From the flavor text, it seems that this
creature is a relation of Future Sight's
Narcomoeba, which hails from a plane that we
unfortunately have yet to visit in an expert
expansion that doesn't have a time travel
gimmick. If you've been waiting for such a visit
as long as I have, you probably jumped at the
chance to put this in a deck, because, honestly,
it's pretty darn good. The obvious use is plan B
in a mill deck, a way to close the game if your
opponent managed to Oblivion Ring your Jace and
Shatterstorm your Howling Mines and Memoricide
your Haunting Echoes; but it's also more subtly
strong against "normal" blue decks, becoming an
outright monster within the space of a couple of
short, cantrip-laden turns. Tarmogoyf who?
Today's card of the day is Jace's Phantasm
which is a one mana Blue 1/1 with Flying that
gains +4/+4 when an opponent has ten or more
cards in the graveyard. A one mana 1/1
with Flying is already decent and illusion has
some support in Blue, but adding in the
potential for a one mana 5/5 with Flying means
this will see frequent competitive play.
There is no real drawback to running this as a
one drop and decks that use mill effects can
really benefit from having this out early.
For Limited most one mana creatures are useful,
so adding in evasion without a drawback makes
this a top choice. Getting ten cards into
the graveyard is more difficult in a forty card
format, though it does allow this to be an
excellent topdeck in the later stages of the
game. This is valuable enough to draft
first if the rare is weak in a Booster draft
pack and should be splashed if possible and
always run when using Blue in Sealed.
Welcome to
Pojo.com’s card of the day section. Today we are
checking out Jace’s Phantasm from M13. Jace’s
Phantasm is an uncommon blue creature that costs
one blue mana for a 1/1. Jace’s Phantasm has
flying and says that it gets +4/+4 as long as an
opponent has ten or more cards in his or her
graveyard.
A 5/5 for one mana is game changing, especially
in blue. Should your Phantasm attempt to be
countered, you should have enough untapped mana
to counter. And I know, it starts as a 1/1, but
if you are running the Jace’s Phantasm that
means you are intending to get cards in the
graveyard, and that usually means milling ala
Jace. In limited formats that will mostly rely
on you using things like Mind Sculpt’s combined
with counter spells and removal, meaning that in
limited you will likely be running blue/red or
blue/black. But once you get to greater formats,
you could just mono-blue and run with it!
A scary card, especially when added to a well
designed mill deck. Just think of two or three
of these plus a Mindcrank! And in older based
formats, it could be a second turn 5/5 flier.
You do this by dropping the Jace’s Phantasm
first turn, then second turn twin Tome Scour.
Ten cards in, five to the face.
