Anthony Minchio is a Public Relations student at Humber College.
Tuesday October, 6 2015
Meet my personal favorite Magic: the Gathering Planeswalker/creature card Jace Vyrn’s Prodigy/ Jace, Telepath Unbound! He at the time of writing (October 3, 2015) cost $80 a card! I personally feel that this is the best card in standard but really that isn’t that hard. Of course when I saw this card I immediately thought of his playability in modern. MTG Lion Jace Thoughts MtG Lion does a great job of explaining the card at its release and talks about his play-ability. Michael Major Jace Article StarCityGames.com wrote a fantastic article about him on StarCitygames.com about a deck that plays Jace and was one of the first Jace. All of this leads me to often get into heated debates with other players as to whether Jace Vyrn’s Prodigy is the best card in modern?
First let’s get one thing straight. I do not think that we have even seen the best from our friendly neighbourhood telepath, but to be honest this ugly thing 
is the king of modern. Howerver I think that Jace has the potential to dethrone him. Her? It? I have no idea what gender Tarmogoyf is, but alas this isn’t a debate on the sexual identity of a giant land monster and quite frankly I don’t want to know, but I do feel bad for that deer.
Anyway let us get started Jace Vryn’s Prodogy is often called the “bad Snapcaster Mage”
, but this is a terrible misconception! Let me explain why this is. First Jace actually can facilitate his own abilities. What this means is because of Jace Vryn’s Prodigy tap loot (draw a card, discard a card) ability he is able to fuel his own planeswalkers -3 ability which is the sorcery speed (being able to play a card only during your main phase) version of Snapcaster Mage. Now one very important side note that has to be made, Snapcaster Mage is better at being an instant (being able to play a spell whenever you want) than Jace Vryn’s Prodigy or Jace Telepath Unbound are but that is also like saying that a mop is better at washing the floor than a broom is. Both can do it, however a mop is far superior to a broom in terms of washing a floor. With that being said Jace has better utility than Snapcaster Mage does simply because it can do more things. Looting with the prodigy. Upon flipping having the ability to give a card flashback. -1/-0 to a target creature allowing you to attack through the creature or even trading up on a block. Though I classify it as almost useless his ultimate ability from the Telepath Unbound being able to mill five off the opponents deck is huge as it often can stop the game and in a format with so very powerful cantrips (draw/ deck manipulation spells) it can render those cards next to useless. Yes Snapcaster Mage is better at flashing in flashbacking lightning bolt blocking and trading with the attacking creature but Jace doesn’t try to do this. He simply tries to win the attrition war and slowly grind out the win. This all makes Jace the best blue card since he dethrones Snapcaster Mage as the rightful king of the non-jund “fun police.” However that is just one colour.
Does the fact that Jace is a better blue card help him at least get the 2nd best place within modern? Well there are these four other cards to compete with (yeah souls might be the best white card in Modern or Monastry Mentor but I mean that has other problems) and Tarmogoyf.
Much like all of these cards (except Lingering Souls) Jace has huge presence on the board. No I am not going to go card-by-card and cross evaluate each card against Jace because we would be here all night and again I don’t feel like comparing mops to guns for which is the better for killing people. These cards all have different things, however Jace Vryn’s Prodigy/ Jace Telepath Unbound brings more utility and redundancy to a game than any of the other top cards in modern. Though all of these cards are capable of just outright winning a game by themselves, Jace makes your opponent answer him or else play straight into Jaces’ game plan and that in my eyes is what makes a great card, similar to Tarmogoyf. Is Jace the BEST card in modern? No but he is defiantly the most useful in my opinion! Now of course I am just one player who has his own ideas of how to play the game of magic and how to evaluate the power level of cards. So now I ask you! Is Jace Vyrn’s Prodigy/ Telepath Unbound the best or most useful card in Modern?
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