I'm actually a little disappointed here. The
fact that is first ability is +2 is nice, since
it becomes easier to stockpile counters. And
each activation of the first ability gets you
two of the second, for plenty of drawing power.
The obvious application here is a milling deck,
where you'd just use the +2 ability until you
could use the -10 ability without killing Jace,
then go back to the +2 ability (assuming your
opponent still has a library by then). Since all
he does besides that is draw cards, and there's
numerous ways to do that, I don't see this
getting much use without Ambassador Laquatus to
back him up.
Constructed- 2
Casual- 3
Limited- 3.5
Aethereal
Wednesday -
Jace Beleren
The cheapest Planeswalker, and because of that,
as well as the decent abilities, one of the more
useful ones. The ability of drawing a card for
both players does bump him up by 2 counters, and
you only need to spend one to draw a card for
yourself, which is very nice. He's almost like a
cheaper Aeon Chronicler that doesn't beat down.
The big ability isn't worth it at all. The only
thing that may keep this out of blue control
decks is you can't hold up counter mana on turn
3 if you want to drop this, but the card
advantage he provides cannot be ignored.
In limited, the milling ability is killer, but
you might not be able to build him all the way
up to ten. Not as useful as the other ones.
Constructed - 3.5
Casual - 3
Limited - 3
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Jace Beleren
From discussions I've participated in and
eavesdropped on so far, Jace is a very
polarizing figure. I don't think he's either as
good or as bad as he looks, to be honest. The
fact that he gets +2 loyalty for his first
ability is a plus since he can get out of burn
range immediately, and after that he will
probably draw you three to five extra cards in a
way that's hard to stop. He's a major bomb in
limited where decks are smaller. At the
pre-release I saw people set off his third
ability and put their opponent's entire library
in their graveyard.
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 4/5
Arcane
Jace Beleren
Constructed: I have a hard time figuring out
which Planewalker is going to see more play,
this or Garuk. I think the nod is going to go to
the blue ‘walker in this case as extra cards are
always the love of every blue mage and control
player out there. A Blue Phyrexian Arena (which
has to pretend to be a Howling Mine every so
often) is going to be hard to compete with for
non control players and is going to take a
really, really good start on the behalf of
control players to get themselves out of the
game in the first few turns. The secondary mill
option isn’t going to come up that often but
don’t discount it, as certain control mirrors
might be solved with a quick 20 off the top.
Casual/Multi: There are two types of multiplayer
players: those who think Howling Mine is good
and those who don’t. As the latter in this
situation I have to say that this card plays
better than both Mine and Arena as it lets you
adapt it to the situation you need. Want to get
ahead, draw an extra card a turn for a few
turns. Got someone picking on you? Why then
start sharing the love and let everyone share in
your bounty of cards, even if the person picking
on you doesn’t want to give up then odds are
another player or two is going to look over at
you with dollar signs in their eyes and dreams
of more cards in their hearts and come to your
rescue. The mill is also a much more viable
option in this format as in long drawn out games
(as they have become prone to become in my
circle recently) 20 cards is going to help you
finish off one player while your last few
attackers sneak across the red zone for the last
few points against another.
Limited: I have yet to be impressed with any of
the planeswalkers in limited (Liliana Vess is a
win more card, Anaji isn’t strong enough and
Chandra just doesn’t seem like enough damage for
the life you’d want to pay). Garuk could be good
only taking two turns to get an overrun effect
that can win out creature stalemates. Jace seems
to be near the top of the planeswalkers in
limited, if not the top. You’ll have to activate
his ability at least 4 times to get up to the
requisite loyalty to get off his uber power,
which is 4 cards for your opponent, then 20 more
off the top. Add in the 7 your opponent drew in
their opening hand and then another 3 or 4
before you actually had Jace in play in the
first place and you’re easily at 34/35 cards out
of a 40 card deck. As long as you can muck up
the creature fight to slow your opponent (Oh if
only blue was the color of disruption!) he wins
you the game. If you don’t want to go for that,
then heck, at the very least your drew a few
more cards a turn.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
The Missing
Linc
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
Jace Beleren
Most are saying this is the best plainswalker. I
think it is in a tie with the white one. Card
draw is always good. In a mill deck, this is
likely a must. Most who have played know that
when you see howling mine come out, you deal
with it quickly, despite your instincts. This
will get similar treatment. He is the cheapest
plainswalker.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Jace Beleran
The milling doesn't do a lot so only his first 2
abilities will be any good. The first ability
can be very powerful if there is some way to
bounce all the mana sources your opponent plays,
much like in Owling Mine. You would hence get
more stuff to bounce lands while your opponent
is forced to discard his cards from a
overflowing hand. I doubt this plan will win any
major tournament soon: it usually gets beaten by
aggro.
The second ability is pretty slow. If I were to
just play this for it, I would much rather play
something like Counsel of the Soratami, which
really isn't seeing play.
In limited though, it's 3rd ability can easily
win a game considering it gets +2 loyalty from
the first ability.
Swordmaster13
Wednesday's
card is another Planeswalker, Jace Beleren. Jace
is cheap at 3 mana, two of those blue and has a
relatively paltry 3 loyalty counters on him. Add
2 to have both players draw a card, take one
away to have target player remove a card and
remove ten to put the top twenty cards of target
player's library in their graveyard. Jace
potentially nets you an extra card for the next
three turns, a draw effect that makes him
likable in multiplayer and a nasty mill effect
that is very expensive. More than likely you'll
use the second effect over the first as your
opponent will want him dead before the mill
effect. More fodder for Tarmogoyf, useful for
the cheap card drawing if temporarily.
Limited:3/5(he's cheap and draws cards for a
color that looks fairly solid in Lorywn)
Constructed:3/5(he may be more useful in a
Tarmogoyf deck)
