Sea Scryer MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Merfolk Wizard
Released	1996-10-08
Set symbol
Set name	Mirage
Set code	MIR
Power	1
Toughness	1
Number	90
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Martin McKenna

Key Takeaways

Sea Scryer aids in mana filtering, potentially reducing spell costs and allowing for more card plays.
Enhances mana resources, offering a strategic advantage by enabling earlier casting of impactful spells.
Facilitates instant-speed interactions, keeping players’ options open for responses during opponents’ turns.

Text of card

oc T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source. o1, oc T: Add o U to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Sea Scryer may not draw cards directly, but by filtering mana, it can effectively reduce the cost of spells and abilities, thereby allowing you to deploy more resources and cards from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: As a mana dork, Sea Scryer is capable of ramping up your mana pool. By tapping an additional island, you accelerate your resources, which can be crucial for casting high-impact spells ahead of curve.

Instant Speed: Although Sea Scryer’s ability is not an instant itself, it facilitates instant-speed plays. By providing additional mana, it keeps your options open, letting you respond with counter spells or flash creatures while still developing your board.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Sea Scryer’s ability does not require a discard, providing a minor edge in resource retention. However, this feature may be overshadowed by greater synergies found in other mana-generating creatures.

Specific Mana Cost: Sea Scryer demands blue mana to be cast, making it exclusively advantageous within blue-aligned decks or those with sufficient color fixing to accommodate its monocolor requirement.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the card’s initial casting cost is reasonable, the necessity to continuously tap Sea Scryer for a single mana might not compete with other mana dorks’ efficiency that can offer more immediate or substantial mana acceleration.

Reasons to Include Sea Scryer in Your Collection

Versatility: Sea Scryer’s ability to tap for mana adds flexibility to your plays, fitting well in decks that need to fix their mana or speed up their game through additional mana production.

Combo Potential: This merfolk provides a stepping stone in multicolored decks that aim for combo finishes. It works especially well in enabling untap synergies or supporting strategies that revolve around tapping and untapping creatures for value.

Meta-Relevance: In a format where the speed of your mana development can be crucial, the extra mana provided by Sea Scryer can be the difference between victory and defeat. Particularly in environments where blue is heavily played, this creature’s contribution can help you stay ahead or catch up when facing down the current competitive decks.

How to beat

Sea Scryer is a utilitarian creature in Magic: The Gathering that enables players to ramp mana by tapping it. A seemingly modest ability, but in the right deck, Sea Scryer can prove to be quite a facilitator for big plays. To counteract this creature, there are a few strategies. Removal spells are your first line of defense; dealing with it immediately ensures that your opponent won’t get ahead in terms of mana. Cards like Shock or Fatal Push are great examples of efficient removal spells.

Taking a more proactive approach, hindering your opponent’s development by using counter spells like Mana Leak when Sea Scryer is cast can effectively neutralize the threat before it even hits the board. Another method is employing cheap creatures with tap abilities that can block and eliminate Sea Scryer, or use abilities that restrict the opponent’s mana production.

Dismantling the benefits Sea Scryer provides is crucial in thwarting your opponent’s strategy, especially in matchups where untapping additional mana can pivot the game. Be pre-emptive, use targeted removal or counters, and you’ll mitigate the card’s potential impact on the game.

Cards like Sea Scryer

Sea Scryer finds its place among mana-producing creature cards in Magic: The Gathering. This Merfolk Mystic can tap for an additional mana, a trait shared with cards like Llanowar Elves, one of the game’s most iconic sources of green mana acceleration. While both provide a mana boost, Sea Scryer’s ability caters to blue mana, which is less common for such effects, giving it a unique role in decks that require blue mana specifically.

Comparatively, Birds of Paradise offers a more versatile approach to mana generation, being able to produce any color of mana, which grants it higher flexibility than Sea Scryer. However, Birds of Paradise comes with a higher relative cost. Silver Myr is another equivalent, tapping for blue mana like Sea Scryer but trade-offs include its non-human typing which can influence deck synergies.

As players evaluate Sea Scryer’s place among mana fixers in their decks, its contribution of blue mana and Merfolk typing can prove strategically valuable, particularly in blue-centric or tribal builds that benefit from its specific combination of traits.

Cards similar to Sea Scryer by color, type and mana cost

Soratami Cloudskater - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Sea Scryer MTG card by a specific set like Mirage, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Sea Scryer and other MTG cards: