Jaya’s Phoenix – Commander Masters
Date Reviewed: August 22, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.50
Casual: 4.50
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4.00
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’m not used to Jaya being associated with metamagic, if you like, related to planeswalker abilities. I guess Chandra is “straight fire” now, so she needs something else? I can definitely get behind the idea of a recurring creature, something which has always been dangerous; I actually quite like the ability to copy planeswalker abilities too, not because they need more help when their deck is ahead, but because some interesting planeswalkers have abilities that are just slightly weaker than similar alternatives when their deck is behind, and something like this might put them back into consideration. Five mana is an awful lot for the big tournament formats, but if this ever becomes legal in Modern, I think it’d be worth a try.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4.5
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
The combination of effects and stats on Jaya’s Phoenix seems a bit…scary, shall we say. Being able to double a planeswalker ability is a potentially vicious way to swing a game open…remember that it won’t add or deduct more loyalty, as that’s a cost, but it will copy everything else, and this would include things like ultimate abilities if you get there. Besides that, though, this is a 3/3 with the ability to swoop early and often if you have planeswalkers aplenty to bring out, and while five mana is a bit steep for this, you really should not need to pay five mana for this, thanks to looting effects in blue and red (colors where this will have fun).
I’m not sure this will do a ton in deeper formats, as planeswalkers are more incidental than integral in Legacy…and particularly because Wrenn and Six is banned in Legacy, who would be nearly perfect to pair with this card and, say, Faithless Looting. All the same, Jaya’s Phoenix is a solid supporting tool for planeswalkers to underscore that swooping is bad, and it provides an aggressive clock with upside for the archetype.
Constructed: 3 (I’d be more optimistic if Wrenn and Six were legal n Legacy)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: N/A (probably a 2.5 to 3 for being an evasive creature)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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