{"ops":[{"insert":"Jace goes brrrrrrrrr"},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Jace, Multiverse Architect"},{"insert":" is a five-mana WUBR planeswalker who turns a creature or planeswalker you already control into a blind flip off the top of the library. This deck tries to do that more than once a turn: exile a token or other cheap body with his −3, blink him so he comes back with 4 loyalty as a new object, and −3 again. The hits are a short list of large creatures and planeswalkers. When the blink is not there, he is a draw-two, bottom-one engine with a tax that makes attacking your Jaces cost {2}.\n\nHow the deck actually works"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The core loop"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nJace enters with 4 loyalty.\n\nHis passive, at the beginning of combat on each opponent’s turn, lets that player pay {2}. If they do not, creatures they control cannot attack Jaces you control this turn. One payment per opponent per combat, and it covers every Jace you control, including "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"The Theorist, Jace Beleren"},{"insert":" and a Jace planeswalker token.\n\n+1: draw two cards, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.\n\n−3: exile another target planeswalker or creature you control. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature or planeswalker card. Put that card onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.\n"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"How a blink resets Jace"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nTwo cards blink a permanent immediately :\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Aminatou, the Fateshifter"},{"insert":" enters with 3 loyalty. Her −1 exiles another target permanent you own, then returns it under your control. She can blink Jace the turn she enters. She cannot blink herself."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Displacer Kitten"},{"insert":": whenever you cast a noncreature spell, exile up to one target nonland permanent you control, then return that card under its owner’s control. Jace is a legal target. The blink is tied to a cast, so the chain costs a noncreature spell, not just the Kitten sitting on the board."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nHow you get more than one −3 in a turn"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nMinus, then Aminatou. Jace at 4 activates −3 and goes to 1. Aminatou’s −1 blinks him. The new Jace is at 4 and activates −3. That is two flips, and it needs two legal targets. The card you just put onto the battlefield is a legal second target if you are willing to exile it. A second token is better."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Minus, then Kitten. After the first −3, cast a noncreature spell. Kitten’s trigger blinks Jace. The new Jace activates −3. Each additional noncreature spell can blink him again and buy another −3, as long as a legal target remains."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Flip into "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God"},{"insert":". He enters with 4 loyalty and has all loyalty abilities of all other planeswalkers on the battlefield. If Jace is still on the battlefield, Bolas has Jace’s −3 and can activate it once immediately. “Another” on that ability means another permanent than Bolas, so he can exile Jace, a token, or the next body. If Jace has left the battlefield before Bolas activates, Bolas does not have Jace’s −3."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nWhat the −3 is fishing for"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nEighteen cards in the 99 are hits: 13 creatures and 5 planeswalkers. Everything else revealed is skipped and put on the bottom in a random order. The −3 does not shuffle. It puts the hit onto the battlefield; it does not cast it. Cast-only text does nothing. Enter-the-battlefield text does.\nThreats and locks: "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite"},{"insert":" (+2/+2 for you, −2/−2 for your opponents), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Toxrill, the Corrosive"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Valgavoth, Terror Eater"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Darksteel Angel"},{"insert":" (indestructible, and you can’t lose / opponents can’t win), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Serra’s Emissary"},{"insert":" (protection from the chosen card type for you and your creatures).\nEngines: Displacer Kitten (future noncreature spells blink again), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Razaketh, the Foulblooded"},{"insert":" (pay 2 life, sacrifice a creature, tutor), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Astral Dragon"},{"insert":" (two 3/3 flying Dragon copies of a noncreature permanent), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Hullbreaker Horror"},{"insert":" and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Tidespout Tyrant"},{"insert":" (later spells bounce something).\nCard advantage: "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Archon of Cruelty"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur"},{"insert":" (draw seven at your end step; the flash does not matter if he was not cast), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Niv-Mizzet, Parun"},{"insert":" (draws and pings; “can’t be countered” does not matter if he was not cast).\nPlaneswalker hits: Aminatou, Jace Theorist, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Ugin, the Spirit Dragon"},{"insert":". Theorist is also a Jace, so the combat tax covers him. Dragon-God is the one that can continue the chain. Ugin enters with 7 and can −X immediately.\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Loyal Tutor"},{"insert":" puts a planeswalker on top, so the next −3 hits that walker and bottoms nothing. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Brainstorm"},{"insert":" and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Brainsurge"},{"insert":", and Aminatou’s +1, are how you choose what is on top before a blind flip.\n\nMana and the board you want first"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nJace costs 5, then 7, then 9 from the command zone. The ramp is fast mana and fixing, not a land engine: "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Sol Ring"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Arcane Signet"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Mind Stone"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Fellwar Stone"},{"insert":", six on-color Talismans (Conviction, Creativity, Dominance, Hierarchy, Indulgence, Progress), "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Rite of Flame"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Strike It Rich"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Smothering Tithe"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Gleaming Splendor"},{"insert":", and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Legion’s Landing"},{"insert":", which is a body first and a white source after it transforms.\nBefore you minus, the board wants three things: five mana of the right colors, one legal target, and preferably a blink piece or a stacked top. A naked Jace with an empty board can only +1.\n\nIf he is removed, taxed, or you cannot blink"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThe deck still cheats, just once per spell. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Polymorph"},{"insert":" destroys a creature you control and flips a creature (not a planeswalker), then shuffles the rest. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Transmogrify"},{"insert":" exiles a creature and does the same. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Reanimate"},{"insert":" returns a creature card from a graveyard, so it lines up with Polymorph’s destroy and with deaths and discards. It does not see cards exiled by Jace or by a blink.\nYou can also cast the hits. Tithe, Treasures from Gleaming Splendor and Strike It Rich, and the rock pile are what make a hard-cast Jin-Gitaxias or Ugin possible. Theorist’s draw-step trigger and Jace’s +1 are the grind if the flip is offline. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Wishclaw Talisman"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Beseech the Mirror"},{"insert":", Razaketh, and Loyal Tutor find the missing piece. Beseech, if bargained, can cast a tutored card of mana value 4 or less for free: Kitten, Aminatou, and Theorist all qualify. A token is a legal bargain sacrifice.\n\nA goldfish, and a normal game"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nGoldfish. Turn 1: land, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Bitterblossom"},{"insert":". Turn 2: land, a Talisman, the Faerie is already there. Turn 3: land, Jace, −3 the Faerie, reveal until a creature or planeswalker and put it in. Without a blink piece this is one flip. With Kitten already in play, a noncreature spell after the minus buys a second flip. That is the fast version, and it assumes the rocks and a one-mana token enchantment in the first two turns.\nNormal game. Turns 1–3 are lands, rocks, and one token enchantment, holding "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Swan Song"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Arcane Denial"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"An Offer You Can’t Refuse"},{"insert":", or "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Redirect Lightning"},{"insert":" if the table is pointing removal at you. Jace comes down once a target exists. If the blink is not in hand, +1 is correct more often than a single desperate minus into a wipe. The chain turn is the turn Aminatou or Kitten is live and you have two bodies, or one body plus willingness to exile whatever the first flip found. After that, Hullbreaker Horror or Tidespout Tyrant makes every following spell a bounce, and Darksteel Angel asks the table to answer an indestructible “you don’t lose.”\n\nIdeal opening hand"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nKeep: Island, Command Tower, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Bitterblossom, Brainstorm, Displacer Kitten.\nIsland and Command Tower cast the rocks and, with Signet, the black for Bitterblossom. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are the turn-1 mana. Bitterblossom is the body Jace will exile. Brainstorm stacks a hit or finds the land you are missing. Kitten is the reason a later noncreature spell becomes a second −3. This hand does not cast Jace on turn 2; it casts him on turn 3 with a Faerie already in play.\nRamp-heavy keep: Scalding Tarn, Hallowed Fountain, Sol Ring, Talisman of Dominance, Fellwar Stone, Smothering Tithe, Swords to Plowshares. You will have mana. You do not have a body yet, so the first Jace turn is a +1 unless someone has handed you a creature. Acceptable, because Tithe and the rocks are how this deck functions when behind.\nFodder-heavy keep: Plains, Swamp, Legion’s Landing, Skrelv’s Hive, Dreadhorde Invasion, Mind Stone, Secure the Wastes. Three ways to have a legal target, plus a rock and an instant that makes X Warriors. Slower, and life loss from Hive, Invasion, and similar effects adds up, but this is a real Jace hand.\nTrap keep: Plains, Island, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Hullbreaker Horror, Toxrill, the Corrosive, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. It looks like the deck’s best cards. None of them cast Jace, none of them are a target for the −3, and the cheapest of them costs 7. This hand mulligans.\nMulligan order: lands and WUBR colors first, then a ramp piece, then a token or other cheap body, then a blink piece, then a payoff. A payoff in hand is a card you would rather have on top of the library.\n\nKey cards"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nCommander"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Jace, Multiverse Architect is the only source of “exile a body, flip a creature or planeswalker, bottom the rest at random.” The passive is real defense in a format where people attack planeswalkers by default, and it gets better if Theorist or an Empower token is also out. The +1 is the fair mode. The −3 is the deck.\n\nBlink and reset"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Aminatou blinks any permanent you own, including Jace, at instant speed, the turn she enters. Her +1 puts a card on top, which is how you rig the next flip. Her −6 is not the plan.\nDisplacer Kitten blinks a nonland permanent you control whenever you cast a noncreature spell. One Kitten plus a hand of instants and sorceries is the longest chain in the deck. She is also a fine −3 hit: putting her onto the battlefield does not cast her, so she does not blink anything on the way in, but every noncreature spell after that does.\nNicol Bolas, Dragon-God is not a blink effect. He is a second copy of Jace’s −3 for one activation, if Jace is on the battlefield when Bolas uses it.\n\nTokens and fodder"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Bitterblossom, Legion’s Landing, "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Skrelv’s Hive"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Dreadhorde Invasion"},{"insert":", and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Stormchaser’s Talent"},{"insert":" each make a body without a spell on later turns. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Shark Typhoon"},{"insert":" makes a Shark when you cast a noncreature spell or cycle it, which lines up with Kitten. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Secure the Wastes"},{"insert":" and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Grand Crescendo"},{"insert":" make X bodies at instant speed; Crescendo also makes your board indestructible until end of turn. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Occult Epiphany"},{"insert":" turns a discard into Spirit tokens, one per card type discarded. Black Market Connections can hire a 3/2 changeling. Theorist’s +1 makes a 1/1 Illusion. Fatehold Charm’s Empower mode makes a Jace planeswalker token, which is both a legal −3 target and another Jace for the combat tax. Empower does not add loyalty to the commander; it only feeds a Jace token.\nTreasures from Smothering Tithe, Gleaming Splendor, Strike It Rich, and Black Market Connections are mana, not targets.\n\nRamp"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Fellwar Stone, and the six Talismans are the turn-1 and turn-2 plan. Rite of Flame and Strike It Rich are the red burst. Smothering Tithe and Gleaming Splendor punish opponents for drawing. Legion’s Landing is the ramp card that is also the first body, and Adanto, the First Fort makes another Vampire later.\n\nPayoffs"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Grouped above. The ones that change the game the turn they enter are Archon of Cruelty, Elesh Norn, Toxrill, Jin-Gitaxias, Astral Dragon, and Ugin. The ones that change every spell afterward are Kitten, Hullbreaker Horror, and Tidespout Tyrant. Darksteel Angel is the hard lock. Razaketh turns leftover bodies into tutors.\n\nProtection and interaction"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Grand Crescendo, Darksteel Angel, and Serra’s Emissary are the “answer this” cards. Redirect Lightning changes the target of a spell or ability with a single target; the extra cost is 5 life or {2}. It can move a removal spell off Jace, or move your own −3 onto a different legal body while the ability is on the stack. Fatehold Charm can bounce a spell or a creature, or pump, or Empower. Swan Song, Arcane Denial, and An Offer You Can’t Refuse are the counters. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Swords to Plowshares"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Path to Exile"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Get Lost"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Anguished Unmaking"},{"insert":", "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Dismember"},{"insert":", and "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Toxic Deluge"},{"insert":" are the removal. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Sink into Stupor"},{"insert":" bounces an opponent’s spell or nonland permanent; Soporific Springs is the land face. "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Otawara, Soaring City"},{"insert":" channels a bounce.\nPolymorph and Transmogrify are backup flips, not interaction, even though the list files them with removal. Ugin’s −X is the mass exile once he is in play.\n\nSelection"},{"attributes":{"header":3},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Brainstorm and Brainsurge put cards back on top in the order you want. Aminatou’s +1 does it one card at a time. Loyal Tutor puts the walker you want on top and makes the next −3 deterministic. Jace’s own +1 bottoms a card from hand, which is filtering, not stacking the top. Wishclaw Talisman and Beseech the Mirror find the blink piece or the fodder spell. Razaketh finds anything, at 2 life and a creature.\n\nStrengths"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nThe flip is on a commander, so removal does not delete the engine, it taxes it. A resolved −3 does not cast the hit, so “this spell can’t be countered” on the way in is irrelevant, and an enter-the-battlefield effect happens for free. The hit list is short but high: Archon, Jin-Gitaxias, Toxrill, Hullbreaker Horror, Tidespout Tyrant, Ugin, Dragon-God. Kitten and Aminatou turn one flip into two or more on the same turn, which is the actual unfair thing the list can do. The passive taxes attacks against every Jace you control, and Theorist plus an Empower token give that tax more to protect. Tithe, six Talismans, and Sol Ring are enough mana that a turn-3 or turn-4 Jace is a normal draw, not a spike.\n\nWeaknesses"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nCommander removal is the clean answer. The first recast is 7, the second is 9, and the deck does not reduce commander tax. If the −3’s target is removed in response, the ability does not resolve, you do not reveal, and the 3 loyalty is already spent. Blink does not save you from that if you have already activated and they kill the body.\nGraveyard hate does not stop the blink or the −3. Both are exile. Reanimate is the card that loses to graveyard hate. Tokens exiled as the cost do not come back, which is fine for the −3 and fatal if you were trying to blink one with Kitten.\nNo legal target, no minus. A board wipe after a successful flip takes the thing you cheated and often the fodder for the next one. Stack interaction on the blink or on the −3 is live: counters do not stop a loyalty ability, but removing the target does, and a Stifle-style effect from an opponent stops it outright. This list has no way to give the ability hexproof.\nEighteen hits in 99 cards is a real whiff rate. If Kitten and Aminatou are already on the battlefield, the library is thinner still. Non-hits go to the bottom at random, so a whiff also buries the next draw. Four colors with no green means a hand of the wrong Talisman and the wrong fetch is a turn behind; the fetches in the main deck cannot find a Forest, and there is no Forest to find. Bitterblossom, Skrelv’s Hive, Dreadhorde Invasion, Razaketh, Beseech’s bargain life, and Redirect Lightning’s 5 life all spend the same resource.\nIchormoon Gauntlet will not save a turn where you needed a second activation. Ephemerate, Fire Covenant, Transpose, and Misty Rainforest are sideboard. Misty Rainforest would only find an Island in this deck.\n\nHow to play it"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nOn a developed turn, the order is: legal target, then mana to blink or to cast the noncreature spell that triggers Kitten, then the minus, then the blink, then the second minus. Do not blink first if you only have one blink. A Jace who has not activated yet, blinked, is still a Jace who can activate only once. Minus, blink, minus is the sequence that uses both objects.\n+1 instead of −3 when you have no target, when the top is unknown and you have no token to waste, when he is at 1 loyalty, or when the table has open mana and a single flip would eat a removal spell on the body before the ability resolves. +1 is also correct if you need to bottom a miss and dig for Kitten or Aminatou.\nExile a token first. Then a Treasure-making enchantment’s body, not the enchantment. Then a planeswalker you are done with, Theorist’s Illusion, or the Empower token. Exile the hit you just flipped only if the second flip is worth more than that permanent. Do not exile Kitten to a −3 if she is the reason you get the next blink.\nInto open mana, activate the −3 only if losing the target is acceptable, or if you can blink Jace himself in response to removal aimed at him. Hold Grand Crescendo to make the board indestructible and to add bodies. Hold Redirect Lightning for a single-target spell on Jace or on the body you need. A Kitten trigger from a cheap cantrip is both a blink and a way to spend mana on your own turn so you are not tapped out after the chain.\n\n\nIf you remember nothing else"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nHave a creature or planeswalker you can afford to exile before you −3. Jace goes from 4 to 1, and that object is done activating for the turn. Aminatou’s −1, or Displacer Kitten plus a noncreature spell, brings him back at 4 so you can −3 again. Minus first, then blink. Eighteen cards in the deck are hits. Stack one on top if you can. Tokens are the cost, not the thing you blink. Ichormoon Gauntlet grows loyalty. It does not grant a second activation.\n"}]}