Once again, it is time for me to examine Magic cards in far greater detail than was intended. Full disclosure, I don't like playing Blue, though I identify as a partially blue person. (the other part is Red) I will be using Magic 2011 once again, and you can follow along here. Hit the jump for a look inside a Blue mage's spell book.
Blue
Mind: Fairly self-explanatory, this includes all magic that directly influences a being's mind, whether the caster's or their opponent's.
Æther: This is the magic that deals with the fundamental laws of magic itself. This includes all spells that directly interact with other spells.
Elemental: As the color that derives its power from the sea, Blue elemental spells deal with the water and the wind. It also contains the spells that summon the creatures that inhabit the sea.
Æther Adept: This is clearly an Æther spell, as shown by the name.
Air Servant: Elemental. Just look at its creature type!
Alluring Siren: Mind. The Siren works by ensnaring the minds of your opponent's creatures, forcing them to do your bidding.
Armored Cancrix: As with White, creatures without abilities pose something of a problem. In this case, the crab lives in the sea, so this is classified as an Elemental spell.
Augury Owl: Scry is an interesting ability. The name would make it seem like it is looking into the future. However, the Library (the deck you play from) represents your mind in a game of Magic. Therefore, Scry is actually skimming through your memories, helping you remember the proper spell for the duel at hand. Therefore, this is Mind magic.
Azure Drake: This is Elemental magic, as discussed above.
Call to Mind: This is a Mind spell - when you cast an instant or sorcery, you essentially forget how to cast it temporarily. This lets you remember how to cast it.
Cancel: This is the iconic Æther effect - the counterspell. It interrupts your enemy as they cast their spell, preventing it from ever coming into existence.
Clone: Shapeshifters are the iconic race for Æther magic. Mind and Elemental each have their own iconic race, which we will come to.
Cloud Elemental: Would you believe that I forgot about elementals when I wrote about Clone? Regardless, Elemental has another iconic race other than elementals.
Conundrum Sphinx: The iconic race for Mind, and the mythological creature most associated with intelligence.
Diminish: An Æther spell.
Flashfreeze: Here's a spell where the mechanics disagree with the flavor to a certain extent on which school it belongs in. While counterspells are clearly Æther, this particular counterspell works in an Elemental way, using ice as its medium. In the end, I believe it is an Æther spell with some Elemental power added to make it more effective against Red and Green.
Foresee: Ignoring the horrifying (but fantastic) art, this is clearly Mind magic. It combines Scry, a Mind mechanic, with card drawing, which is the mechanic most clearly tied to the Mind school.
Frost Titan: Elemental magic, immobilizing creatures through the use of ice.
Harbor Serpent: Sea serpents and other sea monsters were the iconic race for the Elemental school I was talking about above. This one even has very Elemental abilities, focusing on its status as a sea creature.
Ice Cage: Elemental. An interesting card from a design perspective, but nothing special for my purposes.
Jace Beleren: The iconic Blue planeswalker, and all three abilities are very clearly Mind magic. Drawing cards has been established, and milling (putting cards directly from the library to the graveyard) is also very much Mind magic.
Jace's Erasure: Drawing cards to trigger milling means Mind magic.
Jace's Ingenuity: Card draw means that this is Mind magic. An interesting note is that all that card drawing is doing is helping you remember things.
Leyline of Anticipation: It changes the properties of the spells you cast, so it is clearly Æther magic.
Mana Leak: Counterspells are Æther magic, and this is no exception. This one works by hindering your opponent's connection to his mana.
Maritime Guard: Sentient creatures are not as constrained by where they live as those that aren't sentient. In this case, however, I would say that it is an Elemental spell, due to the fact that it lives in the water and doesn't have any abilities or flavor that would point towards another school.
Mass Polymorph: Despite the fact that this spell deals with the library, normally representing the caster's mind, this is an Æther spell. The flavor is that the creatures are transformed into another form, which is the same type of magic that shapeshifters use. Therefore, Mass Polymorph is Æther magic.
Merfolk Sovereign: Making creatures unblockable could fit in any of the schools, so it falls to the flavor of each spell to determine its school. In this case, I would go with Elemental. The flavor of this creature indicates that it gives the other merfolk some traits of the sea, in this case the ability to flow around obstacles.
Merfolk Spy: A rare low mana that combines multiple schools, in this case Elemental for the Islandwalk and Mind for the second ability.
Mind Control: I'm not going to dignify this with an answer.
Negate: Once again, counterspells are Æther magic.
Phantom Beast: Illusions are Mind magic.
Preordain: Scry and card drawing together once again, making this Mind magic.
Redirect: Æther magic.
Scroll Thief: It lets you draw cards, therefore it's Mind magic.
Sleep: It puts creatures to sleep, which sounds like Mind magic to me.
Stormtide Leviathan: This creature floods the battlefield, immobilizing all creatures that can't swim or fly. Clearly an Elemental spell.
Time Reversal: This is a strange spell, and it doesn't fit easily in any category perfectly. It most closely fits into the Æther school.
Tome Scour: Mind magic.
Traumatize: Again, this is clearly Mind magic.
Unsummon: Bouncing permanents is as iconic an Æther ability as counterspells are.
Wall of Frost: A wall of ice that freezes creatures that it meets in combat. Sounds like Elemental magic to me.
Water Servant: Yes, elementals are in the Elemental school.
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