Minn, Wily Illusionist – Forgotten Realms
Date Reviewed: June 19, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.25
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I always thought that the Illusion mini-kindred from M12 should have gotten more of a chance at center stage. I guess the pull of Merfolk was too strong, but Minn here makes a pretty good case for making it work. For one thing, she is basically a bring-your-own-army card, which you don’t often see in blue, and the condition is one that’s pretty easy for most blue decks to fulfill just by playing normally. Her ability to cheat things into play is also worth building around, though it arguably demands a different style of deck than the generally aggressive tempo strategy that the aforementioned Illusions use. It certainly puts the drawback of things like Phantasmal Dreadmaw in a different light. She’s never been quite efficient enough for the more cutthroat environments, although I think things potentially could have been different if she had ever been in a Standard-legal set.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
This was part of the Commander subset, so scores reflect this.
Blue loves to draw more cards, and Minn, Wily Illusionist wears a couple of hats, both as support for Illusions more broadly and support for drawing cards. So long as you have some way to draw multiple cards in a turn, this can churn out an increasing army of friends that punish those that kill them…and they even buff each other, if you have the means to make multiples. That said, mill does want particular support, and so they tend to need a bit of help to get off the ground (and, in particular, they would rather be part of an engine than the whole engine). Make no mistake, this can be scary if you let it get going (and 3 toughness is usually enough to make e someone commit to a kill), but Minn asks for just a bit too much support to really shine outside of Commander.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: N/A (wasn’t draftable, and would probably be low-ish because it demands a bit of effort to get rolling)
Multiplayer: 4 (not ethe wording: each turn)
Commander [EDH]: 4 (a fine Plan B if you have, say, Azami, Lady of Scrolls at the helm)
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 5,000 more MTG Card of the Day Reviews!
Daily Since 2001.
