric rise of Commander, more and more legends these days are self-contained, multi-color value engines. This is a far cry from those of the past, which tended to be overcosted oddballs at best and clunky vanilla creatures at worst. Every rule has its exceptions, however, and Merieke Ri Berit is very much one of them among old-school MTG legends. Not only is it a powerful and synergistic Commander, but it also has what it takes to compete in serious games.
Merieke Ri Berit MTG
At first glance, Merieke Ri Berit really doesn’t look like an MTG legend from 1995. It’s well-costed, for one, and it offers a unique and powerful ability to boot. That ability lets you tap Merieke to gain control of any creature in play, which opens up all manner of shenanigans.
For starters, there are no restrictions on this ability at all. You can steal anything you want, whether it’s a huge beater like Blightsteel Colossus or a utility piece like Deathrite Shaman. Perhaps most crucially, you can also steal opposing Commanders. At casual tables, where players tend to rely heavily on their chosen leaders, this can be a devastating blow.
What’s extra interesting about Merieke is that it doesn’t give the creatures it steals back at any point. If an opponent removes it, the stolen creature dies too. This also applies if Merieke untaps, though that won’t happen naturally due to its first ability. You’ll need to throw in support cards like Aphetto Alchemist or Sting, the Glinting Dagger if you want to leverage this aspect of the card, which is an interesting drawback to overcome.
Throw all of this in with a very solid Esper color identity, and Merieke is a fantastic Commander option at a base level. In fact, the card even proved that recently by making the top eight of a 43-player Duel Commander event. It was Merieke’s first real appearance in competitive Commander, but I don’t expect it’ll be the last. While people have been sleeping on it for years, the word is out now. Merieke is a great Commander, and that extends into standard four-player pods as well.
Grand Theft Esper
One of the most powerful things you can do with Merieke is use it as a platform to permanently steal your opponents’ creatures. By itself, the card doesn’t allow this, since the tap ability and untap/leave trigger are not separate clauses. You can’t bounce Merieke once her ability goes on the stack to permanently steal a creature, in other words. With the help of some classic flicker pieces, however, you can make this dream a reality.
What you’re looking for here are cards that exile creatures then return them to the battlefield under your control. There aren’t many of these in the game, but the few that there are pair perfectly with Merieke. Conjurer’s Closet and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling both let you do this every turn, which means you can permanently steal one creature per turn cycle. If there’s nothing juicy on offer, they also double as a handy way to flicker Merieke, thus untapping it, if need be.
Other, similar flicker effects, like Nephalia Smuggler and Deadeye Navigator, work nicely here, too. It’s worth noting that you can’t steal a Commander permanently this way, since your opponent can send it back to the command zone once it hits exile. Any other creature is fair game, mind you, which can lead to some brutal value swings.
If you’re leaning into this style of play with Merieke, you can also enjoy some very unusual payoff cards. There’s a small subset of cards in Magic that reward you for amassing permanents you control but don’t own, and this is the ideal strategy to abuse them in. You can nab Staff of Eden, Vault’s Key as a draw engine, Garland, Royal Kidnapper as a board buff, and Nihiloor for some extra pressure.
An Unconventional Board Wipe
If you’re feeling less like recruiting MTG allies and more like demolishing everything in your path, then Merieke Ri Berit has you covered there, too. Thanks to the destruction clause in its ability, you can easily transform the card into a one-sided board wipe.
To do this, you’ll need cards that can untap Merieke repeatedly. Classics like Freed from the Real and Pemmin’s Aura are safe bets here, letting you untap Merieke for just a single blue each time. This essentially turns it into a machine gun, taking down any creature in play for just one blue mana at a time. It’s actually better than that sounds, too, since you’ll get any dies triggers from those creatures as well.
There are similar lines available with Thornbite Staff, too. If you throw in a free sacrifice outlet, like Phyrexian Altar, this can untap Merieke each time you sacrifice a stolen creature. Rinse and repeat, and you can sacrifice the entire board for value. This method gets around pesky Indestructible creatures, too, which would otherwise survive Merieke’s ability.
While this sounds like a downside, it’s actually another angle you can exploit. Throw an Avacyn, Angel of Hope into the first untap combo, and suddenly you have another way to permanently steal every creature in play. Each stolen creature will survive the destruction trigger thanks to Indestructible, then just remain under your control for future use.
With all of these synergies on offer, Merieke Ri Berit is a great option for your next Commander project. Unless the Duel Commander crowd really embraces the card after this week, it’s a nice budget option, too.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew!