Card Spotlight
Jace, Multiverse Architect
A five-mana four-color planeswalker that starts on four loyalty and can be your commander. His −3 exiles a creature or planeswalker you control and puts the first creature or planeswalker card off the top of your library onto the battlefield, so a 1/1 token can turn into an eight-drop.
Commander Spotlight
Jace, Multiverse Architect ↗
A five-mana four-color planeswalker that starts on four loyalty and can be your commander. His −3 exiles a creature or planeswalker you control and puts the first creature or planeswalker card off the top of your library onto the battlefield, so a 1/1 token can turn into an eight-drop.
See Jace, Multiverse Architect's full stats and printings →
Strategies it goes well with
- Tokens as polymorph fuel. The −3 does not care what it exiles. Kher Keep, Bitterblossom and Ophiomancer each make a small body every turn, and each one is a future eight-drop.
- A top-heavy creature base. The fewer small creatures in the library, the better the −3 resolves. Every creature you add should be one you would be happy to find for free.
- Planeswalker protection. Each opponent has to pay {2} at the beginning of combat on their turn or their creatures can't attack your Jaces. Combined with blockers from the polymorph hits, that keeps him alive long enough to use the −3 again.
How it does in Commander
As the commander
As the commander, he does his job the turn he lands: starting loyalty is four, so the −3 is live immediately if you have a token to exile. The +1 draws two and bottoms one, which also lets you put an uncastable fatty back. He is not a creature, so creature wipes such as Sunfall and Mass Polymorph leave him on the battlefield, but he deals no commander damage and needs a body on board before his main ability does anything.
In the 99
Outside his own deck he needs a four-color or five-color identity with white, blue, black and red. In that kind of deck he's a solid include if you already make tokens and run a dense top end, and a five-mana card draw engine if you don't.
Formats it's strong in
- Polymorph and big-creature decks. Decks that cheat creatures into play want a repeatable way to do it, and the −3 costs no mana once he is on the battlefield.
- Token decks in his colors. Any deck that already makes a body per turn has a steady supply of permanents to exile.
Formats it's weak in
- Decks with a low curve. If the library is full of two- and three-drops, the −3 trades a token for a small creature and the card loses its point.
- Fast tables. The precon's plan comes online around turn five or six. In pods where games end before that, a five-mana planeswalker that needs setup is too slow.
Synergistic cards
Kher Keep ↗
A land that makes a 0/1 Kobold token for {1}{R}. Free ammunition for the −3 every turn, in a deck slot you were already spending on a land.
Bitterblossom ↗
A 1/1 flying Faerie every upkeep for two mana, which is one −3 target per turn cycle.
Mass Polymorph ↗
The same effect for your whole board: exile all your creatures and put that many creature cards from your library onto the battlefield. Jace survives it because he isn't a creature.
Archon of Cruelty ↗
The best hit in the precon. It makes an opponent sacrifice, discard and lose 3 life the moment it enters, so it pays off even if it is removed right away.
Is it worth the price?
Jace is a mythic printed in the Reality Fracture Commander precon, and the precon is the main way to get him. Early single prices are still settling around the October 2 release. Buy the precon if you want the deck; buy the single only if you plan to build your own list around him.
Frequently asked questions
Can Jace, Multiverse Architect be your commander?
Yes. The card says so in its rules text, which is what a planeswalker needs to lead a Commander deck. He leads the Reality Fracture Commander precon in white, blue, black and red, with no green.
How does Jace's −3 work?
It exiles another creature or planeswalker you control, then reveals cards from the top of your library until it hits a creature or planeswalker card. That card goes onto the battlefield and the rest go to the bottom in a random order. The exiled permanent can be anything you control, so a token is the best thing to point it at.
Why does every creature in the Jace precon cost six or more?
Because the deck's polymorph effects put the first creature they find onto the battlefield. With no small creatures in the library, every creature the −3, Mass Polymorph and Synthetic Destiny can find costs six or more. The cost is that those creatures are hard to cast when you draw them.