Jace, Memory Adept is confirmed as blue’s new mythic planeswalker presence for the Magic: The Gathering 2012 Core Set. Spoiled on Attack of the Show, Chandra and Garruk are confirmed to have new iterations as well. Saber Lily over on the MTGSalvation forums has posted a blurry but functional screencap of the next generation of Jace.
Jace, Memory Adept
3UU
Planeswalker – Jace Mythic Rare
+1: Draw a card. Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
0: Target player puts the top 10 cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
-7: Any number of target players each draw twenty cards.
Loyalty 4
Well, it certainly looks like R+D wanted to avoid another Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Could Jace, Memory Adept usher in a return to “library destruction” millstone style competitive decks?
This version of Jace is more expensive than previous incarnations, and has no inherent protection ability to save him if he runs into trouble. That said, +1 to draw a card with a bonus library punch tacked on is quite nice, and it should only take a mill package a few turns of the 0 ability to turn a deck into dust.
Library destruction mechanics are already showing up in blue in M12 on several other cards as well:
- Jace’s Archivist
- Jace’s Erasure
- Merfolk Mesmerist
- Belltower Sphinx
If these cards and Jace, Memory Adept are any indicator – library destruction is getting pushed in a big way. Even if it never becomes viable in Standard, you better believe that these tools are going to make for a much more viable Limited strategy than trying to cram a load of Tome Scours into your deck.
With 40 card decks, look for blue to be swimming in some new strategies for M12 Limited – led by Jace, Memory Adept. And don't forget - The upcoming Innistrad is supposedly a graveyard set, and these abilities may have a good deal more relevance there.
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