Lullmage Mentor

Seven untapped Merfolk is a lot for a pseudo-Counterbalance lock, but you could try it with Merrow Commerce (did you notice that you can also tap Merrow Commerce for that second ability? Weird). You could also try working with just the first ability, protecting the Mentor with cards like Sage's Dousing and eventually overwhelming the opponent. An interesting card with definite potential.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 3/5 (use him politically!)

Tuesday

12-29-09

Lullmage Mentor

Constructed: Just not enough good counter magic in standard to let this guy shine. Even in older formats not the creature to win games in a control deck.

Casual & Multiplayer: He has some chance to be played, but very few casual players play with control magic. Multiplayer I do not see him at all.

Limited: If you some how get a lot of Cancels and Spell Pierce I do not see him making any kind of Army. It is only a 2/2 for 2 blue and 1 colorless, not for splashing other colors.

Overall a fun card to break in the casual format.

Constructed: 2

Casual: 3

Multiplayer: 2

Limited: 2

Later

Miguel

Welcome back readers hopefully your holidays were filled with joy and wonderful magic related presents. Today’s card of the day is Lullmage Mentor a powerful merfolk wizard that allows you to get a 1/1 blue merfolk token whenever you counter a spell. The second ability allows you to tap seven merfolk and counter a spell. The good news is the second and first ability feed off each other the bad news is that is costs a huge amount of creatures to work. The other more devastating news is that Lorwyn has rotated leaving most of the playable merfolk by the wayside making this card, barring powerful merfolk in worldwake, obsolete in standard. In extended with access to all the powerful merfolk this card still falls short due to the fact it needs a surplus of merfolk and with the mass removal available it is unlikely to happen. In eternal formats not a good idea. In casual and multiplayer this card stands a better chance, utilize the most powerful and merfolk token generators protected by counterspells could help provide a lockdown style deck that could be a decent deck. In limited I doubt you could draft enough counterspells or merfolk to make this worth it without choosing subpar cards, although if you could nab multiple it could be an interesting idea.

Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 1.0
Multiplayer: 2.5

Today's card of the day is Lullmage Mentor which fits in quite well in a control heavy Blue deck especially if there is a subtheme of merfolk.
This does give a potential swarm mechanic to a pure control theme and can be supported with any number of merfolk or standard token enhancement effects.

For Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer this is a very powerful on paper card that will probably not play as strongly as it sounds. The requirement of seven merfolk for the second effect is quite limiting and likely not be a factor very often. However, creating tokens for doing what Blue mages tend to do naturally is quite beneficial and may see some play especially around the casual tables.

With Limited my general rule is tokens are good, but this card won't be producing many in the format. In Sealed you won't have any control over how many counterspells you wind up with, but in Booster you can draft as many as come around. Even drafting a high number of them when playing with only one Lullmage the combo will only rarely occur. A 2/2 for three mana, especially two of which being Blue, is a pretty big handicap in Limited which leaves this as a mediocre choice. If several counterspells are available to your pool and the supply of Blue mana is high enough you have no reason not to play the card, but getting an effect will be a fairly uncommon occurrence at best.

Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 4.0