Once again I, Tyrant, have escaped from my position from my back-end work here and am here to run your ear off about my newest love in Magic, Jace Reawakened. This time though, I want to go over just what I have learned through my game play and the results of others with this weird as-hell card

What is the most important part of making a good “Jace Deck”

A lot of people on release and even myself, to a point, started off thinking it was largely based on how well you could fit the Jace Plus Valki Combo into a shell. While I still think that’s important in some formats, others have taught me there are Much Much more important things to worry about. 

The Game Plan 

I’ll start by saying that the all-in strategy of trying to force out Tibalt as your main plan is largely the wrong way to build the deck no matter the format. In every case outside of the one Pioneer 5-0 list, every other successful variant of the deck has been largely reactive.

A large part of this is due to the fact that Jace lacks the tools to protect himself in any way alone and in order to overlook this downside you need to be able to control the board in the early game so that on turn 4+ you are able to land your jace with countermagic/removal back up. This plan also aligns with the Valki/Tibalt lists, allowing you to protect it on the following turn. This is so much easier in formats like Modern and Timeless as Two-Mana countermagic like Counterspell and Mana Drain line up perfectly mana wise to protect a Jace on turn four. 

Another part of this equation that a lot of people including myself overlooked is Jace is only as good as your worst 3MV or less card draw spell. Often control decks will play some variant of divination to overpower your opponent with cards after trading one for one in the early game. Unlike a lot of planeswalkers, Jace is not a card advantage engine, but a mana engine. This often means instead of having to choose between holding interaction or generating cards, you can do both in a single-turn cycle. It forces you to both look at and build your deck differently.  Let’s start by looking at some lists that have been doing well by using this theory to varying degrees.

Pioneer 

Bless_von came 20th in the April 19th Pioneer Challenge with this list, which plays card advantage options on the lower end of acceptability to have a secondary combo in Narset/Day’s Undoing. Jace allowing both pieces of the Narset Lock to be cast on the same turn is a sweet way to use the “Extra Mana” that he produces.  

Andrw1232 also played a similar list on April 20th in the challenge in a similar manner to an 11th-place finish. I’m not the biggest fan of this build due to having no way outside of Valki to take advantage of the Jace’s plot ability but the addition of Xander’s Lounge in the mana is, I believe, correct to make Tibalt castable. Outside of Jace/Valki considerations Three Steps Ahead also feels like a strict upgrade to Sinister Sabotage of the last list.  Taking what both those lists do well into consideration, I would love to try something to this effect.

Modern

While Modern is by far my least played format at the moment, I felt it would be a crime to not mention YungDingo’s 5-0 list.

13 Early game removal spells,4 Counterspells, and 12 total card draw sources more than make up the needed amount for Jace without even counting Snapcaster as additional copies for later in the game. While I’m not the biggest fan of Ancestral Vision in the list in the current Orcish Bowmaster top end of modern, I also believe it’s the perfect card to play with Jace builds. If I were to provide an example of a great Jace build this would be far and ahead my recommendation for Modern. 

Timeless

Timeless is all over the place with different Jace brews but the two main driving points for the first week have been Dimir Control and Dimir Mill.

Some variation of this list has been largely where I have been since the release day and uses Jace quite well between Archmage’s Charm and Sauron’s Ransom. Between the addition of Jace and Mana Drain gives a lot of power over the old lists and solidly puts it into A Tier with the addition of its good Show and Tell matchup. I’m still not sure if Valki is needed in the lists largely due to Valki being such a poor creature on its front face but both versions have seen some amount of play and a clear winner isn’t avalible yet. 

Now this one I feel is largely an example of what not to do with Jace in my opinion. A lack of card advantage, zero good ways to use the extra mana (outside of lurrus), and majorly off-plan lead me to believe this is a big issue with the current lists. This can be fixed with the main deck by playing some number of ransoms in the main but that transforms the deck to a spicy version of the Dimir control deck above. I would much rather play more on plan cards such as Mesmeric Orb, Maddening Cacophony, or Founding of the Third Path. 

Now in the more experimental side of Timeless, there are a few lists such as Blue Moon and Four-Color Wizards that I feel the need to show off. They are using Jace (and Mana Drain) outside of a combo or lock to empower sorcery speed three drops that have felt clunky in the current Show and Tell meta of Timeless both due to the prevalence of Spell Pierce and the game-ending punishment of tapping out on turn 3. 

I love the idea behind this feel like this could be the next evolution of building with Jace. At its heart, it’s an expansion on the same reasoning why Valki works, just less explosive. I wonder if this can also be used in more interactive formats like Legacy to force through spells while having access to all your mana.I also want to give a big thinks to T0ast and Deandra from the MTG:Eternal Arena Discord for sharing their lists.

Jace and You 

Jace has proven to be powerful in just about every format outside of Standard and Legacy so far, and I truly believe that they might not be so far behind the others. He is not the type of card that you can just shove into any deck and make work. But when you build around him, Combo or not, He has the opportunity to take almost any reactive deck to the next level.

I would love to see any variations of Jace that the rest of the community is working on or any hard rule with Jace that you feel I missed, but either way, I want to thank you for coming this far into my ranting about what might just be my new favorite card.