I chose this commander due to it’s low casting cost, ability to loot and sort through cards, as well as the flashback ability of the planeswalker side that lets us do degenerate things. It also seems less threatening at first glance than many other popular mono blue generals.
Strengths:
- - Card Draw - You have plenty of options to draw cards and filter through your deck, including your general
- - High overall card quality - All of the cards in the deck are good on their own. There aren’t any useless combo pieces that can only be used within one specific combo
- - General and Deck Synergy - Jace’s looting ability (and flip trigger) work exceptionally well the other cards in the deck; most notably delve and cards that already have flashback that can be pitched to Jace’s looter ability
- - Resilient General - Jace is an extremely hard general to get rid of because his mana cost is low (and he can be brought back multiple times) and he can dodge removal by activating his looting ability and flipping him in response to removal. Once he is in planeswalker form, creature removal becomes a blank and your opponents will need to rely on planeswalker hate to deal with him.
Weaknesses:
- - Board Presence - This deck has little to no board presence and can get quickly overrun by creature based strategies if not kept under control. People with aggro heavy metagames will want to tune the deck appropriately to deal with on board threats
- - Ramp - Being mono-blue, this deck ramps mana mainly through the use of artifact mana rocks. Most of the best mana rocks provide colorless mana so obtaining the large quantities of blue mana this deck uses can pose a challenge
- - Graveyard Hate - Most graveyard based strategies get completely hosed by graveyard hate, and while it does make the game a bit harder for this deck, it really only stops the flashback shenanigans of the deck.
What Makes Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
different from other mono blue commanders? Jace has his own niche as a mono blue commander due to his versatility and unique interactions with the rest of the deck. This deck is freely inspired to deck.
The game plan is to basically protect yourself until you hit a combo, or double High Tide with a flipped Jace, Telepath Unbound on board, cast Enter the Infinite + Laboratory Maniac
, and go nuts
Combo
Deadeye Navigator + Venser, Shaper Savant
= Bounce permanents and Remand spells
No, seriously. Deadeye Navigator is one of the best blue EDH cards printed in recent years and is extremely versatile in use. For only 1U he abuses the creatures with the ETB effect and becomes a value engine like no other. What you should bond this with depends on what you want to do!
High Tide + Palinchron
= Infinite Mana
Cast High Tide so all your Islands tap for then tap 7 for mana and cast Palinchron. Since your islands all produce double mana you can cast Palinchron and return him to your hand infinite times to generate infinite mana.
Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron
= Infinite Mana
Much like High Tide, you generate infinite mana by playing both these creatures and bond them together. Using Deadeye Navigator's Soulbond ability with Palinchron allows you to blink Palinchron in and out of the battlefield infinite times, untapping your lands each time to produce infinite blue mana.
Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth
= Infinite Mana
The infnite mana generated can be usad to mill the opponent's deck via Blue Sun's Zenith or to mill proper deck while we have Laboratory Maniac on the battlefield.
Future Sight + Helm of Awakening + Sensei's Divining Top
= Infinite Card Draw
Speaking of drawing your deck, that’s exactly what this combo is designed to do. Helm of Awakening makes playing Sensei's Divining Top free and Future Sight allows you to play it from the top of your library so you can just activate the card draw ability of Sensei's Divining Top, put it on top of your library, play it for free from the library, and repeat over and over to draw your deck. Either in this case if you have
Laboratory Maniac on the battlefield we can mill our deck to win the game.
Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell
= Win Game
This is the main (and most definitive) win condition in the deck. Tap Temple Bell to force everyone to draw a card, then discard a card to Mind Over Matter and untap Temple Bell, repeating the process to continue forcing opponents to draw until they lose. The only thing you really need to watch out for with this combo is Krosan Grip and the available mana for it from green players. Most spells that could stop the combo (artifact/enchantment destruction, bounce etc.) can just be responded to by discarding an additional card and continuing with the combo. Krosan Grip’s Split Second ability prevents you from responding so watch out for players with that card in their deck and wait until they don’t have enough mana available to cast it before comboing off. Use the Elixir of Immortality to refill your deck.
Beacon of Tomorrows + Isochron Scepter + Mystical Tutor
= infinite turns
EDIT
I add Chrome Mox and removed one land; Nexus of Fate for Beacon of Tomorrows
Any suggestion and feedback is much appreciated!
