By now, it’s no secret that The Theorist, Jace Beleren is the hottest new card from Reality Fracture. Largely by virtue of its passive ability, the card is making huge waves not just in Commander, but in Standard and even older formats, too. While the majority of decks running the card aren’t too fussed about the ultimate ability on this new Jace, Dimir Uldaros players in Standard have found a way to pull it off early that could change that.
How To Ultimate Jace Early in Dimir Uldaros
To pull off The Theorist, Jace Beleren‘s ultimate on turn four in Standard, you first need to do a little setup. To start with, you need to get Jace himself, Uldaros Theorix, and Vraska’s Final Mercy into your graveyard by turn three at the latest. This can be tricky to pull off, but it’s doable if you simply cast Mercy on turn two, then follow up with Seasoned Cryomancer on turn three and discard the other two. You can also cast Overlord of the Balemurk
Overlord of the BalemurkImpending 5—{1}{B} (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with five time counters and isn't a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.)
Whenever this permanent enters or attacks, mill four cards, then you may return a non-Avatar creature card or a planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand. via Impending on turn two instead, and hope to mill the pieces you need.
Once you’re set up, cast Superior Spider-Man on turn four, and have it enter as Uldaros. Since it was technically cast, you can exile both Jace and Mercy from your ‘yard and copy both, arranging the stack so that Jace enters as a token first. Next, resolve Mercy and choose to Empower Jace 6, pushing your token copy of The Theorist up to nine total loyalty. This will let you use Jace’s ultimate immediately, drawing three cards and putting at least three +1/+1 counters on Uldaros for a chunky Flying threat.
Pulling this off on turn four puts you in an extremely dominant position, with a three-loyalty Jace and a strong board to protect it. Realistically, however, this interaction is more likely to take place later in the game, as you need a fair bit of luck with your opening hand to get the setup sorted early. Fortunately, all the pieces are great cards in Dimir Uldaros anyway, so just playing them out and getting them into your bin naturally over time is a valid approach. This is the kind of ‘combo’ you can just run incidentally, and not rely on to close out games, in other words.
With this new discovery, Dimir Uldaros decks now has a shiny new line they can deploy to improve their position in the current metagame. While it’s not totally game-winning, the combination of board presence and card advantage makes it potent in most matchups, particularly those that often devolve into grind-fests like Dimir Midrange. Though this interaction likely isn’t consistent enough to drastically change the deck’s fortunes overnight, it’s undeniably powerful, and one to watch as Standard continues to evolve post-Star Trek.
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