Mtgolibrary

Now that have (finally) gotten the background information down, let's analyze Jace and see why WotC should have been more careful with this card:

Card drawing: Check (+2: Draw 3 and place 2 on top of your library)

Free spells: Check (0: Look at the top card of target player's library. You may place it on the bottom of the library)

Vanishing: Check (-1: Return Target Creature to its owner's hand)

Charms: Check. Instead of three (3) abilities other Planewalkers have, Jace has four (4).abilities, giving Jace ever more versatility.

Just from this alone, we know Jace is going to be a strong card. And in WotC's defense, they did know this. The major loyalty-cost ability is 12, starting out at 3, and the soonest it could be activated would be the sixth (6th) turn after Jace was summoned, which is a cost of 2UU, so that gives us turn 10. Many games of Magic are over by turn 10. We know this by playing Magic and WotC has those statistics on MTGO. (Side note, wouldn't it be interesting to see some of those statistics?)

WotC has stated in its defense that there are over 10,000 cards which have been printed and they can not check for all interactions.

That's a fair statement however Jace was not banned in Classic, it was banned in Standard. The format that has at most eight (8) expansions in it? Let's also not forget that many cards that are printed are not played in serious formats. How many commons have been banned in Magic? With the exception of the Artifact-lands of Mirrodin, I can't think of any. Simply put, there are not that many available situations to look through and there are quite a few members of WotC who have Pro Tour histories and can spot such things well in advance. I would like to know how this was missed.


WotC has stated that it is their intention to print strong cards. I have no problem with that. Between any two (2) cards, one will be stronger. However, one must take care that this card does not dominate the game or Magic turns into Solitaire. WotC says they play-tested Jace a lot. Apparently not well enough. Did they try setting its initial loyalty to 2, so that it could be lightning bolted? Did they try raising the casting cost to 3UU or 2UUU to see how that affects the game? Did WotC consider a Terror-like card that affects only Planewalkers?

These are questions that we'll probably never know the answer to, and hopefully, WotC has learned from this experience.

This concludes this series on the bannings of Magic. Next time I'll talk about something a little more practical, when to cash out.