A Replacement for Athene's Midlane?
Riot wanted less passive-farming forever by mages, so they forced us to hide back and use our little mana for nothing but waveclear, since we can't afford to fight with it.
Irony.
Moving on. I heard someone suggest Morello 
become the new 120 AP item, with 20% CDR and Grievous Wounds still, but no Mana Regen - while removing Athene's 
AP but giving it some more MR and a ton of Mana regen. (So that it is the mana Regen/defensive item, and Morello becomes a more offensive buy.)
Then someone made me realize.
We already have that...if you traded 10% CDR+Grievous wounds...for a free cleanse+heal. http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130710101718/leagueoflegends/images/d/de/Mikael's_Crucible_item.png
It is like combining chalice's mana regen with Morello's; it doesn't give you the slight early game damage bonus, but it's better to be able to spam with Mikael's than to do a few slightly stronger spells before going OoM early. Is it not?
The obvious downside is, again, the lack of early AP. But the large mana regen should mean you could rush heavy AP items immediately afterwards. (Rabadon's? Zhonya's?) So, considering the increased numbers of spells, meaning more waveclear and more poke...it might be stronger overall.
The current safe assassin meta (AKA the Zed meta) removes almost all early kill potential in-lane for mage casters anyway. (If you poke them low enough to potentially kill them, you're OoM and have to back off and farm passively anyway. And good luck CC'ing a Zed or a Fizz long enough to finish them off.) Therefore the slight early damage increase might be somewhat less important than the ability to push & harass continuously.
The remove-CC+heal active is really good as well. Like having a cleanse AND heal in an item, but which you can also use on allies, making the midlane mage even more valuable to the team.
What do you guys think?
Keep in mind this item only costs 2,450 gold - just 150 more than Morello's right now, and much less than Athene's.
I think you vastly underestimate the use of 60 AP and 10% CDR, but if you want to try it then I won't stop you.
I think they're crucial stats...that mean nothing the instant you run out of mana. If we're forced to choose, like we are for the time being...could Mikael's stats, at such a cheap cost, be the better buy (at least against AP mids/AP tops)?
Heck, I could rush Zhonya's afterwards for a good chunk of AP, and have a lot of survivability. (CC clear, heal, and zhonya's active from my first two items, plus lots of mana regen and a healthy chunk of AP.)
