Quite a few people are understandably dismayed
that Jace the Mind Sculptor was banned or
dismayed that he was allowed to be printed with
bannable abilities. I just hope no-one's
thinking of taking it out on the new card,
because the fact is, Jace still has plenty to
offer as the Memory Adept. Yeah, he costs more
than what certain writers call the "sweet spot"
for planeswalkers (Gideon says hi, by the way),
but unless your opponent has an Elixir of
Immortality effect handy, there's no equivalent
to damage prevention for milling. Most blue
cards that can win the game in this cost
range are Sphinxes and Djinns, many of which are
amazing but much easier to potentially recover
from. Granted he doesn't defend himself like
Garruk or Chandra, but you're blue, right? You
have access to Wall of Air and Wall of Frost,
right? The other thing is, there's very little
chance he'll get banned the way Worldwake Jace
did.
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is
Jace Memory Adept the new heir to the most
powerful planeswalker throne…or not. Jace Memory
Adept in standard is in my opinion mediocre,
mill has never been powerful in standard except
for a few rare instances and a planeswalker
dedicated to milling seems bad. However his +1
ability is pure card advantage and as long as
the opponent is not basing his or her deck
around graveyard the mill won’t matter much. The
glimpse the unthinkable ability seems powerful
on paper but will be less powerful in practice
especially on a five mana planeswalker. The
final ability can be good to end a game but will
rarely come in handy. With Innistrad and the
possibility of a graveyard based block this card
may see a high increase in play but for now in
the world of standard, extended, and eternal
formats it may see moderate play but it is not
insane and nowhere near as powerful as previous
versions of Jace. In casual and multiplayer this
card will see loads of play, milling Is a
popular strategy for decks and this is a solid
card for players interested in those sort
of play, the glimpse ability pointed at a single
player is not the best use of milling but the
ultimate more than makes up for it. In limited
milling is a serious strategy and although it
requires two blue mana this is a first pick like
most planeswalkers. Overall a decent card not
quite up to snuff with the previous forms of
Jace but powerful In his own right.
Today's card of the day is Jace, Memory Adept
which is a five mana planeswalker with four
loyalty. The plus has you draw a card and
target player puts the top card of the library
into the graveyard which can be used on an
opponent to mill or on yourself if you know the
top card will not be useful. The second
ability has no cost and mills ten cards from
target player's library which is will make a bit
of a dent, but requires dedicated support to
function well. Both deck destruction and
some kind of Proliferation to increase counters
on Jace to bring out the third ability which at
minus seven has any number of target players
draw twenty cards. This can be used on
yourself to draw into anything you want, which
is risky as it may get towards the bottom of
your library, or as a big part of either deck
destruction or to trigger draws card effects.
Unlike many mill strategies this actually can
work in Multiplayer and this Jace certainly has
potential, even if the first ability is the bulk
of the usage. Overall it should see play
and may bring back the archetype to a playable
level as the set also includes Jace's Archivist
and Jace's Erasure.
In Limited there may not be much support
available, but the format works to your
advantage with forty card decks. Jace can
easily win the game with either the second
ability if he is protected by creatures or other
effects and should always be used in Sealed
unless you have an incredibly poor Blue pool.
An absolute first pick in Booster and should not
be passed outside of extreme circumstances as
just surviving three turns is all this Jace
needs.
Welcome to another great card of the day review here at
Pojo.com. Today we take a look at Jace, Memory
Adept from M12. Jace, Memory Adept costs five
mana, three generic and two blue mana. He enters
play with four loyalty counters, and is back to
having just three abilities. The first one says
add one counter, draw a card, target player puts
the top card of his/her library into his/her
graveyard. The second ability is a zero ability
that says target player puts the top ten cards
of their library into their graveyard. The final
ability is a minus seven loyalty counters, and
says any number of target players draws twenty
(20) cards!
With the banning of Jace the Mind Sculpter, Wizards
went out of the frying pan and directly into the
fire. This guy literally makes Jace the Mind
Sculpter look like nothing more than a Cathartic
Adept! A zero ability, yet again, that does
ridiculous things! Milling away ten cards while
not affecting the planeswalker is just insane!
Let alone how well he combos with his spells
from this set. Draw 20 cards off of his final,
which would subsequently mill someone for 20
cards if you have a single Jace’s Erasure out,
then use Jace’s Achivist, which would force each
player to discard their hands and then draw
cards equal to the highest number discarded this
way. It almost ensures a completed mill in a few
short turns, so long as you can protect him.
Zendikar has some of the best cheap, decent
blockers to do so.
The planeswalkers they ran in M12 are just crazy. The
set is so crazy overpowered it will shake the
foundation of Magic, and alter the landscape of
professional play drastically, which is what
Wizards wants. However, it is quite evident that
while they drastically altered it, they also did
so in a manner that will allow Jace to remain a
permanent fixture in the top contender decks,
and give rise to several mill decks in the top
spaces.
I would like to add I hold nothing personal against
Jace or blue, I just wish the balance of power
would be greater divided between the colors when
it comes to creating new planeswalkers and
spells.
