He wasn't that great last time around. He won't
be that great this time around. He's one more
way to mill cards. Unfortunately, it's rare to
see a deck with a mill strategy win. It's not
impossible, but it's just a really tough way to
win a match.
The funny thing though is that in limited, he
can cast your opponent valuable cards and end a
game early.
On the one hand, this guy will likely help to
make milling a viable strategy even after the
lobotomizing tools of House Dimir rotate out of
Standard, and in Limited, where you could pick
up this guy and a Millstone or two or a
Traumatize. On the other hand, at an investment
of 3 per go, you'll either need a late-game
stall or an infinite mana engine to win off of
milling. I am glad that such a potent means of
doing so exists, though. He also makes a good
addition to the Merfolk deck.
Constructed- 2.5
Casual- 4
Limited- 3.8
Aethereal
Monday -
Ambassador Laquatus
A decent milling card, as it gets the job done
faster than Millstone and doesn't need to be
tapped. I don't think even this will make mill a
playable Standard deck, though. That deck had
its chance with Ravnica and didn't live up to
the hype. This is, however, a decent kill
condition if you can make infinite mana, so it's
nice to have for the next two years for at least
that purpose.
In casual, however, mill is fine, and so this
gets extra points.
In limited, the smaller deck size makes this
thing potentially deadly. I'd play it but I
probably wouldn't first pick it.
Monday
Millstone on a stick. Well 10th once again
brings back the archetype of mill decks. With
this creature along with traumatize and
millstone the deck still seems viable. It hasn't
seen much play in T2 but definitely a fun casual
deck. Also He is a merfolk along with a wizard.
With the upcoming blocks this may be crucial. In
limited milling is usually a viable option since
decks are only 40 cards and games tend to drag
out.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Ambassador
Laquatus
Believe it or not, Ambassador Laquatus has
already made an impact in Vintage as a win
condition in Worldgorger Dragon decks that can
generate arbitrarily large amounts of mana, and
I suspect he'll continue to have more of an
impact there than in younger formats. I rather
like the idea of him along with Heartbeat of
Spring and Early Harvest, a combination that now
belongs to Extended. Even then, you will need to
activate him around fifteen times to remove your
opponent's entire library, and you really need
enough mana to do that all at once. In limited
play, Laquatus' main value is his three
toughness, but decks are smaller and you will
occasionally be able to deprive your opponent of
threats or even mill him.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 2/5
Arcane
Ambassador
Laquatus
Constructed: There are a few infinite mana
engines running around standard right now (less
once Ravnica rotates, though I’m sure more will
crop up to take their place) most revolving
around thermopod or enduring renewal; none in
blue from what I can see. The point is though
that there are always going to be decks that
attempt to generate a ton of mana and Laquatus
will fill a nice void for those decks as another
means of winning once you’ve hit that magic
sideways 8. Problem is that combos can be
somewhat easy to disrupt in standard without
lots of protection, so there are always
consistency issues, but he IS in the color of
Teferi and counterspells…er..cancels.
Casual/Multi:Combo has always been regarded as a
stable of casual and multiplayer tables as lots
of people like to just win no matter how many
opponents are there but after the first time you
play a deck you become a target which can make
playing them unfun for everyone else the first
time the deck is played and unfun for you every
other time you try and play. Having said that
he’s a 1/3 for 3 mana which means he’s going to
be pretty easy to remove without adequate
protection and you’re going to be spending 3
mana to mill a mere 5% of ONE of your opponent’s
decks and to me that’s just not a great
investment.
Limited: However bad I may believe the
Ambassador to be in constructed and multi I
believe him to be incredibly powerful in Limited
games. Milling your opponent can actually be a
viable strategy in certain more control oriented
draft strategies that can utilize multiple
instances of bounce or pair with white for
pacify effects and then remove your opponent’s
deck piece by piece. Considering that after a 7
card opening hand and a few draw leaves your
opponent’s deck at a scant 30 cards it only
takes about 9-10 activations to win the game. He
is going to be a major removal target though so
watch out for the incinerates and terrors that
will fly at him.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 4
The Missing
Linc
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
Ambassador
Laquatus
I have to say I like this guy. I have never
really seen a mill deck shine but the ability to
just keep pumping the mana through him for the
effect without a tap makes him a Jonny card and
if you can go infinate, a combo-mill lovers
dream. At 1/3 he is OK as well and may make his
way into a dredge deck or two or a threshold
deck to use on yourself. In limited this is not
great card. I just wish he was not a legend.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 2
3: Target player puts the top three cards of his
or her library into
his or her graveyard.
Pretty much every combo deck that involves
milling a bunch of cards in
a turn will involve this guy, unless that deck
is a really bad deck
that wants to untap and tap Millstone over and
over again.
1/3 for 3 is pretty bad, but in a mill deck, the
ability is rather good.
I've got nothing to say about this card besides
that is has a really
good art in 10th Edition and that if you're
playing mill, include it.
If you aren't, don't.
Constructed: 1/5, mill's not very viable here
Casual: 3/5, wicked mill combo! Everyone wants
to play mill here. right?
Limited: 2/5, milling is actually more viable
here, but it's a 1 man
plan. I could see included to break that
stalemate
