In limited Time Spiral, Jaya Ballard can take
control of the game right
away. Costing only three to cast in a color that
seems popular enough in
Time Spiral booster draft so far, Jaya is a
serious problem that your
opponent MUST deal with right away or else
expect to LOSE. Jaya turns all of
your cards into Red Elemental Blasts (sort of,
you get to destroy blue
permanents but you won't be countering any
spells), Incinerates (three
damage to a creature or player with no
regeneration allowed) or Infernos
(six damage to all creatures and players). Nuff
Said! Just like the black
leather outfit she is pictured wearing on the
card, Jaya is tight enough to
make the leap to constructed where she can make
the pain keep coming in mono red burn decks.
The name of the game here is versatility. Jaya
can do so many things, it's frightening. Most
Limited decks will willingly move into Red if
they snare a Ballard, and Constructed decks will
be using her as their utility player for quite a
while. Her only downside is that you need cards
in hand to use her abilities. Red doesn't draw
extra cards well, but it does have some good
Madness cards in Time Spiral, so that's another
way that Jaya will set the format ablaze.
Constructed- 4
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 4.9
Nick Tan
Jaya Ballard,
Task Mage
One burning hottie with an attitude, Jaya’s
abilities are very versatile and useful if
played right. With in-built Incinerate, Jaya can
very well wipe the board for you, making her
extremely useful. No red deck will want to
exclude her, and I haven’t even mentioned what a
bomb she is in limited. Go for this one.
Standard: 3.8
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Aethereal
Jaya Ballard,
Task Mage
Hello RDW, meet your new best friend. Jaya is
almost like Grim Lavamancer 5-8 in R/BDW type
decks. You can pitch unneeded lands to her
second effect, and if absolutely necessary, blow
up the world with her third effect. The first
effect will likely only matter in limited, as
the only permanents blue typically plays in
constructed are lands until it drops a finisher
that Jaya can't deal with. Jaya will see play in
Standard if a RDW type deck shows up (along with
Magus of the Scroll), but she'll probably have
more of an impact on Extended.
In limited, she's a reason to go red.
Constructed - 3
Casual - 3
Limited - 4.5
Cyrus Huang
Yeah everyone
else is going to point out the obvious that this
card is a mix between the destruction of red
elemental blast, incinerate, and inferno, but I
need an introduction so I'm going to say it
anyways. Anyways, here we go:
Constructed: It's not going to have much of an
impact on standard because it's removed too
easily (yah go ahead and use the "you suck,
every good creature in constructed is easily
removed too, so it can't be used as a negative"
argument against me). Well... you're right, but
there are other factors determining if a
creature is good in constructed:
Efficiency (so it can do something before it
dies or it won't set you back too much if it
dies, examples are like watchwolf, kird ape,
etc.)
Unsolvability (so it's difficult to remove...
obviously)
Significant effect (examples are like hypnotic
specter and ohran viper)
Jaya's got that significant effect trait thing
going on, but she's just too inefficient to do
anything with it. Why not just play the actual
spell, or a similar one instead of paying extra
mana for jaya and discarding a card? Too much
mana and card investment to make it worthwhile.
Still, it's a good card, just not good enough to
be considered better than any other card we play
now.
2/5
Limited: This card is the definition of greatest
limited utility creature ever. It's just silly
how ridiculous a 2/2 can be in this format.
Removal is premium stuff in the format and when
you got a card that can do it three different
ways, you have yourself a bomb. Every single one
of her abilities is amazing.
Spot removal for annoying blue utility cards and
fliers? Check.
Kill basically anything? Check.
Kill literally everything? Check.
Play her or you suck.
4.5/5
