Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Planeswalker — Jace

+2: Look at the top card of target player's library. You may put that card on the bottom of that player's library.

0: Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

-1: Return target creature to its owner's hand.

-12: Exile all cards from target player's library, then that player shuffles his or her hand into his or her library.

Discussion (50)

TriusMalarky on Why Are Planeswalkers So Popular?

4 days ago

Pre-WAR, Walkers didn't see too much play. They were always Control cards -- slow, grindy engines that guaranteed a lategame victory. As such, the good ones were mostly blue.

To be good, a Walker typically had to be able to affect the board as well as interact with either your or your opponent's hand. Liliana of the Veil was good because it was hand disruption as well as fairly good board control. Most playable planeswalkers drew cards or had effective removal, or both.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is good because you get 3 options: Get rid of a threatening creature, taxing them on time and mana; temporarily put the top three cards of your deck into your hand(one of them stays forever though), or make sure your opponent can't draw something good. Notice how his ult is entirely irrelevant.

Pre-WAR, you saw walkers only in very specific archetypes. It was good -- they were powerful cards that got really good in specific decks. Post-WAR, we now have a walker for just about every archetype. Even Burn can run the uncommon Tibalt -- even though it's too slow for modern.

The 36 walkers we got in WAR plus the fact that we are getting 5+ walkers(10+ if you count planeswalker decks) each core set means that we are getting a huge amount of new walkers. In fact, Walkers have taken over the game almost as much as Companions did -- Walkers have just been around longer.

DemonDragonJ on Why Are Planeswalkers So Popular?

4 days ago

In this Tumblr post, a user asked Mark Rosewater if it would be possible to have a set that did not contain any planeswalkers, but Rosewater responded that planeswalkers are the most popular card type in this game, so such a set would be unlikely.

Why are planeswalkers so popular? Is it because they are so powerful, requiring only a single payment of mana, and then being capable of being used multiple times? I think that they were an interesting addition to the game, but they frankly have warped the game around themselves, and I feel that WotC is not doing enough to ensure that they are not overpowered. The fact that damage-dealing spells can now target them and the fact that there are a greater number of destruction spells that can affect them are both great, but WotC really should never have allowed planeswalkers such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Oko, Thief of Crowns, or Teferi, Master of Time (all of whom are blue, by coincidence) to be printed without major adjustments (I personally feel that having a mana cost of greater would have made Jace and Teferi balanced and changing Oko's second ability to a negative loyalty ability would have made him perfect).

What does everyone else say about this? Why are planeswalkers so popular?

ju009x on Yarok, who let the lands out?!

1 week ago

Hi Osbert!

Thanks for the tips! I have been thinking about Ghostly Flicker, do you think its better than Spellskite? or would you recommend cutting something else?

I get what your saying about the Faerie Artisans, I will keep it in the maybe board and keep an eye on the amount of ETB triggers my opponents play, if I can play magic again...

I will add Neoform, like you said Birthing Pod is amazing in this deck! As for Eldritch Evolution I think this is to expensive as I've played this in an earlier version of the deck.

Equilibrium is very good indeed, but to be honest to oppressive. I think I'll have to pass up on playing this card, just because of my history with stacks like cards in the past (and the reaction of the playgroup).

I'm thinking of adding Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Grim Tutor, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Oko, Thief of Crowns and Teferi, Master of Time. What do you think of these, and would you add them?

Thanks again for the help!!

SynergyBuild on Parhelion II as Commander?

1 week ago

I stick to the rules, in all honesty, but a lot of that is because I play cEDH mostly.

For any normal game with my casual playgroups (they sorta disbanded/are on hiatus for the quarantine) of course, I let a friend run Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and even use Paradox Engine as a commander (it was eldrazi-storm-artifact-cannon and won ~turn 4 every game) with no care. Whenever it gets too awkward or weird or busted, people stop playing them, and change decks. Parhelion would honestly probably be closer to the Mentor of the Meek EDH deck that was played only a few times, never winning, but being fun to play against.

Sadly that deck never won so it was changed for the new Heliod when it came out, I think they went all Walking Ballista combo, etc.

Sylvarion on Bitter Hollow

1 week ago

I actually ended up removing Jace, the Mind Sculptor from this deck and adding in another Mistbind Clique. For whatever reason (maybe my poor play), Jace just wasn't working as well as I had hoped.

Queen_Lulu on Yorion UW Superfriends

2 weeks ago

I like the idea of a Modern Superfriends deck. I personally would run more planeswalkers but still, this deck look quite good. Effective at slowing the opponent down, controlling the board and employing some of the best walkers around. If I may make a suggestion, perhaps Jace, the Mind Sculptor as another win con. Still, good deck and good use of the companion mechanic.

SynergyBuild on The New Teferi

1 month ago

Btw as a side note it can be pitched to Force of Will in seperate copies like Oko, Thief of Crowns, Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, Dack Fayden, Jace, the Mind Sculptor etc. which makes it particularly powerful for other formats like legacy in cases where you can't cast it, most often due to mana issues, you'd be able to get some value from it.

Also, instant speed doesn't just mean 2x/4x (format dependent) of the activations, it means the difference of any instant-speed draw effect or any sorcery speed draw effect. You activate it after you decide if you need to use something else on an end-step, or in response to a spell that would stop you from using it.

Narset, Parter of Veils may seem like a good counter, and while relying on Narset isn't what I want to do, it also just is bad at it. Activating it on an opponent's turn will work fine, and that just means you only activate it 3/4 times in a 4 player game, or 1/2 times in a 2 player game, with no downside, and you certainly can still +1 even after you draw in a lot of cases, especially when you are either a graveyard or madness deck or are hellbent at any point. Narset and effects like it work minimally against this.

Obviously cards like Needle, Spyglass, counterspells, removal, and anything else can kill it, but like Oko, Thief of Crowns, this protects itself against creatures, and has way too much loyalty/ability to gain loyalty. It's just too good, specifically in EDH, but elsewhere it has value too. Any way to abuse phasing opponents creatures or the massive looting effects, perhaps in any graveyard matters deck, and suddenly this card is going to be overpriced as well as overpowered.

A good walker can handle it's price if it is an EDH only thing, but as soon as it is a legacy or modern or vintage staple people need more than 1 copy, and mythics suddenly become impossible to find.

Get your copies.

SynergyBuild on The New Teferi

1 month ago

Honestly it's more powerful than that.

Assume this is a normal commander game, ever had someone drop a Avenger of Zendikar in a landfall list or a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? Tons of creatures have incredible, immediate value when they hit and need instant-speed removal or else they could get out of hand, or in a plurality of cases, win the game.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria may have a often considered more powerful removal effect, since it can hit more permanents, but unlike this one, which can loot 3 times and phase a creature out each turn cycle all at instant speed, it's really arguable.

Also, is looting 4 times really worse than drawing a card? especially when it is instant speed, so if you need the draw after you tutor to top, or in response to a removal spell on your Laboratory Maniac effect with an empty library?

Point is, I think this is a better walker in edh than Oko, Thief of Crowns, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Dack Fayden, etc. I think is has a stronger on the game than people assume. I think it is a cEDH playable card that will be commonly run in semi-competitive, casual, or mid-tier games.

It's not easy to see why when it hits the field the game changes so drastically. It immediately can plus, so a Lightning Bolt isn't a clean answer, and once it plus on your turn the next player's turn it can remove a creature and survive. That means any game-changing creature card that has immediate impact can be stopped for long enough to be dealt with. Suddenly people will pass, knowing their bomb creature spells, oftentimes their commanders are liable to be phased out. Assuming a player wants to cast a Sram, and then toss an aura on it, if the Sram is phased out in response, the aura goes away, and they only got a card.

If someone casts a Godo, to grab helm, and moves to attach it and then it is phased out, suddenly they need to hope their helm isn't dead by the time they come back, and even if it isn't, the 3 loots from the Teferi will lead the godo player to basically be in the same place, "Do I waste 5 more mana and just hope eventually they don't phase it out?" or until godo or helm is removed.

The same thing goes for tons of other creatures. Now this is a game of not playing things until teferi is gone. However, as a walker in commander, lots of people are packing creature removal, enchantment removal, and artifact removal, assuming their creatures will deal with it, but the walker will be able to dissuade them from playing powerful, teferi-killing creatures. Ever been in combat with a tribal deck, make fair blocks, then remove their lord? Oftentimes, the tribal deck suddenly lost all of their traded creatures without killing on of your creatures.

Now imagine instead of a removal spell, it's a teferi on the field. Instead, since your opponents know about it, they won't even attack, now you get to loot, the next player might have the same thing, showing the threat of removal means that neither player will even attack it.

This gives you absurd board control and card selection, to a game-changing state, for one card, with capabilities outside of that, yes, the ultimate. Taking two turns for most decks means that you win. With a walker in play? It means you have to be unlucky to have a chance to not win.

Have a large amount of card selection right before the two turns, often 7-8 loots? Unless your deck can't win, you should almost always win. Yes, two turns is enough time to win, if it wasn't, maybe the fact that you have a walker that ticks up in those two turns over time, to get you two more later will make that an easy win. The point is this card gives you the tools to control the board, fix your hand, and win the game, in a way that scales hard with the EDH format, to the point that it is outclassing a large number of the engines that were already considered busted in the format.

Seedborn Muse/Thrasios, Triton Hero engines in decks like Medium Green or the variety of Akiri/Thrasios value lists are nearly combos, that in a 1v1 of this gets beaten. The draw may be more powerful than the loot, but fact that it is harder to remove, doesn't give removal, and doesn't immediately win the game at a certain point means that I'd argue this new teferi is better.

That is insane. This card isn't super overpowered since it isn't the easiest thing to get out, but I am putting a copy in basically ever EDH deck with blue I can fit it into.