Banned: Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Part 5)

We've been discussing various abilities and why they are either good or too good. Let's step back a moment and see how they apply to Planeswalkers:

Card Drawing: A mostly blue ability which has gotten WotC to take the step of banning cards because some of these cards have been be easily abused. While there is nothing inherently wrong with card drawing or even having a color which specializes in card drawing, it is an ability that needs to be carefully scrutinized.

Free Spells: This is an ability that looks to be abused. Having effects which do not cost mana nor a card, even a minor spell, can be the advantage one needs between evenly matched decks. If you have ever played in a game where there were two (2) or more Planeswalkers on one side of the Battlefield, you know how strong this can be, even minor effects. These spells cost no mana nor cost a card and will occur, even against permission Blue.

I have a Honden shrine deck which definitely tries to abuse this ability. Even if the shrines did not have a multiplier effect, having a few out can change the tide of battle. Imagine having to deal with discarding a card, opponent gaining two (2) life, getting a 1/1 creature, opponent drawing a card, or having one (1) damage being dealt? Even two (2) of these abilities would be annoying in of themselves. Now add that your opponent is free to do whatever on their turn. That's quite a lot to overcome and why, even with a shrine deck's flaws, I've been able to do fairly well.

Even tier-one decks have problems against discarding multiple cards a turn, an opponent gaining 4 or 6+ life a turn, seeing 2 or 3 creatures appear, your opponent drawing a couple of cards AND knowing a lightning bolt is coming, each and every turn, is a lot to overcome. Not to mention whatever tricks I have remaining in my deck. (Which is also why the shrine deck never made it to that level. I never found a good trick or set of cards to finish off the deck.)

Vanishing or Fading: An overlooked ability that allows for stronger spells to be cast, again for free, but instead of unlimited, Vanishing after a certain number. All Planeswalkers have this built into the card, if one just concentrates on using the minor loyalty-cost ability.

Charms: The versatility that having multiple effects (or abilities) on the same card allows the deck to be more adaptive on the fly. This is good from a game standpoint as well, allowing for decisions to be made in-game instead of turning Magic into simultaneous Solitaire where each deck tries to go off first and little interaction is experienced by the players.

Most, if not all, of these effects are found on Planewalkers cards. This makes them strong in of themselves. Has WotC made a Planeswalker that really did not affect a game it came in on? Again, nothing wrong with strong cards. There always will be strong cards. Just that when you are designing cards that you know the class of which will be strong, you need to really scrutinize them.

We'll continue this next time.