In Magic: the Gathering, every color has its own signature creature type. Red has goblins, green has elves, white has humans, and black has zombies. Meanwhile blue… Well, blue has merfolk. These scaly sea people have been a part of the game throughout its entire history. Back in 2009, the merfolk wizard Sea Gate Loremaster was printed. It then spent 16 years as a bulk rare, with barely any value, before spiking in price twice in 2025 thanks to some synergies with new Avatar cards. Let's talk about how this sage from Sea Gate suddenly got a second lease on life.
Zendikar, the set where Sea Gate Loremaster debuted, also introduced the Ally creature type. Thematically, Allies represent people drawn together from a wide variety of different factions to support a common cause. They buff one another up and activate abilities whenever another ally enters play.
Allies returned in Battle for Zendikar block in 2015, but since then they received almost no support for 10 long years. That was until the Avatar: the Last Airbender set, which came packed full of allies, with a power level in line with the standards of 2025.
So what role does Sea Gate Loremaster have to play in the new and improved Ally archetype? Well, considering the Merfolk mage costs five mana to cast, it's unfortunately unlikely that it will see any use outside of Commander. Still, in that format, the card can really excel.
Sea Gate Loremaster can be tapped down to draw a card for every Ally under your control. New Avatar cards like Sokka, Tenacious Tactician, and Invasion Reinforcements can let you charge allies out incredibly quickly. This means that you'll always be able to get plenty of card advantage out of your Loremaster. The plethora of untap effect available in blue, like North Pole Patrol (which is both an untapper and an ally), also ensure that you'll be able to activate Sea Gate Loremaster's effect multiple times in a turn, and dig through your deck at a rapid pace.
By looking at data on TCGplayer, we can see that the utility of this card was first spotted in July of this year, when Avatar previews began and it was revealed that Allies would be in the set. Sea Gate Lore master leapt up in price to $4.00, from its previous value of only a handful of cents. It then remained stable at this level until late November when the Avatar set came out, and its value more than doubled, shooting up again to $9.51. This represents a more than 1000% price rise compared to its value of $0.70 at the start of 2025.
Has Sea Gate Loremaster finally reached its ceiling, or is the journey of this whimsical Merman only just beginning? Let us know your take by joining the Wargamer Discord community.