I haven’t been able to post too much on The Death & Toolbox. Between all my university commitments, work, my This Month in Legacy articles (which you can catch at The Gray Merchants website, it’s pretty slick) I haven’t been able to post much on Magic, let alone play much Magic, recently. That doesn’t mean my mind hasn’t been swimming with thoughts, especially about the Legacy format, and this doesn’t mean I haven’t had some time to procrastinate away some of my time testing ideas.
The card that has been plaguing my mind so much recently is this guy. This little babyface, this little baby…
Jace.
A powerhouse of Standard, he doesn’t seem very powerful on the surface in the context of the Legacy format. Merfolk Looter with a crappy Snapcaster Mage attached! Hah! Turns out, bundle these two things together and you actually get a very powerful card, that fulfils a very potent role in Legacy. Although he looks like a crappy Snapcaster Mage, he actually plays out very differently, encourages a set of different deck building decisions and really carves his own niche. I’ve been very impressed with him so far, and today I’ll be revealing a few of the shells that I’ve been trying (and I’m sure others have comes to similar conclusions).
Firstly, I want to point out a few constrictions on the decks Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy should be slotted in:
- We want to be playing other creatures. The old ‘dies to removal’ problem is one that is always argued, though Legacy does have less removal than a format like Modern, but it is nonetheless a very valid concern. Therefore, we want to place Jace in a deck that has other high priority targets, which means Jace will either soak up removal for them or they will soak up removal for Jace to go haywire. As such I don’t like him any combo decks, such as Reanimator, where some people have been playing him, as turning opponent’s Lightning Bolts into cards with text boxes is not what I’d want to be doing.
- We want to be a deck that operates on very few lands. The reason for this is simple – if you often have four or more lands in play, just play Snapcaster Mage! Snapcaster, although not having other planeswalkery utilities like Jace, gets immediate value and doesn’t have the one turn window where he can be shot down. Jace’s real power is that he allows decks that operates on two lands or so a similar power to Snapcaster Mage except you don’t have to pay for both the creature and the flashbacked spell all upfront, it can be staggered out over two turns.
- We want to be able to play proactive instants and sorceries. The nature of Legacy means that Jace will usual be able to flashback at least a cantrip, but having more powerful spells such as discard and removal is something you want to be able to reuse as well. Jace also pushes the decks he’s in slightly away from countermagic such as Spell Pierce, for example, due to these cards being blanks for Jace to flashback.
- We want to play Dig Through Time. We’re playing blue, so I guess… We should be… But Jace’s synergy with the card is pretty obvious – he can loot to fuel your Digs and also flashback used Digs. Value town indeed.
- We want to actually make good use of his loot ability. This again links to operating on very few lands, since lands are prime targets to loot away, but this can also mean having flashback spells to pitch or even abusing the old Merfolk Looter and Daze interaction.
- We probably want to be able to protect Jace, so that he can go wild and accrue a lot of value. This can be in the form of discard or the usual counter magic of Daze and Force of Will.
That… Seems like a lot of hoops for this new card. But once you see some shells it’s pretty evident that Jace fits into a lot of generic Legacy shells anyway, since a lot of decks operate in the ways I’ve outlined.
The first shell is a staple of the format with some Jaces thrown in. Gerry Thompson’s Grixis Control list is one I outlined in my recent This Month in Legacy but it deserves some reiterating.
Creatures: (8)
2 Baleful Strix
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
4 Young Pyromancer
Non-Creature Spells: (33)
1 Counterspell
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Pyroblast
4 Brainstorm
4 Dig Through Time
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Innocent Blood
1 Toxic Deluge
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lands: (19)
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Wasteland
2 Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
Sideboard: (15)
2 Null Rod
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Sulfur Elemental
2 Blood Moon
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Hydroblast
2 Pyroblast
1 Dack Fayden
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Perish
There’s a few things that are sweet about this deck, but also a few things I don’t like.
Firstly, Cabal Therapy is a great proactive way to protect your two two drops (Pyromancer and Jace) which can quickly go out of control, and also fulfils the role of a nice card to pitch to Jace (due to its flashback), a nice card to flashback with Jace using his ability and also a nice way to make sure that in combo matchups, where Jace can be a little slow, Jace can act as disruption by being food for the Therapy anyway.
Pyromancer and Jace together are also really nice, as Jace, if unchecked, happily feeds the token army. I also like the proactive sorcery-speed cards Gerry has chosen – Innocent Blood is a great card with Pyromancer and is also a nice cheap sorcery to flashback with Jace. Deluge is also very nice as a sorcery that Jace can target and really shows where he can do what Snapcaster cannot – a flashbacked Deluge is an upfront five mana, which is a heckuva lot, while with Jace it’s simply the usual three. Jace also doesn’t kill himself to the Deluge.
Kolaghan’s Command is another sweet card that’s been wrecking Modern, and seems sweet here as a way to get back dead Jace and friends.
The main problem I have with this deck is though… We have cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Toxic Deluge in our deck. We’re very happy to get to four mana, and at this stage, other than Deluge, Snapcaster will do a lot of work for us in a similar way to Jace. Gerry seems to value Jace’s upside of sticking around for awhile, unlike Snapcaster, though I’m very skeptical whether Jace is better than Snapcaster in a shell such as this. I think the discard definitely makes an argument, as you can carve away your opponent’s removal so Jace doesn’t immediately die, but I’d be looking towards Snapcaster before Jace in a shell like this, in my opinion, as this deck doesn’t really take too much advantage of Jace’s ability to break up the mana investment of the cards being flashbacked.
I nonetheless think Gerry’s list is doing a lot of powerful things (well, it’s Gerry, so I’d trust his decisions more than me, to be honest) and I’ll draw on a lot of his interactions in other shells.
A shell I’ve been thinking about is similar to this Grixis shell, in a way, but very different too. Here’s a list I’ve brewed up:
Creatures: (12)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Baleful Strix
Non-Creature Spells: (29)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Dig Through Time
Lands: (19)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
Sideboard: (15)
4 Meddling Mage
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Council’s Judgment
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Dismember
1 Thoughtseize
1 Flusterstorm
Monastery Mentor has been on everyone’s radar after Bonnani crushed with it, and here the interaction of Daze and Mentor is again appearing. But also the interaction of Jace and Daze is here, which is really sweet – we can loot away the lands we bounced back, that were used ideally to protect Mentor or Jace himself. The thing I like about this list, compared to Gerry’s Grixis list, is this list really intends to not play more than three lands, and hence the loot ability of Jace is very valuable. Deathrite Shaman also is really great with Jace, as you can loot away unneeded excess land and then use them anyway thanks to Deathrite eating them up! Of course, Deathrite is a necessity in this kind of list due to Mentor’s prohibitive mana cost anyway. We also again have some sweet flashback targets in the form of Therapy (again) and Plow, though I think Plow is much more lacklustre as a Jace target compared to Bolt, which can at least dome the opponent while creating a token. Sideboard is a bit sketchy and could use some cleaning, and the mana base might want two Wastelands somewhere (could just cut the basics, I guess…) but I feel this list definitely has some potential.
I think there’s again important things to get out of this list, despite its flaws – Jace and Daze are sweet, Jace and Deathrite are sweet, we probably want to play Bolt as our removal of choice, we probably want to be playing Cabal Therapy somewhere, since it again has nice synergies, and the token producers of Mentor or Pyromancer are, unsurprisingly, good when you can take advantage of flashbacking your spells.
Another place that I’ve also seen Jace have a lot of power is the BUG Control lists running around. I’ve used BILLYNOOO’s list from This Month in Legacy but tweaked it just a little. This list looks really dirty. In a good way, of course.
Creatures: (12)
1 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
4 Tarmogoyf
Non-Creature Spells: (28)
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Ponder
1 Toxic Deluge
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
3 Dig Through Time
4 Force of Will
Lands: (20)
1 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
Sideboard: (15)
2 Arcane Laboratory
2 Chill
3 Disfigure
1 Flusterstorm
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Life from the Loam
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
Again, Jace and Daze is sweet, Jace and Deathrite is sweet, Jace and Dig is sweet but we also see Tarmogoyf getting some nice action with Jace, as Jace can pitch card types not in the graveyard yet. We also again see Jace’s power to flashback the typically difficult to flashback Toxic Deluge. I think the best thing about this list is you can shred the opponent’s hand very quickly thanks to Jace flashbacking Hymn to Tourach, giving the deck a very proactive angle of attack against combo and midrange decks alike. Gross.
Also, compared to the Grixis lists, this list again is very keen to be functioning on only three lands or so, as the Wastelands and Dazes indicate, which makes Jace’s ability to work off a low amount of resources great.
Unfortunately though, Jace doesn’t have any spectacular pieces of removal to flashback here and again I really do like him able to flashback Bolts in a similar way to Bolt-Snap-Bolt. Although Decay is a great card, the metagame of Anglers and co. makes it not as impressive as it used to be. If you like tearing apart decks with back to back Hymns supplied by Jace though, this might be a nice place to look towards.
I’ve said that Jace likes Daze, Deathrite Shaman, Cabal Therapy, Young Pyromancer, Bolt, running off a low amount of lands and he likes Dig Through Time. I think it should be evident what deck we’re jamming him in next. As I said, some standard Legacy shells are actually nice and roomy for him already. The tempo decks of Legacy can utilise him very effectively, and out of all of the ones around I think two fit the bill quite nicely.
Firstly, the stock standard list of Grixis Delver can get a slight shakeup by the addition of Vryn’s Prodigy. This is probably the list I feel he has the most potential in, and is where I’ve been testing him most.
Creatures: (15)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Gurmag Angler
Non-Creature Spells: (27)
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Dig Through Time
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Forked Bolt
Lands: (18)
4 Wasteland
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
Sideboard: (15)
1 Fire Covenant
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Pyroblast
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Null Rod
1 Dismember
1 Thoughtseize
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Flusterstorm
Compared to the stock lists I’ve only twisted around a few of the flex slots, really, cutting slots typically reserved for True-Names, Anglers, Spell Pierces and a Probe for Jaces and Therapy. I’ve chosen Therapy because compared to Pierce, we want proactive sorcery-speed disruption for Jace to use and its synergy with Pyromancer is well documented. I actually don’t usually like discard in tempo decks, unless its something like Hymn which can assist in mana denial etc., since they’re tempo negative, but with so many of the Delver decks moving into these strange tempo-midrange hybrids I’ve started to mind them less. And Therapy is nice in that it’s a one-of that often feels like a two-of in a deck like this.
The sideboard is an absolute hodgepodge (heck, I just wanted to play Fire Covenant) and could probably use some tweaking. The side is also light on graveyard hate and Cage is a non-bo with Jace (though Extraction is a nice target for Jace), so I guess finding room for a Nihil Spellbomb could be something. I also usually like a singleton Sulfuric Vortex in the sideboard of these lists, since it’s what you’re really after against Miracles.
Overall though, this list checks most of the boxes for where I want Jace to be. Pretty disappointing ain’t it, that our new sparkly toy just ends up in the boring old most-popular Delver deck? Though, I guess we could use him in another Delver variant too. This was already exhibited at Legacy Champs, so I’ll post that list up here.
Creatures: (14)
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
Non-Creature Spells: (28)
2 Dig Through Time
2 Spell Pierce
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
1 Sylvan Library
Lands: (18)
1 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard: (15)
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Golgari Charm
1 Dismember
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Dread of Night
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Forked Bolt
I like some of the things going on here, and I think this is probably the best Tarmogoyf shell for Jace, next to the BUG Control list. I’d probably look to making the Snapcaster into a fourth Goyf, find room for the fourth Wasteland and maybe add some Thoughtseizes over the Pierces, though I may be going a bit extreme with the “I want to flashback stuff with Jace” now – Spell Pierce is still a damn good Magic card. The sideboard is also probably fine (needs more Fire Covenants!) though again, being aware of the Cage and Jace/Snapcaster nonbo is something to keep in mind. I really like the addition of Kolaghan’s Command in the sideboard here though, and looked towards it as my second Shatter effect of choice in my Grixis sideboard as it seems really sweet vs. Stoneblade and as just a general value play.
Anyway, hope these thoughts were helpful. For all those doubting Jace, just give him a try; when he goes unchecked you’ll realise why I’ve written 2000 words about him! He needs a little bit of support to get him to realise his full potential, but as we’ve seen he’s completely fine in generic, existing shells that give him the required supports regardless. So slot him in, try him out, and I’m quite certain you’ll be impressed.
Til’ next time!
The Death & Toolbox 