Hello Mark! Today is my birthday, I was wondering if I could get any trivia about merfolk, my favorite tribe. Thank you!

For the first full year of Magic, the only Merfolk was a vanilla 1/1, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident. (Lord of Atlantis wouldn’t be changed to a Merfolk for many years.) It wasn’t until Fallen Empires, that the game had enough Merfolk to even make a Merfolk deck. For more on the history of Merfolk, here’s my article from Merfolk Week all the way back in 2008: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/merfolks-tale-2008-06-23Happy Birthday!

A Merfolk’s Tale

Hey Mark, it's my birthday! Can I please have some trivia about creature types? Anything you find intresting.Thank you and have a great day!

When Magic first started creatures only had one creature type (and artifact creatures didn’t get any), but there were three exceptions. Birds of Paradise was Mana Birds, Goblin King was Goblin King and Lord of Atlantis was Lord of Atlantis. Will-O’-The-Wisp was Will-O’-The-Wisp, but it was hyphenated, so technically one word. Happy Birthday!

Mark, what would be reasoning behind Merfolk having 2cmc tribal lords granting +1/+1 while Goblins wouldn't? It's a bit bizarre that the most aggressive colour falls behind a tribe in the most reactive colour, isn't it?

Those exist because of a card from Alpha - Lord of Atlantis. Early Magic was more individual card based and Richard made it as a top down. It was of a high power level mostly by accident as mana costs, especially on creatures, wasn’t well understood early on.
Master of the Pearl Trident was basically a reprint with a different name because we didn’t want to reference real world mythology with “Atlantis” as Earth isn’t part of the multiverse.

Mark, yesterday was my birthday (was out and couldn't get to the PC to send you this). Do you have any trivia on Lord of Atlantis, my favorite card?

In Alpha, Lord of Atlantis was not himself a Merfolk even though he clearly is one in the art. He became a Merfolk in the great Creature Update and his text was changed too boost “other Merfolk”. Happy Birthday!

Can I get some merfolk trivia for my birthday? :)

When Magic premiered there was only one merfolk in it Mergolk of the Pearl Trident. There was a merfolk lord, Lord of Atlantis, but it wasn’t at the time a merfolk. It has since gotten errata. Happy Birthday!

I'm currently out for my girlfriend's birthday (and asking Tumblr questions about Magic, such an exciting life I lead), could I get some trivia about Merfolk for her?

The very first merfolk deck had a lord (The Lord of Atlantis) and one merfolk (the Merfolk of the Pearl Trident). The second merfolk wouldn’t show up for four more expansions (Merfolk Assassin in The Dark).

But with Secret Lair out, isn't an old Lord of Atlantis a creature type lord?

Yes. If you have R&D Secret Lair out, you can have creature types that are no longer supported if they are on cards in play because the Lair will put them back in.

The flavor of Mistform Ultimus seems to be that it's whatever you're looking for - so Zombie Master, Lord of Atlantis, and Goblin King all see in it an ally. So, even though it's not reflected on the new Mistform Ultimus update, is this legendary illusion also a chicken (a la Chicken a la King) and a donkey (a la Assquatch)?

He is when you are playing with silver-bordered cards, but in black-bordered world, silver-border only creature types are not supported.

"Costing CC doesn’t mean you have the most powerful lords." I feel like this answer completely missed the point of the question. The fact is that blue does have the most powerful lords. Despite being the weakest creature color, why does blue get a very powerful lord in MotPT? Isn't Lord of Atlantis too powerful to reprint already?

You’re missing what I’m saying. I’ve talked with development - the people whose job it is to understand power levels. They are saying that Master of the Pearl Trident is not the most powerful lord. In fact, they believe it is one of the weaker ones in Magic 2013.

Recently, there have been discussions that R&D doesn't really take blue's weakness as worst creature color seriously (thanks to Delver and Snapcaster). Now blue gets a new Lord of Atlantis... when white's excuse for a two-mana lord was the strictly worse Wizened Cenn. And white's supposed to be the best at pumping its team. Somehow I'm not happy about this.

Creatures are at the heart of the game. Blue is allowed to have creatures that are playable. They’re supposed to though play into how blue plays. Note how blue’s two best creatures right now, Snapcaster Mage and Delver of Secrets both require a strong dedication to instants and sorceries, the area where blue is supposed to shine.