I'm the first to comment of Jace!? Silly New Gatherer making different card discussions for each card's printings...
First off, I feel bad for him. He's a very nice card . . . but he is so one dimensional that he's fairly boring.
His first ability is neat. +2 is unusual as 'walker's go, but it only makes sense given his low starting loyalty and his -10 "big" ability. The "down" side to his first ability is that it affects both players... and no one likes to give his opponent free card draw . . . most of the time anyways.
His second ability is the only one that usually ever gets played in tournaments. And the simple reason is that Jace is mostly used as a 3cc "draw three cards" spell rather than a big traumatize variant/finisher in a milling deck.
His final ability is rather scary. Especially in the correct styled deck. An activation of his "big" one after playing traumatize . . . pretty much cripples your opponent and puts them on a very short clock . . . if they have any cards left in their deck, that is.
A nice first foot to begin this new card type in the blue realm. And like most 'walker's abilities . . . his "build-up" ability and his "big" ability have surprising synergy with each other. (Having your opponent draw cards is normally not very good, but if your intent is to deck them . . . each card they draw makes for one less card that they have in their deck, making it easier to deck them.)
AshlingThePilgrim
★★☆☆☆ (2.3/5.0)(5 votes)
Queen_of_the_Fae I agree! my faerie deckwith jace is even nastier after i put in a copy of jace. against other flyin decks he does more damage than a swarm of 1/1 flyers.
BrimandVormay
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.6/5.0)(4 votes)
jace's effect is used in 4 turns, and then in 5 turns, so in 9 turns you can make an opponent discard 40 cards from there deck. is there really a way you can call that anything but golden?
Solo-Dragoon
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(9 votes)
My personal favorite combo with jace is annoying and makes the game long.
Your turn everyone draws a card. There cards get removed, they can't use them unless its a instant. :) So with ensnaring bridge, your hand size never gets bigger it just gets smaller as the game goes. And no one can attack. So if you have a alternate way to win -- and don't wanna get attack have fun.
Jace is a pretty good planeswalker in all, but he isnt that great to start. Both of his first two abilities have no real effect on anyone, except maybe overloading their hand. His last ability however is devestating. I would know, ive been caught by that one. Destroyed my ajani goldmane and akroma... it hurt. Jace also works very well with liliana vess, and boy am i glad my opponent didnt have her as well when i fought him. Good card all in all, but unless you can keep him alive long enough for him to use his last ability, there isnt really a point in playing him.
Godaime
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Jace r hax. I put him in my u/w control deck, and giving your opponent hand advantage doesn't matter when 1) they may have to discard 2) it will allow you to draw all your counters where you will be having the upper hand and control of the situation better and make them somewhat mad. His mill effect is crazy too, so in all, he's worth the 3 mana you used to get him out.
2pcsofcandy
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Great card, but the art for this version is silly. I much prefer the Lorwyn art, or even better, the Agents of Artifice promo version's art.
Vorthosian
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Good card, one of my favorite Planeswalkers. Jace is the best card drawing engine in Standard, and he's also really good to SB in against control decks.
Also, I love Jace in my TurboFog deck, he's so much fun. He just speeds up the deck so much, it's almost like an aggro mill deck that runs 16 Fog effects.
j3tzblu3z
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Nice card, i can imagine this in a control/discard deck perfectly. Theres always that inconvenient time when your opponent has no cards on their hand and your Mind Rot feels useless in yours along with your Megrim
MasterOfEtherium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(8 votes)
The Art On This Version Is Awesome He Looks So Much Tighter.
tabiwasan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(5 votes)
Use Jaces first ability along with ubderworld dreams. It makes them loose 1 life whenever they draw a card.
Saxophonist
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
5'd for the art. I liked it so much that I made it my wallpaper.
Dingo777
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
THIS IS AWESOME ART
just look at that, look how amazing it is, and foil to boot....
the only problem I have with planeswalkers is the legendary rule, I could understand not letting 3 Jace Beleren on the field, but not letting 1 Jace beleren and 1 Jace the Mindsculptor
either wizard needs to stop evolving the planeswalkers and make new ones, like Jaces best friend, the mind sculptor
murder100
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Devastating in Control Decks. In my opinion, one of the best planeswalkers
Sironos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
"draw, draw, mill"... guess it's a question of temperament, I much prefer chandra, she is "burn, kill, destroy", much more to my taste, and she fits in any red deck, where this one has a kind of a milling/decking feel to it. Don't like to give my opponent more cards, especially in a blue/red duel deck where it'll most likely give him the ammunition to kill Jace. If it's used as a 3 CMC 2 card draw, why not just use divination? Good thing they made the pimped version of him as mind sculptor.
beef1701
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
one way to help all plainswalkers is Doubling Season.
allmighty_abacus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This art is vastly superior to the sulky emo art on all the rest.
Nagoragama
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The art of this version is intensely ugly.
boneclub
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
Just wish this one's art were... different... if only the deck one had the better artwork =/
djbon2112
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@Dingo777 Because that doesn't make sense either. "Jace Beleren" and "Jace the Mind Sculpter" are the same guy at different points in his life. Same with "Sarkhan Vol" and "Sarkhan the Mad" or "Elspeth, Night Errant" and "Elspeth Tirel". That's the reason for the subtypes. Having both of them out is no different (foul-)flavour-wise than having 2 Jace Belerens out.
The_Simic_Guildmage
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
First and formost I am a huge Jace fan and think its awesome you can have a Play set of all different arts. Oh and I use him in my type one accelerated draw/ Mill deck.. I think hes a cheap way to have fun with draw and even mill hell him w/ 4x Jace's erasure awesome well both draw 1 now mill 4. him w/ Glimpse the unthinkable, the erasures, 4x howling mines, tomescoures, mind funerals, all those pretty littlw low drop mills. Plus you give someone a case of the crabs( 2-4x Hedron crabs on field) and nemesis of reason stick em w/ dimir doppelganger, and even Wrexial awesome your spells work for me know. 5 or 6 okay turns and there out.
Stray_Dog
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
My eyes always seem to miss the fact that he has forearms.
Card Advantage {1UU} Planeswalker- Card Advantage +2: Game goes faster. -1: Card Advantage. -10: Don't activate this ability. It doesn't do anything.
Looks like Jace is powering up to sculpt some minds.
Calver
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
The real reason they used Jace Beleren in this deck is because they couldn't make a balanced Jace, The Mind Sculptor deck.
Also, seconding Rikiaz's opinion that this art looks more like a Battlemage than an Enchanter/Telepath; Looks like he's about to electrocute something.
Trygon_Predator
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ Calver: because you'd get Duel Decks JTMS vs JTMS. Anyway, original Jace is still good, if not outstanding, and is always welcome at multiplayer tables for friendly card draw.
steinburger1109
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Alright, who let Goku dye his hair? >:/
CorkBulb
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Oh my god I HATE that artwork! He looks like he's in a bomb squad suit or something. Maybe he is, *I* would certainly want to be if I was up against Chandra. And he really needs to do something with that hair.
I don't have the dual deck set so I can't really comment how he plays in it.
In general, hes cheap to cast, and can just draw you three cards over three turns if you don't want to go for the mill. I always find that making my opponent draw cards when i'm using blue always winds up screwing me, so i'm not a fan of his +2 ability. His -10 is good because it won't kill him if you've just used his +2 all the way, but it's only good if you're running a mill deck, unlike Jace, the mind sculptor whose -12 could end the game in one shot.
TheAmberSpyglass
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This art makes it look as though he has no hands. Jace v Chandra DDs are going for bank now, too.
Traded him in for a 2013 Memory Adept for legal in standard. No regrets! 3 CCs is great, but every time I sent him out he was gone 2 turns later.
People don't seem to like Jace... ;)
Trolled
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Is it just me or did Jace became fat in M13?
Rikiaz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This art for Jace is horrible, not horribly done though, it's a good picture but not for a sullen mysterious mind mage. His Agents of Artifice artwork looks amazing, exactly how a mind mage should look. This one makes him look like a front line battle mage in my opinion.
ParishInquisitor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
They actually printed cards with this art? I like the art on the Lorwyn version better, and the Agents of Artifice version best. Still, Jace Beleren is a pretty good card. He offers a couple of card drawing options. I have never seen the ultimate used.
DmitryM
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
-10 ability doesn't seem too useless... http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83597 then instant win... assuming they don't have that one card...
Slyfox7777777
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Probably one of the worst Planeswalkers. He is a Planeswalker though, so plenty of good there; they've never printed an unplayable one. Mostly low power abilities. The best tactic is probably just to +2 for a couple of turns to give him some padding, then just use him as extra draw for the -1 until he runs out of loyalty.
Comments (38)
First off, I feel bad for him. He's a very nice card . . . but he is so one dimensional that he's fairly boring.
His first ability is neat. +2 is unusual as 'walker's go, but it only makes sense given his low starting loyalty and his -10 "big" ability. The "down" side to his first ability is that it affects both players... and no one likes to give his opponent free card draw . . . most of the time anyways.
His second ability is the only one that usually ever gets played in tournaments. And the simple reason is that Jace is mostly used as a 3cc "draw three cards" spell rather than a big traumatize variant/finisher in a milling deck.
His final ability is rather scary. Especially in the correct styled deck. An activation of his "big" one after playing traumatize . . . pretty much cripples your opponent and puts them on a very short clock . . . if they have any cards left in their deck, that is.
A nice first foot to begin this new card type in the blue realm. And like most 'walker's abilities . . . his "build-up" ability and his "big" ability have surprising synergy with each other. (Having your opponent draw cards is normally not very good, but if your intent is to deck them . . . each card they draw makes for one less card that they have in their deck, making it easier to deck them.)
1. Ensnaring Bridge
2. Jace Beleren
3.Uba Mask
Your turn everyone draws a card. There cards get removed, they can't use them unless its a instant. :) So with ensnaring bridge, your hand size never gets bigger it just gets smaller as the game goes. And no one can attack. So if you have a alternate way to win -- and don't wanna get attack have fun.
Recommend card for this combo:
Darksteel Forge
Also, I love Jace in my TurboFog deck, he's so much fun. He just speeds up the deck so much, it's almost like an aggro mill deck that runs 16 Fog effects.
just look at that, look how amazing it is, and foil to boot....
the only problem I have with planeswalkers is the legendary rule, I could understand not letting 3 Jace Beleren on the field, but not letting 1 Jace beleren and 1 Jace the Mindsculptor
either wizard needs to stop evolving the planeswalkers and make new ones, like Jaces best friend, the mind sculptor
{1UU}
Planeswalker- Card Advantage
+2: Game goes faster.
-1: Card Advantage.
-10: Don't activate this ability. It doesn't do anything.
Looks like Jace is powering up to sculpt some minds.
Also, seconding Rikiaz's opinion that this art looks more like a Battlemage than an Enchanter/Telepath; Looks like he's about to electrocute something.
Anyway, original Jace is still good, if not outstanding, and is always welcome at multiplayer tables for friendly card draw.
I don't have the dual deck set so I can't really comment how he plays in it.
In general, hes cheap to cast, and can just draw you three cards over three turns if you don't want to go for the mill. I always find that making my opponent draw cards when i'm using blue always winds up screwing me, so i'm not a fan of his +2 ability. His -10 is good because it won't kill him if you've just used his +2 all the way, but it's only good if you're running a mill deck, unlike Jace, the mind sculptor whose -12 could end the game in one shot.
Traded him in for a 2013 Memory Adept for legal in standard. No regrets! 3 CCs is great, but every time I sent him out he was gone 2 turns later.
People don't seem to like Jace... ;)
Still, Jace Beleren is a pretty good card. He offers a couple of card drawing options. I have never seen the ultimate used.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83597 then instant win... assuming they don't have that one card...