Pattern Recognition #22 - I Hate Jace
Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
23 March 2017
4904 views
23 March 2017
4904 views
I HATE JACE BELEREN
I despise that caricature of a planeswalker and everything about him!
Hello, I'm berryjon, and I am so riled up at my subject matter that I even skipped my traditional greeting just so you could all understand how much I loathe him. And as an Old Fogey, I'm going to take this article to explain just why. And I'm really going to be leaning on the 'Opinion' filter for this article, so I make no claims to objective facts here.
If you do like him, you have one of two options. Skip this article, or read on and develop counterarguments.
So, let's start at the beginning.
Lorwyn. While it is quite famous in magic history for taking the idea of 'Tribal' and dialing it up to about 14 or 15 on the scale of 1-10, it also introduced a new card type. One that was previewed obliquely in the previous set - Future Sight. This was the Planeswalker card type. And to kick it off, they started with a carefully rationed selection. They were prepared for the whole experiment to fail, and so they didn't want to over-commit. Besides, the block was already chalk full of stuff, and five cards wouldn't be amiss.
So they printed at Rare (as this was before the days of Mythic), Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Garruk Wildspeaker and Chandra Nalaar. They were the first, and as we all know, they were not the last.
Now, let's get down to the ugly part. I'm going to do an abridged version of what I did with Chandra Nalaar here, so please bear with me.
There are currently 7 versions of Jace in the game, though as this is written before Amonkhet spoilers start dropping, I expect that number to go up by 1 in the coming weeks.
The costs for them range from for Jace Beleren through for Jace, Memory Adept and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. Though his 9 year history, Jace has been a reliable across all iterations, a sign from Wizards that they view playing Jace as an indication that you are committed to Blue as a colour in your deck, and not just splashing for him.
Jace has had a total of 25 abilities, 8 positive, 2 0, and 15 negative. Of these, the majority are a combination of "You/target player(s) draw (a) card(s)" and "target player mills for a certain amount". After that, Jace starts to lose focus with a smattering of anti-combat abilities, scry effects, bounce and deck/hand manipulation.
PROBLEM #1: On the average, excluding his stupid mill effects (seriously, 20 cards?!?) and Jace, the Bah-roken, Jace is a mediocre Planeswalker. Yes, there is utility in what he does, but in the end he's not going to win games for you, unlike, say, Ajani Vengeant or Kiora, the Crashing Wave. He's just ... there. Which is a problem which ties into my next point.
Jace has existed as a character, rather than a card since the story Agents of Artifice, which tells of his membership in the criminal organization of Planeswalkers led by someone you've probably never heard of named Tezzeret the Seeker. Things happen, people die, and he meets Liliana Vess for the first time. He then did the generic hero thing, attacked Chandra Nalaar, and began to track down some information to Zendikar.
Once there, he mentally dominated people to do his bidding, got into a fight with Sarkhan Vol, and then skipped town when the Eldrazi started showing up.
He returned, eventually, to Ravnica where his criminal organization had collapsed without his guidance. After connecting to a former associate, he was drawn into a web of intrigue being crafted by Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind regarding the Implicit Maze, a fail-safe for the Guildpact that was created to act as a means to reset the magical document should it become broken. Jace entered the race as an independent/Guildless participant and came in dead last. However, because of this, he was able to see that the whole purpose of the Maze had failed, and no one had actually figured out that the whole point was to unify the Guilds, not to dominate them. So he mentally slapped some sense into the other ten racers and was pronounced the winner by the authority of the Maze, turning him from Jace, Architect of Thought into Jace, the Living Guildpact.
Jace then returned to Zendikar to deal with Garruk, Apex Predator, using the same containment device that was keeping Ob Nixilis, the Fallen trapped.
After bouncing back to Ravnica, dealings with Ral Zarek revealed that Gideon, Champion of Justice was working with the Boros Legion between trips back to Zendikar to help against the Eldrazi there. The two of them, after interrupting Liliana's latest effort to seduce Jace for her own purposes (and beginning the running joke of Liliana addressing Gideon by his abs), went back to Zendikar to try and re-contain the Eldrazi. Using information gained from Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Jace and Gideon, with the help of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, built an Aligned Hedron Network to entrap Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Except Ob Nixilis showed up, beat them all up, hijacked the network to become Ob Nixilis Reignited. Then, Chandra, Flamecaller showed up, saved the three of them, and together they contained and sorta-killed Ulamog and Kozilek, the Great Distortion, bringing about the Fall of the Titans.
As a result of their cooperation, the four Planeswalkers formed the Gatewatch, an independent organization of Planeswalkers who would be on call for each other to deal with extra-planar problems.
After that, they headed to the plane of Innistrad to recruit Sorin, Grim Nemesis to the Gatewatch to help against the biggest threat they knew of - Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. However, they failed to find him, and split up to search. Jace attempted to recruit Liliana, who had a home on Innistrad, but was rebuffed. In the process, he discovered Tamiyo's Journal, abandoned by Tamiyo, Field Researcher in Sorin's home. Catching up with her, Jace and Tamiyo witnessed Nahiri, the Harbinger complete her rituals to summon Emrakul, the Promised End to Innistrad as retribution for Sorin's failings - both real and perceived. Jace grabbed the Gatewatch, and they tried to repeat what they did on Zendikar. But this time it didn't work as Nahiri had already taken control of the necessary resources for her summoning and the endless swarms of Emrakul's corrupted spawn. Liliana, the Last Hope then arrived to save their collective butts with her own zombie army, freeing up Jace, Nissa and Tamiyo to bind the last known Eldrazi Titan, making it Imprisoned in the Moon.
Jace next helped organize the revolt on Kaladesh, supporting Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Pia Nalaar against the machinations of Tezzeret the Schemer, and his master, Nicol Bolas.
And that's where we're at right now.
PROBLEM #2: Jace shows many of the characteristics of a Mary Sue.
While I am willing to give Test of Metal and Agents of Artifice a pass as they are Jace-centric stories, I cannot do the same for the Return to Ravnica and Shadows over Innistrad stories.
For Return to Ravnica, I felt that both Ral Zarek and Lavinia of the Tenth made for more compelling protagonists. Both were natives of Ravnica, and members in high standing with their relevant guilds. Ral is also a Planeswalker, making him relevant to the whole meta-plot of Magic. If the story had been focused on Ral and Lavinia running the Maze, and realizing that working together was better for them both than running against each other, leading to them reaching out to the other Mazerunners in a ten-player version of the Prisoner's Dilemma, that could have been a compelling story.
Instead, we get Jace, who does nothing for 95% of the story (because Niv-Mizzet was just making sure he had all the facts before announcing them), then shows up at the end and mind controls everyone to stop the fighting and wins. Not though diplomacy and understanding, but because he uses brute (mental) force to get his way. And is rewarded for it!
And in Shadows over Innistrad, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets' entire contribution to the plot can be summarized as "Jace picked up Tamiyo's book, and returned it to her." Yet, somehow, he takes control of the story, leading around Tamiyo - who was doing all the actual work -, makes a mental connection with Emrakul, and in general, becomes the hero. Again.
Jace, if given half a chance, warps the story around him, when there are better options available. Ral Zarek, Saheeli Rai, Tamiyo, and who knows how Amonkhet will handle him. And he's rewarded for it! Becoming the Living Guildpact, in theory being the central nexus and arbiter for an entire plane is shown to be a job that he can take weeks off of to go to other places with no repercussions!
Fuck Jace.
And it gets worse.
PROBLEM #3: Jace is the poster child for Wizards of the Coast.
Wikipedia to the definition rescue!
What? Don't believe me? Well, I have three points in my favour here.
The first is that as of Magic 2015, Wizards updated their cards again to keep up with the technology and the times. And I approve of that! I don't want to thing of what the game would be like if we still had to deal with the old card frames and quality of pictures. But as part of this process, Wizards created a proprietary font for their cards. This makes sense as it is another tool to avoid plagiarism and copyright protection. I approve!
They named the font Beleren.
That's right. Every last card now is implicitly associated with Jace. Wizards decided to use his name (which is a made up word) as a means of asserting their control over their intellectual property. And that offends me, as it portrays Jace as far more important and integral to Wizards than he really is.
Second: Jace Beleren has been described, by no less than Mark Rosewater himself, as 'how Wizards sees the typical Magic Player seeing themselves'.
Yeah. And I walk around with a hoodie up, being a condescending ass who doesn't have to live with the consequences of their actions because I can simply wish them away, or run away from them.
I take that back. I love my hoodie. It's a wonderful piece of light weather gear for Canada. I even got one with an oversized hood to go over my helmet when I ride my bicycle!
So no. Jace is escapist fantasy for a minority of players. There are four other colours you know! And I'm pretty sure that half the player base, give or a take a few percent, are female, which is another obstacle to "Jace as a Player". Not a "Playah". A "Player". Get your mind out of the gutter. There's not enough room for both of us down here! ;)
And that last problem is something that isn't Jace specific, but rather a whole problem with his colour
PROBLEM #3.5: Jace is Blue, and exclusively so.
Blue is the colour that is most associate with the traditional view of the 'Wizard'. From Apprentice Wizard to Arcanis the Omnipotent to the incredibly smug Zuran Enchanter. And because of this, Jace's position as the emblematic Blue Planeswalker means that other Blue Planeswalkers need to pick up another colour, or get left behind.
Which meant that Tezzeret the Seeker, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Venser, the Sojourner and Teferi, Temporal Archmage all get bumped around one way or another. Saheeli Rai gets to justify her +1 dealing damage, while her other abilities are all .
This is the same reason why Rosewater admitted that Ob Nixilis should have been in the Battle for Zendikar. Why Sorin Markov picked up , and why Ajani Goldmane added and to his colour identity and you get the idea, right?
Jace's existence (and Wizard's policy on mono-coloured Planeswalkers) displaces other characters that could share the same space, and be different representations of what it means to be Blue. Of course, it doesn't help any that any time he might get character development, he just wipes out his own memories again, resetting himself back to something 'safe'. He did it in his backstory in Magic Origins, he did it in Agents of Artifice/Test of Metal, and I'm pretty sure he did it again by accident during Return to Ravnica. Wizards is actively keeping him from developing, unlike, say, everyone else.
Lastly - and because I'm simply running out of steam here - Jace is a pale imitation of a much older and far more interesting character with a far better character arc. And I'm not just saying this because he was involved in the Invasion block. No, Ertai, Wizard Adept was a conniving, arrogant mage who was powerful enough that he could put his money where his mouth was, and fell to Phyrexia anyways for a tragic, but not entirely Karmic end. And Jace is in the same mould of 'Human Wizard who thinks they can do anything, and will ignore all protestations otherwise'.
At least Ertai was tolerable, even entertaining as a character. Jace is bland at best, and offensively right in the worst. See how his decision to attack Amonkhet in response to Tezzeret's escape from Kaladesh will probably turn out to be the right decision. For all the wrong reasons.
That's it. I'm done. I hate Jace. He's a singularity around which Wizards is cheerfully throwing their entire story, all facts to the contrary. Or better yet, making it so that when Mark Rosewater said that Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip was meant to be the most powerful 'Walker in Magic Origins, he meant it.
Join me next week when I talk about something that was actually productive and improved the game! And you'll wonder how we survived without it. I know I still do.
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TheRedGoat Kiora could be Mono, for example. She has almost nothing of green in her abilities at all. Tamiyo could be Mono too. Actually, her behavior is much more blueish than Bantish. Her seek for knowledge, trying to don't interfere, without caring if innocents suffer... that's totally blue. Doesn't feel like Bant. That's a starting point. They could introduce another character too...
I don't hate Jace, but I think it would be nice if you had some other walker around.
March 23, 2017 1:19 p.m.
kortioznikas says... #3
Maybe Bolas will corrupt Jace (somehow) and he will be U/B?
March 23, 2017 1:40 p.m.
pizzagod13 says... #4
I have to disagree with the statement about Ajani. Him gaining red and green make a lot of sense with the story. He gains red because he was on a path of vengeance against Bolas, which is a very red thing. He gained green because one part of green is less justifiable until you look at it with white, which is all about caring for the weak and stopping those that would crush them. He exhibits this on Theros by fighting to destroy the gods and on Kaladesh by fighting the government. He is also from Naya so there is that to. I can however agree that I never really liked Jace or any of the gatewatch for that matter.
March 23, 2017 1:56 p.m.
pizzagod13 says... #5
I misstyped in my comment what I meant to say was that GW is essentially about helping And protecting the little guy, while white is more about protecting even if you have to be oppressed for that to happen.
March 23, 2017 1:58 p.m.
In essence, this is exactly what was supposed to happen. You hate Jace like everyone hates magic players who play blue decks. It's the perfect analogy. You hate that Jace basically gets rewarded all the time for doing nothing, and that's pretty much a blue player's shtick. I'm going to untap, draw, pass, and wait for you to do something just so I can control whatever it is you wanted to get done and warp the game around me and what I want. It's maddeningly perfect.
March 23, 2017 2:45 p.m.
Haha, I enjoy this article. Jace is an entitled little douche who IMO has always needed to get his keister realigned at least once. I think Gideon needs to pull Jaces' "I'm trying really hard to look brooding & mysterious" hoodie over his head & give him a good ol' fashioned hockey beating.
Also, psychic prodigy crap isn't so much of a "classic wizard" thing to me. Depending on your definition of "wizard" I just go by my old DnD definition, and think of someone who has studied their butts off & gathered so much knowledge that they become a master of magic...A classic knowledge based blue planeswalker, really they should just name him: Merlin
Haha, Jace is a "Mary Sue"... I just keep picturing the entire MTG storyline being a prepubescent daydream created by an all-powerful Jace... Sortof like that Futurama episode where Melllvar (with 3 L's!) forces the cast of Star Trek to live out his fantasy.
GW Ajani is good, Green is also about 'Growth' those Ajani are hardcore about growth, teaching, nurturing; so that suddenly the 'little guy' is a 'little guy' no more. Protect until someone can stand on their own 2 legs.
March 23, 2017 3:02 p.m.
TheRedGoat says... #8
@Dhominus I was actually thinking more on the lines of "what could a mono blue walker do if it wasn't Jace" kinda of thing.
As in how the first iteration of Tamiyo, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, was built around lunar magic that was more telekinetic than telepathic. Restricting movement and action, but not their thoughts.
Tezzeret the Seeker to me also fell into a new archetype for mono blue which was less about being a master wizard as a master of engineering and machines. Manipulating metal and forming it into whatever shape the user needs similar to how a green or red mage might do with natural earth.
What I'm proposing as a discussion then is what other categories could a new walker fill that is mono blue? Simic colors take blue's need to explore ideas and marries it to green's need to constantly grow and expand, so Kiora is fine being U/G.
Saheeli maybe could be a mono blue walker, but being red helps partly to distinguish her from Tezzeret, and also to support her own aggressive nature that would be uncommon for mono blue magic user (she does like to duel with giant robots if you'll remember).
Honestly this is all getting off track, but my point is that I figure wizards is afraid of emptying whatever may be left of their well of ideas in regards to blue magic. Shapeshifter magic for instance is an area that no planeswalker to my knowledge has utilized, thus you could make an arguement for a new mono blue walker that can shapeshift into any creature as an ability, or alter another creature instead. Like having a Changeling walker basically.
So, anyone else know how we could replace Jace? Or else maybe help flesh out this would-be replacement? I'd especially like to here what berryjon thinks of this.
March 23, 2017 3:47 p.m.
ClockworkSwordfish says... #9
Man, this is so refreshing to read. I've been fed up with Jace being the American Apparel-clad little snot for years and years now, despite the fact that Wizards wants him to be the face of Magic. If you ask me, all he is is the Jace of Magic.
The Mary Sue-ishness of the character really gets frustrating after a while. Urza, Ertai and Barrin are all great examples of enormously powerful wizard characters who were believable, realistically flawed and - dare I say? - relatable. You can't identify someone who just controls everyone else's minds and always makes the right choice.
Thanks for helping with a voice for the unpopular minority. Magic has never, never been known for having a good story, but we can't just let Wizards run roughshod over whatever's left.
March 23, 2017 4:30 p.m.
Well, I don't think they would need to get rid of Jace completely just to fill another blue planeswalker niche, but if there were some redeeming characteristics, per say: maybe he immediately pays for his rashness leading to a hiatus for the next arc (WoTC can lay off their Jace-centric boners that way for a bit). Then bring him back as Jace 'The Slightly Wiser' then he could be more like a learned blue wizard.
It's not like N. Bolas doesn't have a history of mind-crushing rash, young blue mages ;)
Also, this could give much-needed character focus to some of the more neglected factions
There are still plenty of bluish things for a walker to do... Ajani can +1 and search library until you pocket a creature; could they not do something similar for sorcery or instants (probably sorcery)?
March 23, 2017 4:42 p.m.
A great read once again! Even when you go on a rant you teach us newer players stuff :)
I must say that my problem with Jace and the rest of the Gatewatch is not that the story revolves around them and they're their own kind of "deus ex machina"... my problem with them all is that someone decided that being the main character in the story isn't enough... they need to be printed as actual cards. Every. Single. Time.
This has for consequence that I'm getting tired of seeing planeswalker cards because of an overload.
Maybe they should reintroduce plainswalkers and give planeswalkers a time off
I'll show myself out
March 23, 2017 5:20 p.m.
TheRedGoat says... #12
@Gleeock Jace does in a manner of speaking fill the role of "spell slinger" mage, at least depending on what version of him you're looking at. Though I would love to see one that is maybe actually focused on spell use rather than basic information gathering that most versions of Jace do.
That ability you mentioned actually seems a little redundant for an instant/sorcery deck to bother with, as most of those decks already run several powerful draw spells/draw engines. Even still, what would you think to balance it with? Would that walker use that for a plus ability and if so what about the minus or ult?
March 23, 2017 5:34 p.m.
I was thinking, Jace can read the minds of others and even force them to do stuff... maybe they should give him a plus ability that lets you look at the opponents hand (you read his mind), a minus ability that let's you draw / scry (you analyse the information and form a plan) or make the opponent discard a card (you make him forget information) and the ultimate would be mindslavering the opponent.
March 23, 2017 5:47 p.m.
I don't know I was kind of hoping that when he opened his mind to Emrakul she would take him over and his face would fuse with her butt, or one of her many butts. Then we could have an ass-faced Jacerakul eldrazi-horror planeswalker. That would teach the upstart to constantly open up psychic links with everything... He shouldn't be able to with Bolas, that path leads to madness.
March 23, 2017 5:56 p.m.
TheRedGoat: If you want to consider the conceit that Planeswalkers are supposed to be the distilled essence of an archetype of that particular color or colours, then there are a few potential ways that could go.
First, we have the 'classic' "Wizard in his tower". This would be the 'walker who would focus on deck manipulation - Srcy, Fateseal, Draw and Tutoring. Possibly even extra turns! Second, we have the Artificer. Blue has long been a supporter of artifacts, so having Tezzeret the Seeker represent this isn't a bad thing.
Third, we have the Board State Manipulator. This is the 'control' version of , which would include things like boucing permanents, changing card types (say, Phantasmal Terrain as a -2) and otherwise not stopping the opponent from acting, but simply making it take more effort to act. This version could also invoke giving out extra turns - or even phases, such as with Paradox Haze.
The fourth is the combat mage. This one will make creatures unblockable, throw out -X/-0 effects, or even generate Illusion creatures that pop when you so much as glance at them funny. Or even go old school, and remind people that Leviathan, Polar Kraken and Jokulmorder exist.
And that's just four major archetypes.
March 23, 2017 7:28 p.m.
elpokitolama says... #17
Admit it, you're just jealous of him being able to get to Liliana's heart. :p
March 23, 2017 7:34 p.m.
Havok.Bane says... #18
What if Jace actually hasn't done any of what we've read, and instead did what Gilderoy Lockheart did and just wipe the minds of the people who actually did it and stole their work! Just a theory...
March 23, 2017 8:24 p.m.
MAGESTIC_LLAMA says... #19
Also my problem with Jace is that he literally does nothing for the story. He's only there to be there. He doesn't add anything that couldn't be done in a more creative way.
March 23, 2017 11:11 p.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #20
My favorite walker is Chandra. I hate blue in general, I play every other color. I do have a couple dual colors with blue, but they are more thematically like the other color. My problem with Jace is very much in line with your complaints. Blue appears to be Wizard's favorite color as it gets a lot of really powerful cards, some banned, and is the most popular splash/additional color it seems. Blue is annoying in its mono strategies as well, mill and merfolk are just two examples. I usually beat mill decks but I hate every minute playing against them.
March 24, 2017 4:04 a.m.
Ow yea! Thank you!!!I agree with you so much, it should be a new word.
His narratives are so forced, badly crafted and with no room for growth or any actual humanity that he resembles Ken (you know of Barbie) more than anything else.
Wait...wasn't Wizards porperty of Mattel?? Hmmm, I see a conspiracy...
March 24, 2017 5:02 a.m.
Winterblast says... #22
I would say the most annoying thing about Jace is that he has so many cards dedicated to this one character (while in the past we didn't even get to see certain characters on any cards, or be printed as a legendary creature, although they were important for the story) and except for 2 or 3, they are all pretty much useless in most formats.
We didn't get to see Urza on a card and we had to wait until time spiral to see Mishra as a legend, I don't know if there is even ANY artwork including Yawgmoth and they were all powerful and important characters. Wizards don't want to throw out a card that actually is as powerful in the game as the character is in the story...back then they just didn't give them a card at all, today they give us a shitload of mediocre Jace planeswalkers every year.
I don't follow the story as much as I did during Mirrodin or Kamigawa, when I actually read the related books, but even then I had the feeling that Wizards had a general problem with representing characters of the story on cards in a way that actually resembled their importance and strength as described in the books. If they can't (or don't want to) make another Jace like the mind sculptor, they should at least make him less important and powerful in the story now.
March 24, 2017 6:58 a.m.
Forestxavier20 says... #23
I agree! Jace is a card that makes no sense, just due to him having abilities that are not going to win the game. His backstory is lazy at best, where he can just reset himself. Chandra for example has a backstory that makes her character amazing. Liliana has her brother, which made us sympathize with her. Gideon was like Aladdin, a young boy surviving on what he could. Hell, Gurruk has a better arc, especially when Liliana cursed him!
March 24, 2017 8:37 a.m.
Meh, Jace is Jace. I mean, if your gonna hate something, he is a fair target. But I still think all hate in the universe would be better spent if it targeted Shaco..
Anywho, your views are shared by many, and I just don't get it. I could see how you would think the story warps around Jace, but I would argue that it only does so if you want it to. I have been reading the story line avidly since Shadows over Innistrad, and loosely followed it since the second Mirrodin block. While Jace seems like a key point in quite a few blocks, he also takes the back seat. Kaladash for example was all about Chandra building a friendship with Nissa, Gideon accepting a fatherly role on the team, and Pia being reunited, and Nissa developing as a person! Jace was sorta just there because he was part of the gatewatch. Worth pointing out, you mention he can leave ravnica for prolong periods of time - the story clearly states Ral Zerak is NOT happy with his comings and goings. It looks to be building a disdain for Jace on Ravnica, something that could erupt later on in the story should WotC wish.I do agree that he doesn't develop much as a character, which sucks from a story perspective, but its exactly why I can argue that he is NOT the focal point of most stories. (Although character development is my favorite part of stories and probably why I don't see him as big as I should).
As far as people identifying with Jace, I don't think they mean pompous male Mary Sue hero wannabes. I think they mean hes a wizard planeswalker. Not a warrior, not a sage, and not an elemental crafter... A wizard. Most players in their early years think its a blast to "cast spells" and "battle other wizards" as they play magic. As we get more into the game, some of us (like me) lose that sense of wonder and view it solely as a strategy game. But the point still stands for those first getting into the game. Which leads me to my next point.
Every franchise needs a poster child. Magic had a few routes to take. They could have made it a Hero or a Villain. I wouldn't be surprised if in an alternate dimension Nicol Bolas is the poster child. They went with hero though, and that presents multiple problems. 1) The hero must be perceived as powerful - otherwise why is it a poster child. 2) The hero can't change too much - otherwise it will no longer be the same icon and your branding is lost. 3) You need to make the hero omnipresent - Imagine coming into Magic and everyone talking about how Jace is the poster child. Only to never see a Jace card for 2 years. It simply wouldn't work. Personally, I believe Ajani would be a better poster child, but I am biased towards my favorite planeswalker. But if he were, I am sure he would get an equal amount of hate that Jace gets now.
Your arguments are all valid, but they are a necessity of branding and name development. So while I don't particularly like Jace's character, I will happily flip my Vryn's Prodigy and flashback my Collected Company because the game is fun, and the card is good.
March 24, 2017 11:07 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #25
Couldn't have said it better. I believe Jace has run his course, and should be, for lack of a better term, 'knocked off'. I think something bad should happen to him which converts him to U/B at least, makes a ruckus, gets stomped, then we move on with a new character that maybe had something to do with his downfall, but have someone else at the helm of the gatewatch if it doesn't dissolve in the process. It would be hard to come up with something unique, that hasn't been done before, but I'm sure if they put some time and effort into it the can figure something out.
March 24, 2017 1:06 p.m.
Forestxavier20 says... #26
Jace could always get retired to keep his day job of, oh I don't know, KEEPING THE GUILDS FROM MURDERING EACH OTHER?! We could use a new face. Nissa replaced Gurruk, Gideon replaced Ajani, so who's to say someone is not going to replace Jace
March 24, 2017 1:43 p.m.
I hate the freaking Avengers, sorry, I mean the gatewatch, hell, last block they've got their own helicarrier, and all those "good" endings they deus ex machina into existence. It's time to get them all get killed.
What happened to the "shit happens" stories? where people got killed left and right, entire nations fell, planes got destroyed, evil won...
March 24, 2017 9:49 p.m.
Haha, those were great... & I loved those enigmatic characters of the time, I've always been slightly irked, yet also happy that Yawgmoth has not been artistically revealed. To a certain extent I think a "poster child" doesn't have to be represented as a card every 3 days; Urza could have easily been a WoTC poster child just by being frequently quoted, named, just ubiquitous & constant across multiple story lines. You don't even need a super- clearly depicted illustration for said "poster child". I think it would be so cool if they had a widespread character like that & the only glimpse you ever saw of the character was maybe their wicked-cool silhouette weaving an awesome spell in the moonlight on some random counterspell type card. Take Urza: You didn't constantly see his face stamped on everything, but there were so many on card references, quotes, etc... That he just sortof became sublimated. This same "let the customer's imagination do the work" concept would have been really neat with Emrakul as well (as she is supposed to be near indescribable). An Emrakul-shaped shadow looming over a bunch of humans holding their bloody eye sockets would have been a better representation for her card IMO...
I can maybe (from a MarySue fanboy perspective) identify with a badass-looking vaguely defined wizard slinging spells in the night... But instead, I'm force-fed some garbage dorkus-malorkus blue representation shoehorned into every set.
Who am I kidding though, I'm more of a physical meat & potatoes, straight forward aggression type of guy. My buddies can identify with the constant tactics & trickery while I am busy crushing my enemies, seeing them driven before me, & adding in possible humiliation of their women. Wedgies for all blue mages! ;)
March 24, 2017 10:53 p.m.
On a less ranty note I propose that Squee, Goblin Nabob becomes an all-supreme candidate for WoTC poster-child
March 24, 2017 11:04 p.m.
Camel-Senpai says... #32
I felt like this article was going to come a few weeks ago when you were talking about the cycle in the lore.
March 25, 2017 7:25 a.m.
CrimsonWings3689 says... #33
100% Agreed. Jace has been the poster boy for far too long, you hit every nail on the head, and it's honestly time for another blue planeswalker to shine. Unfortunately, Wizards is treating the gatewatch like the Avengers or Justice League of pre-modern comics where the characters don't die, they just get roughed up and always come out on top. I honestly hope they kill his character off, because an undeveloping bump on a log isn't good story writing, it's lazy at best. I honestly feel like he appeals to players for his abilities on the cards versus the character itself. Some like playing control, and he always fits very much in that archetype - though it could literally be a freakin fungus/homunculus/ouphe/something equally ridiculous planeswalker with the same abilities and everyone who likes playing contol would be on it like white on rice.
TL;DR Jace sucks/is boring as all hell, anyone/anything could have his same abilities and it would be just as played as he is, we need someone new for the mono-blue role.
March 25, 2017 10:44 a.m.
Forestxavier20 says... #34
Kill Jace off and you have to make a THIRD trip to Ravnica since the Guild-Pact needs to be redone
March 25, 2017 2:06 p.m.
Well, nearly three days later, and not one person has come out openly in favor of Jace. I'm ... kinda disappointed. I was hoping someone could provide an alternative viewpoint for me to properly debate.
Next article may be bumped back a week. I've got 8 days straight of work I'm in the middle of, and my time to write has suffered for it.
March 26, 2017 10:44 a.m.
Well, sometimes a demographic can be misread. I think a perfect allegory for Jace is: 'Poochie' the dog, if anyone watches the Simpsons they realize how perfect that comparison is.
March 26, 2017 11:45 a.m.
Agreed!! I hate that wizards thinks all of us are this douche bag
March 26, 2017 12:57 p.m.
Gleeock: Yes but Poochie had a home planet to go back to. Jace has Ravnica. We can't escape him yet.
March 26, 2017 1:52 p.m.
Oh yeah that's right! Well, I guess I'll have to stomach telling that whippersnapper to get off my lawn forever :(
March 26, 2017 3:59 p.m.
Can we keep Jace long enough for him to be an excuse to go to Vrynn please. Maybe he can die or loose his spark while he's there.
March 27, 2017 5:47 a.m.
I confess: I'm a mage (ok, I may have some and/or in me), but I hate Jace. The only thing I like about him is the sweet book promo he got (Jace Beleren). As a matter of fact, I really hate the attention planeswalkers are getting these days. I prefer the old days when the focus was on legendary creatures instead (Weatherlight Crew, Kamahl, Glissa, etc.).
To make matters worse, the Gatewatch exists. As much as I want to read the stories, I have to contend with this shift, which is constantly annoying. Personally, I'd return to Ravnica and go to Vryn first, then we kill him, and then we restore Teferi and make him the poster-child (his head's off, but there's no way to confirm his death).
March 27, 2017 9:36 a.m. Edited.
You're confusing Teferi and Urza there. Urza was the one who wound up with his head off while Teferi, last we saw him, was living on Dominaria, looking to help rebuild after losing his spark to seal one of the rifts.
March 27, 2017 12:37 p.m.
March 27, 2017 12:55 p.m. Edited.
Teferi survived his encounter with Bolas. That fight was in Time Spiral, and he made it through to the end of the block.
March 27, 2017 1:09 p.m.
I never said he died. I know he survived, but there's no evidence to prove any case that Teferi died after the events in Time Spiral. It's possible he could return is what I'm saying.
March 27, 2017 1:13 p.m.
@berryjon you said no one defended him - I did in my post above. I gave reasons why WotC did what they did and how different people view him. I claimed your arguments are valid, because this is a subjective, not objective, topic. Often times not clarifying could lead to an argument instead of a discussion, and I didn't want you to think I was being argumentative.
I am not in favor of moving off of Jace yet. And my comments above are why.
March 27, 2017 5:19 p.m.
@berryjon I defended him...not in a nice way...but still defended why he is the way he is and why WOTC made him the way he is.
March 27, 2017 10:46 p.m.
TheGreatBooster says... #49
@Gleeock: Squee has ALWAYS been the poster-child of Magic... To me, anyway. I mean, who doesn't want to see that little punk show up as a 'walker at some point? For all we know he's still out there, regenerating-curse still intact.
But yes, this article is ideal. Speaking as an old-school Vorthos (been playing the game since Mercadian Masques) I've never cared for Jace from the get-go. He's just not that interesting, unlike the rest of the gang. I thought Kaladesh did a fair job giving everybody BUT him something to do and room to grow as characters, and I like that. Some of the best stories were the ones centered on the natives (the Yahenni stories by Allison Luhrs are especially good). Jace is just... Well, you summed it up. He's just there.
What really pushed me from disliking him to outright LOATHING him, though, was how he was shoved down our throats in Return to Ravnica's story. Ravnica is my favorite plane, amd I absolutely adored Cory J. Herndon's original Ravnica trilogy of books. They had this great depth with the emphasis on a kind of fantasy crime drama, and actually gave the setting even more rich detail. I was excited when it was revealed we'd be returning, and I was stoked to see what had become of characters like Agrus Kos, Feather, Teysa, Pivlic, etc.
INSTEAD we get everything thrown to the wayside in favor of a story centered on Jace. All the old storylines were either half-heartedly explained, pushed to the sidelines or outright ignored: what happened to the Ghost Quarter, Kos and Szadek? Where exactly did Niv-Mizzet go when he left, and what did he learn there that revealed the Implicit Maze? What happened to Feather after she got ousted by Aurelia as Boros guildmaster? Does Jarad ever interact with his son?
"Who cares!" says Wizards. "You get Jace! Enjoy!"
I am still frustrated by that decision to this day, and even moreso how it all ended with Jace becoming essential to Ravnica as the Living Guildpact in the most contrived way possible. It really felt like they were shoehorning him and trying to hide everything else behind him, and that was a slap in the face to someone who had cared about Ravnica's continuity as much as I have.
Does anyone else feel like that, or is that just me?
So yeah, since then I've just wanted him to go away. I'm not crazy in general about how the focus is more on the planewalkers now, but at least it feels like some of them are becoming relatable. Not Jace, though. Jace can fall in a hole.
March 29, 2017 1:33 a.m.
We need more articles that belittle magic players' card preferences. It's healthy for the game. Far healthier than a popular planeswalker that helps bring new players to the game.
March 29, 2017 9:54 a.m.
I don't think the article was belittling the players' card preferences so much as loathing the cards & character themselves. It was more comments like MINE! that were doing that :)
Also, again, I think WoTC has misinterpreted some of their demographic ANYWAY & there is this forced representation... But one would need some pretty solid #'s to proove that a majority of the population ACTUALLY want Jace to go the way of Poochie, or preferably, something more awful!
March 29, 2017 12:13 p.m.
I don't think the article was belittling the players' card preferences so much as loathing the cards & character themselves. It was more comments like MINE! that were doing that :)
Also, again, I think WoTC has misinterpreted some of their demographic ANYWAY & there is this forced representation... But one would need some pretty solid #'s to proove that a majority of the population ACTUALLY want Jace to go the way of Poochie, or preferably, something more awful!
March 29, 2017 12:13 p.m.
This is a announcement that there will be no Pattern Recognition tomorrow, 30 Mar 2017. Real life has taken me by the unmentionables, and won't let go. Hopefully things turn out better next week.
March 29, 2017 7:28 p.m.
berryjon I'm certain we'll find a way to survive a week (and even more) without one of your amazing articles. No idea what issues you ran into / are running into, but what matters most is that you take your time to deal with it.
We'll be waiting with enthousiasm for when you return.
March 29, 2017 7:36 p.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #55
The problem, as I see it at least, is planeswalkers in general. I will be the first to admit that they were a change, innovation, and a neat idea. Adding another card type was cool, and even without "tribal", which technically is a card type, they added some neat flavor to Llorwyn.
That said, planeswalkers should have run their course and stopped. While it's neat to follow the stories of the planewalkers, as many others have said before - its possible to have a story with other characters in magic, and not include the planeswalker in question. Heck, I'd kinda like to see a story that takes place from bolas' point of view, or better yet, an unknown planeswalker that could be revealed at a later point.
And that's just story wise. Mechanic wise they are clunky, annoying, and create long-lasting game effects that don't help. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot trample over a planeswalker to the player controlling them (something that would make sense, thematically). The plus and minus abilities are either lack-luster or game breaking. making them creature with an "choose one:" triggered upkeep ability would be fare easier. And the removal wouldn't need to exist - when they first came out, there was 1 card in standard that could specifically remove a planewalker - Oblivion Ring. Thats it. And before you go on and say burn spells a-la-Blaze, remember that the player is still the target - the spells have to re-direct the damage to the planewalker, so anyone with Witchbane Orb or Ivory Mask just sits there and laughs at your attempts.
Now, I will give wizards props for adding more removal in the sets that followed, but it was too little too late - people had simply accepted the broken-arse concept of what was, thematically speaking, summoning your buddies to make this match a 2v1 as opposed to a duel. Because people accepted them, and because they make wizards money, planewalkers are here to stay. And I, for one, find that to be the greatest problem of them all.
May 29, 2017 6:27 p.m.
Hey, necro-post incoming!
I think you hit the nail on the head with this article.
I feel like Jace would have been better utilized as a background character, and I liked the direction he was going in story wise up until around after Worldwake. Similarly, I think the two best-designed Jaces are the first two.
Jace Beleren
plays like a more interesting
Howling Mine
, and
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
is the quintessential type-1 Blue Mage you’ve described, and his abilities all allow for varying synergies among different playstyles while still feeling coherent. Other than those two (and I suppose
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Flip, to an extent), Jace Cards are just boring blue.
At least they’ll probably back off on him now that War of the Spark is over.
TheRedGoat says... #1
Okay, so my first thought here would be speculating on what kind of mono blue walker could you make right now that isn't a redone version of some walker already existing.
For example you've already got "classic wizard" kinda taken up by Jace if not Tamiyo, and then Tezzeret does fill the role of the master artificer, but what else is left then that can explicitly be a blue archetype and not U/X?
March 23, 2017 12:45 p.m.