Alabaster Mage
Creature — Human Wizard
: Target creature you control gains lifelink until end of turn. (Damage dealt by the creature also causes its controller to gain that much life.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Magic 2012
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #20258
Alabaster Mage pays two mana per activation to grant lifelink or protection from a color — a steep, reactive tax for an effect you can get stapled onto better bodies or attached to cheaper spells. It's a bulk rare for a reason: the ceiling is too low and the cost too high for any competitive slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Alabaster Mage sees essentially no play anywhere it's legal. In Commander, one-shot protection or lifelink effects are either baked into the commander itself or covered by instants that cost half as much mana as a single activation here. In Pauper, where white weenie and aura strategies exist, the two-mana activation competes with just running more threats or better combat tricks. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in a 2/1 with a slow, telegraphed activated ability. Alabaster Mage is legal in many formats and relevant in none of them.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Alabaster Mage sits firmly in bulk territory and will stay there — nothing in its design points toward a future role that would move the needle. Buy it only if a specific janky build demands it; otherwise it's filler in a trade binder.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.