The fourth version of Jace Beleren seems tailor-made for multiplayer. You’ll know what I mean when we get to his final ability.
Jace, Architect of Thought costs four mana to cast, two of which must be blue. This relatively low costs means you can start using him early in the game. He enters the battlefield with four loyalty counters and has three abilities.
The first ability adds a loyalty counter, and until your next turn, whenever a creature an opponent controls attacks, it gets -1/-0. This applies to attacks against you or attacks against other players. This is a great way of slowing all your opponents down while building to your third ability.
The second ability costs two loyalty counters and is well worth considering. With this ability you reveal the top three cards of your library. An opponent separates those three cards into two piles. You choose one to put into your hand and one to put on the bottom of your library in any order. A great way of getting through your deck to the cards you need.
The final ability is a big one, as has a cost of eight loyalty counters. This ability take a few turns to build up to, but its worth the wait. For each player, search that player’s library for a nonland card and exile it, then that player shuffled his or her library. You may cast those cards without paying their mana costs. Note that if you cast the spell it will move from exile to its owner’s graveyard.
Remember it is for each player, and you are a player, so you can search your own library too. This ability can have you casting up to five spells for free, or simply removing four problem cards (legendary eldrazi?) from your opponents’ libraries, and casting something from your own.
This ability is fantastic and can cause some serious chaos at the multiplayer table.
Verdict: Strong. Jace, Architect of Thought is a serious power at the multiplayer table.
Connections: Lke Jace, Architect of Thought? You may also like [Jace Beleren] [Karn Liberated] [Tamiyo, the Moon Sage]
Don’t like Jace, Architect of Thought? You may prefer [Ajani Vengeant] [Garruk Relentless] [Vraska the Unseen]
