Over the past few months, the Modern metagame had gotten a bit stale for my taste. While the banning of
Violent Outburst
Violent Outburst
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
certainly caused
Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls
Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample.
decks to fall out of favor, other well-established tier one strategies simply grew more popular to fill the void. Golgari Yawgmoth combo was already a force to be reckoned with in Modern but became even more prevalent with one of its poorer matchups severely weakened.
Meanwhile, other archetypes such as Amulet Titan and Domain Zoo still remained near the top of the food chain. The format felt a bit stagnant as a result. With Outlaws of Thunder Junction looming, I personally held out hope that the new set would encourage innovation and spark a shake-up.
As it turns out, Outlaws of Thunder Junction has more than delivered. Multiple mediocre strategies have been given new life. Prowess has emerged as one of the frontrunners in the format thanks to the printing of Slickshot Show-Off. Slickshot Show-Off has given a much-needed boost to aggressive shells which have faltered in Modern for quite some time. The release of
Simulacrum Synthesizer
Simulacrum Synthesizer
When this artifact enters, scry 2.
Whenever another artifact you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
also helped revive Modern Affinity with its ability to flood the board with Constructs.
Today, we are going to focus on yet another card that seems to be taking the Modern world by storm:
Jace Reawakened
Jace Reawakened
You can't cast Jace Reawakened during your first, second, or third turns of the game.
+1: Draw a card, then discard a card.
+1: You may exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less from your hand. If you do, it becomes plotted.
−6: Until end of turn, whenever you cast a spell, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy.
. Its synergy with [tooltip]Valki, God of Lies[/tooltips] was definitely hyped up during spoiler season. However, as we will see, the efficient Planeswalker has a few more tricks up its sleeve.
Make Ancestral Vision Great Again
Jace Reawakened has been primarily popping up in Modern in unique Grixis control lists. Grixis control managed to finish in the top 16 of a recent Magic Online Modern Challenge, showcasing the power of the new Planeswalker. Unsurprisingly, a couple copies of Valki do make an appearance in this list. Thanks to Jace’s second +1 ability, you can Plot Valki and ultimately choose to cast the Tibalt backside on a later turn. This is quite similar to how
Bring to Light
Bring to Light
Converge — Search your library for a creature, instant, or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell, exile that card, then shuffle. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
shells in Pioneer can use the five-mana Sorcery to search for Valki but cast the Tibalt side instead.
There’s no doubt that this interaction is quite strong, but it’s far from the only way to abuse Jace. The main “combo” this deck makes use of actually involves Plotting
Ancestral Vision
Ancestral Vision
Suspend 4—{U} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {U} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Target player draws three cards.
with Jace. Rather than Suspending Ancestral Vision and waiting four turns to get your bonus, you are able to Plot it with Jace and draw three cards the following turn.
Believe it or not, Ancestral Vision was once considered too strong for Modern. Back in 2016, Wizards of the Coast took a chance unbanning the potent Suspend card. Plenty of players tried their best to make the card work, but a number of issues became apparent over time. First, having to wait four turns to reap the rewards is a huge cost. Suspending Ancestral Vision proved to be a strong play turn one, but topdecking Ancestral Vision later in the game was disastrous.
As such, some players tried using cards like
As Foretold
As Foretold
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a time counter on this enchantment.
Once each turn, you may pay {0} rather than pay the mana cost for a spell you cast with mana value X or less, where X is the number of time counters on this enchantment.
to get around the need to Suspend it. Unfortunately, these types of cards fell short as they are quite mediocre on their own. Jace does a good job solving these both of these problems. Not only does Jace turn any topdecked Ancestral Vision into an elite draw, but it also is a perfectly serviceable card otherwise.
Whether you are Plotting
Expressive Iteration
Expressive Iteration
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand, put one of them on the bottom of your library, and exile one of them. You may play the exiled card this turn.
to help cast it for free next turn or looting away excess Lands, Jace has some nice applications. Its ultimate ability is quite threatening in a deck full of spells, too. As such, Jace may finally be the missing piece to put Ancestral Vision over the top.
Read More: Tournament-Winning MTG Deck Reveals Busted Thunder Junction Card!
Supporting Cast
The rest of the deck is made up of cheap pieces of disruption and card advantage. Efficiency is key here, since you want to be able to maximize your card draw elements without falling too far behind. As such,
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.
and
Fatal Push
Fatal Push
Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
are premier removal spells for this archetype. They also combine nicely with
Snapcaster Mage
Snapcaster Mage
Flash
When this creature enters, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
and
Expressive Iteration
Expressive Iteration
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand, put one of them on the bottom of your library, and exile one of them. You may play the exiled card this turn.
as cheap follow-ups.
Another card that is crucial to this deck’s success is
Counterspell
Counterspell
Counter target spell.
. Beyond staving off opposing combos, Counterspell works incredibly well in tandem with Jace. On turn four, you can cast Jace with Counterspell backup (if you notice, every mana source in the deck produces blue, so this line is very realistic). From there, you can either push through copies of Tibalt or Ancestral Vision or use Counterspell as a mean to protect Tibalt once in play.
Lastly, Flame of Anor provides the deck with a versatile powerhouse. Snapcaster Mage and
Tishana’s Tidebinder
Tishana’s Tidebinder
Flash
When this creature enters, counter up to one target activated or triggered ability. If an ability of an artifact, creature, or planeswalker is countered this way, that permanent loses all abilities for as long as this creature remains on the battlefield. (Mana abilities can't be targeted.)
notably are Wizards, helping to ensure you get the most out of your three-mana Instant. The only downside to Flame of Anor is its mana cost, but you can always Plot it with Jace and cast it for free!
Read More: Tinybones, the Pickpocket Vs. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: Who’s The Real King Of Thieves?
Strengths and Weaknesses
This iteration of Grixis control does have a lot going for it. With Prowess decks on the rise, the mix of cheap removal and card advantage available lines up really well. Against Scam strategies, this deck’s ability to churn through its library and dig for removal gives you a good shot against an early
Grief
Grief
Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand.
. Just make sure to keep
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters
Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.
at bay!
Where things start to get dicey is when your disruption aligns poorly with your opponent’s gameplan. In matchups like mono-green Tron, this deck puts little pressure on the opponent in the early game. Considering how unimpactful Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push are against Tron, this is a huge problem. Not to mention, all the card advantage in the world won’t save you from the rampage of
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
When you cast this spell, exile two target permanents.
Indestructible
Whenever Ulamog attacks, defending player exiles the top twenty cards of their library.
.
In a similar sense, if you don’t find
Sheoldred’s Edict
Sheoldred’s Edict
Choose one —
• Each opponent sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices a creature token of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices a planeswalker of their choice.
in short order, a resolved Scion of Draco with
Leyline of the Guildpact
Leyline of the Guildpact
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types.
in play can be lights out by itself. The combination of Jace and Ancestral Vision is definitely strong, but Grixis control does ultimately have its limitations. It’ll be interesting to see if other control variants like traditional Azorius begin to incorporate Jace. There’s plenty of room for exploration here, and Jace is the kind of card that’s worth building around.
Read More: Official Outlaws of Thunder Junction Cowboy Bebop Crossover Revealed!