Jeska, Thrice Reborn – Commander Legends MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

It took almost twenty years, but Jeska is now finally part of the set of characters who exist as both a creature card and a planeswalker card. She actually became a planeswalker almost twenty years ago too, though her only real appearance as such was in the Time Spiral block’s storyline . . . which was also the end of her personal story. Still, the fact that we’re getting a planeswalker card for her now means we may yet find out what she was doing in between.

As you might expect for a card from Commander Legends, Jeska is explicitly designed for Commander games. There’s definitely some appeal in a planeswalker that becomes stronger the longer a game goes on, and additionally in any kind of card that makes damage-based strategies more viable. You only have to get a commander’s power up to seven for her ability to kill an opponent in one attack, and strategies like equipment always need new things to experiment with.

I also think her abilities’ focus on the number three is kind of cute. I can’t guarantee it was intentional, but this makes me think of the upcoming Kaldheim – the numbers three and nine (and their multiples) are the most important numbers in Norse mythology!

Constructed: 1/5
Casual: 1/5 (without commanders)
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 1/5 (without commanders)
Commander: 4/5

Jeska’s a pretty interesting planeswalker, and one that’s almost completely useless outside of Commander games. That said, she has some interesting tricks she can turn out, as both a damage amplification spell or as a burn spell. Due to how she’s worded, she’s perfectly fine with just one loyalty counter to keep magnifying damage and force some hard decisions in terms of blocks (she only triples combat damage to players). A flexible mana cost means she doesn’t need to be your commander (though she offers clear benefits in being one), and she’s weird enough to be maybe worth consideration in a deck that aims to smash early and often.

Constructed: 1 (the “use” for her is largely with effects that add bonus loyalty counters, which is way too “cute” for her in Legacy)
Casual: 1.25 (same deal; I’m generally assuming “casual”, here, does not involve commanders)
Limited: 3.25 (comes back often and can act as solid removal/burn in a late game)
Multiplayer: 1
Commander: 3.25 (she can work, but I need to see more information to make that call with confidence)