Flipping Out: Sending the Flip-Walkers to College

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Jun 25, 2015

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Magic Origins is basically the MTG version of Richard Linklater's Boyhood — a coming of age story in the tradition of Rebel Without a Cause, Rushmore, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Ghost World and about a million other films and books. This theme of the often rocky transition from childhood to adult-life is especially present in our planeswalker protagonists who start off as little kids lacking in power and grow into heroes of renown. However, Wizards left out what is traditionally (at least in American culture) one of the most important parts of this narrative: the college years.

So today we are going to send the flip-walkers to university where they will take three tests: the creature test, the flip test, and the payoff test which will help determine their future. Which flip-walkers are destined for greatness and which are doomed to spend their lives cleaning up after Ugin in the Haven of the Spirit Dragon? This is what we are trying to determine today.

Test One: Would you play it as a creature?

Since the flip-walkers will always enter the battlefield as creatures, the most important way to evaluate their power-level is by the creature-half of the card alone. If a deck wants a member of this cycle based wholly on their creature-selves, it is exceedingly likely that the entire card is good and will see play. While it is possible that some decks might be willing to play a subpar creature in hopes of transforming it into its better half, viewing a card through the lens of best-case-scenarios is often risky in competitive Magic. I mean, Hidetsugu's Second Rite is the most efficient burn spell ever printed through this lens, but the number of hoops you have to jump through is so high that the card is basically unplayable.

This is how the test works: If the flip-walker is playable as a creature (meaning you would be happy to have it in your deck if it had normal backside instead of a planeswalker doppelganger), it automatically passes the course — it's a playable. If the flip-walker is only so-so as a creature (or worse yet, bad as a creature), it will need to perform well on future tests to graduate.

I'm going to college. I don't care if it ruins my career. I'd rather be smart than a planeswalker. - Kytheon, channeling Natalie Portman

Kytheon, Hero of Akros passes the creature test with flying colors. While a 2/1 for W isn't what is used to be back in the glory days of Savannah Lions, Soldier of the Pantheon and Mardu Woe-Reaper show us these stats are still playable given the right condition and amount of upside. Turning into a 4/4 indestructible beater seems far more powerful than protection from multicolor or incidental life gain/graveyard hate. While the amount of play that Kytheon, Hero of Akros will see depends on the development of an aggressive white deck, I would be surprised if this sort of deck didn't show up at some point in the next year and a half. I'm sure Craig Wescoe has already built at least twelves of them.

Did you realize that over Magic's 20+ year history there have only been seven 2/1's for W (nine if you include two fliers with major drawbacks: Loyal Pegasus and War Falcon)? Or, even more surprising, that four members of this elite crowd are currently Standard-legal (all the ones I've mentioned plus Dragon Hunter). As such, this is the first time in the history of Magic that white has access to 16 two-power one-drops. While aggro is far from my thing, it seems possible that an all-in white aggro deck could develop over the next couple months, maybe something like this:

Regardless of whether or not this deck is actually good (like I said, building white weenie is not my wheelhouse), Kytheon, Hero of Akros clearly has the best creature side of any of the flip-walkers and as a result he passes our first test with ease. I have little doubt that this card is playable, and while I'm not sure any Savannah Lions can maintain a $20+ price tag, if any of them has a shot it's Kytheon, Hero of Akros. In reality, I expect Kytheon, Hero of Akros to end up in the $10 range.

Kytheon's Grade on Creature Test: A

College is the reward for surviving high school. - Judd Apatow

For some reason I imagine Nissa having a rough time in high school, like her mother probably made her prom dress out of leaves and bark and Nissa wore it because she didn't want to make her mom feel bad and all the other kids laughed at her. Then she gets to college, finds out that loving nature is actually considered to be cool, and things start to change. I have Nissa, Vastwood Seer ranked as the second best flip-walker creature for one very important reason: she is the only member of the cycle to generate some amount of advantage even if she immediately dies to a removal spell. While searching for a Forest isn't the most exciting ability, at least it's something. After all, we are currently in a Standard where Satyr Wayfinder has been (at times) the most important card. While this is mostly because it dumps cards into the graveyard, there is at least some precedent for a inexpensive creature that replaces itself with a land being playable (and as my MTGGoldfish Podcast co-host Chaz loves to point out, apparently Borderland Ranger was played back in the day). While I'm not sure this is enough to give Nissa, Vastwood Seer a passing grade on the creature test, she at least comes close enough that it won't take all A's on the rest of the tests for her to pass the course.

Nissa's Grade on Creature Test: B-

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. - Mark Twain.

Liliana, Heretical Healer falls right in the middle of the class as far as flip-walker creatures are concerned. While it is unlikely any deck is going to play a 2/3 Lifelink for 1BB, it isn't that far below the curve. She does block Soulfire Grand Master, Goblin Rabblemaster tokens and Courser of Kruphix, not to mentioned stonewalling the creature-half of all the other flip-walkers, and lifelink is a fairly powerful keyword. At the same time, as a creature she is strictly worse than Vampire Nighthawk, and it's not like Vampire Nighthawk was a format all-star last time around so I don't see decks clamoring for a version without flying or deathtouch. Liliana, Heretical Healer is an acceptable if unexciting creature, so assuming she does reasonably well on the rest of the tests, Liliana, Heretical Healer could still end the course with a decent grade.

Liliana's Grade on Creature Test: C

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily. - Bluto

If we were talking about limited rather than constructed, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy would surpass Kytheon, Hero of Akros at the top of our list of most playable creature. Unfortunately for everyone's favorite blue planeswalker, looters are simply not constructed playable. While I'm assuming that, legendary status aside, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is slightly better than Merfolk Looter since an extra point of toughness is probably preferable to an extra point of power, this likely isn't enough to make a difference. It wasn't that long about that Merfolk Looter was Standard legal and I don't remember it making any waves or even seeing any play. Looting creature-Jace, while pretty bad, isn't quite bad enough to simply cross it off our list of constructed playable flip-walkers, but he is going to have to do extremely well on the rest of our tests to overcome this poor performance.

Jace's Grade on Creature Test: D

Toga! Toga! - Chandra, channeling Bluto

I picture Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh's home life to be distant, and maybe a little stressful; like her parents tried to push her towards being an artificer like themselves and discouraged Chandra's love of pyromancy. As a result, Chandra sees college as a time to cut loose and be her own person away from the watchful eye of Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is basically a legendary Cinder Pyromancer with a bigger body, although I'm not sure jumping from a 0/1 to a 2/2 matters that much since the whole point of the card is to tap it to deal one damage (ping). Now some pingers are playable; Cunning Sparkmage saw a bit of play back in Zendikar Standard and Izzet Staticaster still comes out of sideboards in Modern, but the one thing all playable pingers have in common is that they can deal damage to creatures.

If Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh could pick off an Elvish Mystic it would be borderline playable (with the untap trigger, it might actually be main-deckable, since you could combine it with a Lightning Strike to kill a Siege Rhino). Only being able to hit players means creature-Chandra is quite bad; I'm having a hard time imagining a situation where I would ever want this in my deck. You know that girl from Psych who only showed up to class three times during the semester (always on test day) because she spent all her time wandering around campus smoking weed and then seemed so surprised when she flunked out of the class half-way through the semester? I'm pretty sure that was Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh.

Chandra's Grade on Creature Test: F

Test Two: How Easy is it to Flip?

Since the creature half of most of these cards are middling at best, our next test is all about determining how easy it is to turn the creatures into planeswalkers. Unlike the creature test where getting a high grade is enough to make you a playable card, the flip test is more of a pop quiz. Doing well on it is certainly helpful, and doing poorly will hurt your final grade, but neither a bad or good grade counts enough to make you pass or fail the class all by itself.

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I was a D-student in high school and on the Dean's List in college. - Liliana, channeling Patti Stanger

On our second test, Liliana, Heretical Healer fairs much better. If you think about Standard, two things are always true: there are creatures, lots and lots of creatures, and there are cards that kill creatures. As a result, getting one of your non-token creatures to die to transform Liliana, Heretical Healer shouldn't be that difficult. Unlike the rest of the cycle, you even get a nice bonus when Liliana, Heretical Healer transforms in the form of a 2/2 Zombie token.

The other reason Liliana, Heretical Healer ranks at the top of the class for the flip test is that you can actually use her Legendary status to your advantage. If you have one copy on the battlefield you can play a second copy, causing one to die to the legend rule and transform the other while also netting a 2/2 Zombie token for your troubles. Drawing a second copy of Chandra, Jace, or Gideon is quite bad, and drawing a second copy of Nissa is not that great; drawing a second Liliana, Heretical Healer can actually be a good thing.

The legendary drawback of this cycle is actually quite interesting. Can you really play four legendary looters or pingers in your deck? It seems unlikely even if you do get a planeswalker as the payoff. Typically people only play three copies of Zurgo Bellstriker, which is basically the same card as Kytheon, Hero of Akros. This is part of the problem with these walkers in general — even if your deck really wants their planeswalker half, is it worth having opening hands with multiple dead two or three-drops? Thankfully Liliana, Heretical Healer avoids this problem all together with her flip trigger.

Liliana's Flip Test Grade: A-

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Education is the key to the future. - Alex Tabarrok

Turning Kytheon, Hero of Akros into Gideon, Battle-Forged is actually quite simple assuming that you are playing something similar to our 16-one drop test deck. If you can play three one-drops on the first two turns (or Kytheon, Hero of Akros into Raise the Alarm), you can attack with the team on turn three and flip Kytheon, Hero of Akros — even through a blocker since you can make him indestructible. Of course you are going to want a decent amount of inexpensive creatures in your deck to be able to hit the transform trigger, and what else likes a lot of cheap creatures? Only one of the best cards printed in Dragons of Tarkir: Collected Company.

I wrote an article a couple days ago analyzing 85,000 games of Standard and came to the conclusion that GW Company is one of the best decks in the current Standard and will likely be a major play after rotation this fall. The core of Den Protector, Deathmist Raptor, and Collected Company is extremely powerful. Since Elvish Mystic is rotating (and apparently not being replaced by another one-drop mana accelerator — and no, the horrible Honored Hierarch doesn't count)), maybe the post-rotation builds will go even more aggro and look something like this:

The moral of the story is, assuming you build your deck in the right way, flipping Kytheon, Hero of Akros shouldn't be very difficult. He also has more ready made landing spots than the other members of the flip-walker cycle.

Kytheon's Flip Test Grade: B+

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You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to. - Sean, Good Will Hunting

Nissa, Vastwood Seer might be the ultimate good times/bad times flip-walker. Assuming you already have six lands in play you can drop [[Nissa, Vastwood Seer], search for a land, play the land and flip her immediately, which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, this plan can still be broken up with a well-time Ultimate Price or Bile Blight since the "search your library" trigger is going to go on the stack, even if you choose not to use it, although this might not be so bad. You still get a two-for-one out of the deal and forced your opponent to use a removal spell on a legendary french vanilla 2/2, which might clear the way for subsequent Nissa, Vastwood Seers, dragonlords and Whisperwood Elementals.

On the other hand, it is basically impossible to flip Nissa, Vastwood Seer in the early game — remember, you need seven actual lands, not mana, so Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Sylvan Caryatid, and Elvish Mystic don't count) — which means it is probably best to view her as a flip card. On turns 1 through 6 she is a significantly worse Borderland Ranger (since she can't actually fix your mana) and on turns 7+ she is a planeswalker that comes along with a free Forest. While I'm not sure either of these cards are playable on their own (I want my three-drops to be Den Protectors and my eight-drop planeswalkers to be Ugin, Spirit Dragon), it is possible this is one of those situations where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Nissa's Flip Test Grade: C+

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See, I'm the first one to go to college in my family and when I left she [Kiran] said, "Chandra, if you screw this up, I'll kill you." She showed me the knife. - Chandra, channeling Weensie

At first glance Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh basically reads: "If you cast two or more red spells this turn (and remember your Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh triggers), transform Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh. This might not seem that difficult since red is a color that naturally plays a lot of cheap spells, which means having enough mana to cast two in the same turn shouldn't be a problem. The issue here is two-fold. For one thing, in a traditional mono-red aggro deck, the goal is to have your hand empty as soon as possible which could lead to situations where Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is topping your curve, leaving you little fuel to trigger her transformation. The second problem is she is basically the anti-Nissa, Vastwood Seer in that she is horrible off the top in the late game, although this might not phase you mono-red players since every card in your deck is a poor top deck after turn four.

On the other hand, Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh doesn't specify how this damage is dealt, only that it adds up to three. So if you can find a way to get in combat damage with your 2/2 (certainly not a given), you are only one spell away from the transformation. Assuming the board isn't too gummed up, you can potential tap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh for one damage, Lightning Strike your opponents blocker, untap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh and swing for the final two damage.

The point is you really, really, really want to play Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh on turn three to have a reasonable chance of flipping her, which means you really need to play four copies in your deck, which means we are back to the question of "can I really play four legendary pingers?" Despite this all-encompassing question, there are a couple of cool Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh synergies that are worth pointing out.

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I envision Stoke the Flame to be one of the best ways of flipping Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh while also generating a ton of damage on turn four. If you can play a two-powered one drop on turn one followed by a Dragon Fodder on turn two and a Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh on turn three, you set yourself up for a pretty devastating fourth turn. Picture this: You tap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh (one damage), Lightning Strike your opponents face untapping Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh (four damage), tap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh (five damage), use convoke to cast Stoke the Flames untapping Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh (9 damage), tap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh again (10 damage), flip Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh into Chandra, Roaring Flame and +1 (12 damage). Assuming you got in with your one-drop and Dragon Fodder tokens on turns two and three, you are a couple fetchland/painland activations away from having your opponent dead on the spot.

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While I'm not sure this synergy is that good, it is interesting. With Jeskai Ascendancy on the battlefield, any non-creature spell will untap Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh and you get a free damage in between. In theory, this means that if you cast 20 spells you can deal 20 damage and win the game on the spot. The problem is since Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh's transformation triggers on the third point of damage, you need to be able to do this at instant speed in response to the flip-trigger. As such you can't use the Retraction Helix loop to get the job done. This said, there still might be potential for Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh to show up as a value card in a Jeskai Tokens build since she should be easy to flip in the deck. However, the already-overloaded three drop slot (thanks to Jeskai Ascendancy and Hordeling Outburst) might mean Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is left on the sidelines.

Chandra's Flip Test Grade: D

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Thank you sir, may I have another. - Chip (also, what Magic players say to Wizards when they open a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in a booster pack).

When Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was first spoiled I made a joke that he was basically Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded with suspend 5. While this is definitely an exaggeration (since there are other ways to fill your graveyard, most notably fetchlands), he does seem like the most difficult flip-walker to transform. If you play him on turn two, you are going to need at least three activations (barring things like Satyr Wayfinder) to turn him into Jace, Telepath Unbound. In the late game it gets a little easier since you will probably already have five cards in your graveyard, but it's still not Nissa, Vastwood Seer easy — you still need to untap with a 0/2, and 0/2's die to just about anything.

My theory is Jace, Vryn's Prodigy doesn't want to flip. He likes drawing cards so much that he would rather continue to live his adolescent life as a Merfolk Looter than turn into some Tome Scouring, pencil-pushing jerk in adulthood. I picture him sort of like Will Ferrell in Old School. He knows he should be going to Home Depot to buy some wallpaper, but the frat boy life is just too much fun for him to give up. Basically, Jace knows he should be an architect of thought, or have his telepath unbound, but he's happiest when he's Jace the Tank, just looting around the frat house.

Jace's Flip Test Grade: D-

Test Three: The Payoff

The payoff test might be the most important test of all, at least for the majority of the flip-walkers which are middling-to-bad as creatures. If the creature half of a flip-walker isn't great, the planeswalker side better be good or else there just isn't much of a reason to play the card. This test is not cumulative — the first two tests don't matter one bit (we'll put everything together when we hand out final grades), the only thing that matters is the power-level and playability of the planeswalker-half of the card.

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I learned law so well, the day I graduated I sued the college, won the case, and got my tuition back. - Fred Allen.

Quite the transformation for Nissa from an awkward Borderland Ranger loving teen, to a full-blown, top-of-her-class planeswalker. Seriously though, Nissa, Sage Animist hits most of the marks of a good planeswalker. The +1 is Coiling Oracle without a body, which is actually slightly better than simply drawing a card every turn. While Sarkhan Unbroken has been decidedly unbroken thus far, the fact that Nissa, Sage Animist is mono-green but with a very similar +1 ability might be the final nail in his coffin. Isn't it odd, and slightly sad, that over the past few sets green planeswalkers have been better at drawing cards than blue planeswalkers? I mean, Coiling Oracle is a U/G card, so in theory Jace, Telepath Unbound has just as much of a right to the ability as Nissa. Her -2 ability does offer some form of protection, which is typically another sign of a playable planeswalker. Although it is troubling that the token is legendary, it can't effectively block Siege Rhino or Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and dies to Languish (which is hereby known as "All is Flat"). Finally, her ultimate should be enough to win most games, although not always on the spot since the animated lands are lacking any type of evasion. This said, barring an untimely Crux of Fate or End Hostilities, they should finish thing up in short order; you can only chump a gaggle of 6/6's for so long.

Nissa's Payoff Test Grade: A-

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You can be 24 and continue to live like you're in college... or you can put on a shirt and tie and pretend to be an adult. - Ezra Koening

First off, Gideon, Battle-Forged's +2 ability doesn't seem all that great. I like the reference to Gideon Jura, but considering you likely need to attack with your team to get Kytheon, Hero of Akros to transform into Gideon, Battle-Forged, do you really want to force your opponent to attack your 5-loyalty planeswalker? I mean, if you don't activate the ability, at least there is a chance they make a mistake and attack you, but by activating the +2 you take away the opportunity for your opponent to punt. I guess it is useful for picking off small creatures assuming you have a big blocker, and in Collected Company builds making your opponent suicide their best creature into a recursive Deathmist Raptor seems pretty insane, almost as good as Gideon Jura's -2 "destroy target tapped creature." On the other hand, his +1 ability does offer a reasonable amount of protection and seems like the default play on the turn Gideon, Battle-Forged is transformed. As long as you have another creature on the battlefield, it will work a lot like Elspeth, Knight-Errant in that it will stop a single non-evasive attacker, which might be enough to keep Gideon, Battle-Forged alive until your next turn.

Like the token from Nissa, Sage Animist, the 0 ability on Gideon, Battle-Forged gets blanked by Siege Rhino and Tasigur, the Golden Fang (although he does dodge the sorcery-speed Languish), however transforming on turn three followed by a Valorous Stance on turn four to clean out a big blocker does offer the potential for a lot of damage.

Gideon's Payoff Test Grade: B

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You are graduating from college. This means that this is the first day of the last day of your life. No, that's wrong. This is the last day of the first day of school. Nope, that's worse. This is a day. - Andy Sandberg

The general consensus from everyone I've talked to is that Liliana, Defiant Necromancer is the best of the flip-walkers, but I'm not convinced. So until I see how things shake out, I'm going with "this is a day" on this one. Maybe the problem is I'm too stuck on Collected Company (which you can cast after blockers are declared, hit Liliana, Heretical Healer and flip her immediately), but Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's +2 ability just makes me want to discard Deathmist Raptors and flip Den Protectors to get them back on the battlefield. Sure, Lilian of the Veil shows that symmetrical discard can be quite powerful on a planeswalker, but then she also has the ability to clean up any creatures with her -2 ability. With Liliana, Defiant Necromancer it feels like you really want to be discarding cards for value if at all possible..

The downside of Liliana, Defiant Necromancer is that she really has no way of protecting herself. While you can use her -2 to reanimate a two-drop, I'm having a hard time picturing a card that really offers protection — maybe Rakshasa Deathdealer? I do like the idea of bringing Satyr Wayfinder back from the grave to continue to fill the graveyard and chump for a turn, but even this requires a very specific graveyard-centric build. Either way it's going to be hard to keep Liliana, Defiant Necromancer on the battlefield for very long unless you already have a significant board presence.

Her ultimate should win most games eventually, but more through incremental advantage than raw power. The "end of turn" clause limits any combo/looping potential and makes me wonder why this is necessary. If you go through all the trouble to flip Liliana, Heretical Healer, ultimate Liliana, Defiant Necromancer and manage to build an infinite combo into your deck, shouldn't you be allowed to win on the spot? Regardless, I'm interested in testing out Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer in a build like this:

Liliana's Payoff Test Grade: B-

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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! - Bluto

It might look like things are all over for Chandra, Roaring Flame after poor performances on our first two tests, but here in our final examination she has one last chance to prove herself. Unfortunately, I'm not sure she's up for the task. Maybe I'm not searching deep enough, but when I look at Chandra, Roaring Flame I can only see two cards, both associated with her +1 ability. The first is a Lava Axe with suspend one. Since flipping Chandra, the Roaring Flame requires three damage and then you can immediately +1 for two damage, assuming you untap with Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh and have a couple spells in hand, five damage is the floor. The second card is Sulfuric Vortex, albeit a much more fragile version. Doming your opponent for two every turn isn't the worst and should be able to close out game fairly quickly. While I'm sure there are instance where you'll need to -2 to kill a creature, I would expect this to be the exception rather than the norm.

As for her ultimate, it is more or less irrelevant. Since getting Chandra, Roaring Flame to seven loyalty requires you to deal nine damage with Chandra alone (not to mention the rest of your deck), it seems like 90 percent of the time the game will be over before you ever get the option to ultimate. In the other 10 percent of the games you are probably playing something like GW Devotion where six damage and a Curse of the Pierced Heart isn't likely to win you the game anyway.

Planeswalker Chandra seem reasonable, but only in very specific, get your opponent to zero as fast as possible type decks. This isn't a Chandra Pyromaster that you can jam into midrange builds to take over the game with incremental advantage.

Payoff Test Grade: C-

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Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f-ing peace corps. - Bluto

So this is the reason that Jace doesn't want to grow up — his planeswalker half has a strong argument to be the worst non-Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded planeswalkers ever printed. His +1 gives up to one target creature -2/-0 until end of turn. How much mana do you think this effect is worth? My best estimation would be somewhere around 0.1, and even if they could cost cards at a fraction of a mana, no one would play it because it still costs a card. I guess this is suppose to be the "protects itself" ability, but it begs the question, what can this possibly protect from? There are a few good answers: various walls and creatures with defender, creatures with negative power, Eldrazi Spawn tokens, Ornithopter, and even a single Satyr Wayfinder. But the point is, this ability is horrible. Nissa, Sage Animist gets to draw a card, while Jace, Telepath Unbound has learned to protect himself from the Magic equivalent of a mosquito, and only one mosquito at a time. Hooray. Now, I will grant that the -3 ability is pretty sweet, although a sorcery speed Snapcaster Mage doesn't really excite me. Just to be clear, you do have to pay the cards mana cost, so there isn't potential for some broken combo.

This bring us to the ultimate — the Tome Scour emblem is almost laughable. Sure, it should only take eight spells to deck your opponent, but considering it can take up to five turns to flip Jace, Telepath Unbound and another four turns of +1's to reach the ultimate, how many cards can you expect to have in your hand at this point in the game? Maybe more importantly, isn't getting enough loyalty to ultimate Jace, Telepath Unbound pretty much magical christmas land anyway? Nine turns. Unfortunately for Jace, Telepath Unbound, our recently published data exploring 85,000 games of Standard shows that they average game ends on turn 8.7. So close.

Jace's Payoff Test Grade: D-

Final Grades

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Leave your thoughts in the comments, or as always you can reach me on Twitter (or MTGO) @SaffronOlive.