Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

Jace is the Pre-MGS 4 Raiden of MTG.

Wait, are we talking about Raiden or Raiden?

I never really got all the Jace hate. I always thought he was pretty cool.

I think the reason people hate Jace because he is too smug in comparison to his coolness factor.

Well, yeah, but that's par for the course for a blue mage. Just look at the flavor text for any counterspell.

Lately, the flavor text for any counterspell is Jace. Being smug.

Some Blue mages manage to be cool enough to outweigh the smugness though. Like Arcanis.

Hey, don't compare Jace to Raiden.

I like Jace.

And I don't hold any actual feeling towards Raiden

Well, at least I like the portrait Doug Beyer did of him. He's more awkward than smug, most of the time. He's smug on counterspells' flavor texts, but that's because counterspells are just a prompt to get all smug on your opponent's face.

The thing I don't like about him is that he's portrayed as the main character for MTG just because and that reflects on his ingame appearances (first Planeswalker with 4 abilities and with 0-cost abilities, first broken beyond stupid Planeswalker, etc). He's also got a lot of screentime since his cards are mostly well spread over sets, I think there wasn't any Jace-less Standard season since he was first introduced, and all four of his cards are overall good (Memory Adept is expensive, but its abilities are still good, unlike Chandra Ablaze, for example). So, I don't hate Jace, but I'm kinda tired of seeing him everywhere.

edited 17th Apr '14 6:38:01 PM by 2Zak

Chandra Ablaze is bad, yeah, but Memory Adept is worse. His only use is in mill and, quite frankly, for five mana I could play something a lot better.

And for Chandra's six mana you could play six different versions of Shock in a turn and take a moment to dance in joy in your seat. In the worst case, Memory Adept is at most a six-turn clock^* Unless you're playing EDH or against a Battle of Wits deck (or a free draw engine), where Chandra does absolutely nothing by herself.

My favorite Counterspell flavor text has to be Last Word, though Spell Pierce is a close second.

Not true. If you have a bad hand (or no hand) she can get you a new one AND wreck your opponent's hand (and potentially Dragonstorm the shit out of someone).

And by putting Jace as a 6 turn clock, you're assuming that your opponent has no creatures or removal of any sort.

Like I said, Chandra Ablaze is bad, but Memory Adept is just awkward. Mind Sculptor is better in every way, Architect of Thought is better as a defensive/stally walker and Baby Jace is better at drawing cards. At 5 mana, there is literally no reason to be playing Memory Adept. There are far better 5 mana walkers.

edited 17th Apr '14 7:21:09 PM by Funden

I don't really like Jace as a character since he isn't much of one. He has very little backstory compared to the other Lorwyn walkers:

Liliana has her whole demon thing.
Ajani has his history on Naya.
Garruk has his history with Liliana.
Chandra also has a somewhat weak backstory, but IMO has a generally better characterization.

Jace is just kind of a smug and powerful telepath.

I don't dislike him. Visually, he's very pretty in almost all incarnations. But as a character he's just kind of boring.

edited 17th Apr '14 9:49:15 PM by ImperialSunlight

The whole set is spoiled.

I have to agree. His characterization also bothered me in Agents of Artifice mostly because he gets his friend Khallist killed and basically doesn't even give a damn. Tezzeret puts it best: "Jace Beleren trades in friendship as I trade in money."

IMO, Tezzeret is the most interesting walker in the game (though I do like Garruk's new story line, a lot).

Edit: Dat Aegis. A cheaper Leyline of Sanctity/Witchbane Orb? Aww ye.

Granted, it IS a creature, but still.

Edit 2: Interesting. According to this◊, part of JOU takes place after Xenagos dies(?).

edited 17th Apr '14 10:02:12 PM by Funden

I like that they made a card out of hubris.

Something I noticed: by my count, there are exactly three satyrs in the entire set. One of them is dead, one's explicitly fighting against Xenagos, and the third seems to just be doing her own thing. And there are plenty of other cards that show satyrs getting their asses kicked.

Also, is Thoughtrender Lamia the first Lamia in the history of Magic? I didn't see any others on Gatherer.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&subtype=+[%22Satyr%22]&set=|[%22Theros%22]|[%22Born%20of%20the%20Gods%22] There's more than 3.

Unless you meant named characters. If so, I have no idea.

Edit: Dammit, I hate linking gatherer searches here.

edited 17th Apr '14 10:29:12 PM by Funden

I meant JOU specifically. A quick search through the full spoiler, and I only see Satyr Hoplite, Returned Reveler, and Satyr Grovedancer. Other than that, there's Revel of the Fallen God, but that's it.

Ah, yeah. I'm not too surprised, as satyrs weren't really played up as a tribal thing this block (unlike minotaurs).

Also, does anyone else find it really funny that the centaur lord gives your centaurs vigilance when most of them have inspired?

Only one Gorgon card? I'm really disappointed with this set.

Desecration Plague is a heck of a name for a bad Bramblecrush.

I like that new Simic flyer! The set looks very powerful to me, too bad the drafting season for it is so short.

The cockatrice is odd; the Winged Coatl aspects encourage you to sacrifice it to kill an attacker but monstrosity makes you want to keep it around.

No Deux Ex Machina reference?

I am dissapoint.

But at least we'll always have Doug's tags.

Journey into Nyx for Cockatrice.