i think part of the reason that the jace issue was made out of hand as well was the decision to stop printing worldwake. How much do you think he'd be if worldwake was still being printed? not 100 bucks a pop. since the market is going for a commodity that is wanted AND at a limited number, the price would just skyrocket. If worldwake was still being printed, it wouldn't mean he'd not be a hefty costing card, but it definitely not be the equivalent of a game console as a investment.

not to mention the stoppage of printing worldwake also made the increase of price in recently popular cards like Stoneforge Mystic , the man-lands, and Chain Reaction , to name a few. by cutting worldwake, WOTC actually made the gap between the players with less money and those with more.

to say something like oh jace needs to be banned because I cant afford him is ridiculous, really. while jace's power lvl is high no denying that he is not in the same league of power that Skullclamp and Memory Jar were in their time and his being printed in WWK has nothing to do with its print run.

if you're just all hot for banning cards you should look towards Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle this card is holding back all the decks that would run over jace because they combo a turn faster.

competitive magic(not FNM, feel I need to make the distinction) has always been a game for people with money and will always be. If you can't afford your "hobby" without sacrificing other aspects of your life, maybe you should look for another one.

Errr.. Guys.. I'm fairly certain Worldwake would be out of print now anyway. Rise is out of print and I'm fairly certain that went out of print at the usual time anyway.

First off you are completely correct that Jace is overpowered. If you listen to Mark Rosewater interviews he says that in R&D design figures out what they want the planeswalkers to do and then hand it off to the Development team to turn all the dials to make it playable. The development team currently at wizards contains people that are far more intelligent than you or I and they released it, but they do admit Jace escaped with more power than they wanted it to have, but I am glad they are pushing the envelope so that we can have great cards to play with. I agree with Select that Jace is nothing like the days of Skullclamp and Affinity Summer. Those days weren't playing magic anymore. Jace can still be interacted with and that makes it so that you are still playing magic.Secondly I want to talk about your statement about the cost of Jace quoted below,

" If you have that kind of money to spend casually, why, please tell me, arent you, say, raising a family??? Or if you dont have a girlfriend because you play magic, why arent you doing something with that money, not buying pieces of cardboard?", I am a married man expecting my first child later this year and know several other married magic players and we chose to spend our money on Magic. I pay my bills support my family and with my extra money I buy magic cards. Some of my friends and really into Fishing, Hunting, Golf, etc... and spend their money this way. If you embrace a hobby then you are normally going to spend money on this, but it doesn't mean it rises to the level of importance of bills, etc. What people spend their extra money on has no relevance to your argument.

Thirdly Wizards of the Coast did not put Worldwake out of print in order to stop distribution of Jaces they did it because a certain amount of time after each set they stop printing them as AegairEtapa stated Rise is out of print and if not already M11 is soon to follow. There is a lower amount of card availability from Worldwake mainly because it was drafted half as much as a normal middle set. If you compare it to Conflux in Shards block which got drafted all the way from its release to the release of the M10, you see Worldwake only got drafted from its release to April a time of about 2 and 1/2 to 3 months because Rise reset the draft format. Because of this 3 month window there weren't as many packs opened of Worldwake so there are card availability issues with all Worldwake cards (i.e. Stoneforge Mystic). Another reason we have this issue is the constant stream of tournaments in the Star City Games Open Series (I don't think the series is a mistake in fact I think the series is GREAT for the game) but it allows us to 'solve' standard quicker than ever before as in a month there can be as many as 4 high level tournaments from which to learn instead of having one each month or so. ( Continued in next post)

After all this, I want to applaud you for sharing your opinion. I know that it can be difficult to put content out on the web and am always glad to see more people putting things out there because it means that this game we love is being played by more people and that more people care about it and have opinions they want to share.I want to share why I believe that Jace won't be banned. First off Wizards have gone out of there way to make planeswalkers that face of the game(ie having them in every set and replacing block books with Planeswalker novels). Secondly of that new card type that is the face of the game they have made Jace, the Mind Sculptor the face of Planeswalkers. Thirdly we are seeing more new players flock to the game than ever before and because of that wizards has two things they have to do, First print powerful cards that new players are going to want to play and secondly ensure new players that they can spend money on these cards because they are not going to get banned and you will be able to play with them. Finally the biggest reason why Jace won't be banned is coming on May 13,when New Phryexia releases and Wizards believes the new set will shake up standard(an opinion I share after seeing the whole set spoiled on the Mothership). There is still another set coming out three months later and then three months later Jace rotates. Again I just wanted to say how passionate I am about the game of Magic and I honestly think that banning Jace is long term bad for the game as it will shake consumer confidence in Wizards and allow people to be excited about powerful cards in the future because Wizards will have a track record of letting people play with their powerful cards.

jacelightning the only cards that take out Jace, the Mind Sculptor without losing some card advantage in standard are, Mana Leak , Spell Pierce , Stoic Rebuttal , Cancel , Negate , Duress , Jace Beleren - if played beforehand - , Jace, the Mind Sculptor . New Phyrexia adds a 'better' Duress to that, and a couple more ways to handle him when out.

That's all. He's still going to be insanely powered.

Vengevine , Beast Within (from the New Phrexia) and just combine that with Overgrown Battlement or Wall of Tanglecord , Squadron Hawk , Kuldotha Rebirth decks can race the Jace decks by just killing them as can White Weenie Quest for the Holy Relic Decks which gain a powerful tool in Puresteel Paladin. Try Koth of the Hammer and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as well as they can produce a creature that can kill a Jace. Inkmoth Nexus , Celestial Colonnade , Creeping Tar Pit , Raging Ravine can all kill jace. Inferno Titan , Grave Titan , Anything equipped with a sword. There are more answers to Jace than just counterspells and discard spells. I agree that Jace is overpowered, but I am of the opinion that wizards is not going to ban him. Also in the new set is another answer to Valakut in the black spell that turns a land into a swamp for 1 mana.

Valakut has already had to adapt by going aggro, it ain't the big boss it used to be.

And yes all those race Jace, but Jace still does his thing in the process. All you need is 1 Jace activation and you're up.

It isn't really an answer as opposed to damage limitation. You either go over or race Jace.

And yes Jace will not be emergency banned, and it's unlikely he'll be banned at all.

Thank you everyone for your feedback, and, as previously stated, I was just rambling while writing this article so no editing went into this, and that was quite on purpose. I know I didn't get all my facts right, and I personally can't get a girlfriend because I play magic, I'm not nessicairally saying it's true for other people, so please don't take offense. I was mainly just letting loose all my hatred for jace in one article.

On another note, good luck with your baby jacelightning

Jace is powerful and still does his thing in all those situations, but it is still possible to win games of magic where your opponent has played a Jace. The point that I am trying to make is that we don't have to look at a Jace and just scoop up our cards and go home. Unlike Skullclamp and Affinity (mentioned above) you are still playing magic and able to interact and win games even you are staring down a Jace.

I think that kind of despair is horrible for the game so I want to shed the light over just how many options exist in the format and how many more are coming in NPH so that people who don't want to play Jace decks can prepare to beat jace decks

Ah, if you needed to rant that's fine. I don't play competitively so I haven't had to feel the power of Jace first hand so it's fine. I'm sorry if I've seemed a bit bleghy, I'm just getting a bit tired with all the Jace ranting lately .;;

Oh you're correct on that jacelightning though sometimes, depending on the deck, a Jace resolving is that bad.

Jace is powerful, and is game ending, but not as game ending as some of Wizard's mistakes.

@AegairEtapa I must admit, I was finished this article and sent it to squire1 when the other article came out so I was supprised

And yes, affinity was much more annoying than jace, but I partly think quite as many viable options in standard then, than there are now. But it was REALLY OP.

maxtheax thanks. I do want to reinforce that I think it's awesome that you wanted to write an article to begin with and I love how the magic community is spreading and including more and more people.Good Luck with your future articles!!

AegairEtapa seeing a jace resolve is horrible if you are facing the new Caw Blade decks without a way to keep them from untapping their lands. The good thing is that we are going to have some more decks come around and more ideas shake loose from New Phyrexia. I'm looking forward to the set coming out.

They should have kept Worlkdwake in print but put a Jace MS in every other pack. XD That'd drive the price down.

My first point relates to actually playing the game. As impossible as it sounds, there are ways to deal with Jace. One that comes to mind is Vampire Hexmage . Hex Parasite in New Phyrexia is going to be another reliable way for any deck to counter Planeswalkers. Just because your opponent has an ace-in-the-hole for 4 mana, doesn't mean you are doomed to lose. Jace takes a while to build up, giving one time to draw an appropriate countermeasure (flying, unblockable, field control + attack the Daddy, damage). Furthermore, you have 15 cards for a sideboard. If you know you are going to go up against a deck with Jace in it, wouldn't it be sensible to have anti-Jace cards in your sideboard?

My second point is one of economics. If Magic were to ban Jace, how many devoted Magic players who spent $400 on 4 Jaces would be infuriated, possibly to the point of quitting the game? Take into account these players Magic would be enraging aren't the players who occasionally buy a booster and play casually, they are the people who buy 20 fat packs at once, attend all the tournaments within a 100 mile radius, and still have enough money to fill their decks with double lands. Enraging your most valuable customer isn't the way to go.

My last point is that as broken Jace is, there are cards/mechanics just as bad as him. To rattle a few:

Infect - I just made a green infect deck based off Livewire Lash and pumps. The problem with it is that I can pump even a measly 1/1 infect creature to deal 10 poison counters in one hit. Win on turn 3? Not impossible. Win on turn 4/5? Probable. The worst thing is, infect is standard as well...

Red Damage - Need I say more? A decent burn deck can plow through most decks on turn 4/5 no problem.

Life Gain + Felidar Sovereign - Make yourself unbeatable with near infinite life gain and top it off with your win condition once you hit 40 life

Quest for the Holy Relic + White Weenie - Get out that Argentum Armor on turn 1/2 and you're set.

Reanimator - How about Iona, Shield of Emeria on turn 2/3? Followed by It That Betrays and whatever other creatures you feel like are overkill.

I think you get my point...

people seem to like jace for his Brainstorm the most, and seem to have the opinion that letting him resolve is a bad thing...so a Brainstorm for 4 mana seems broken?

i think not, i play the real Brainstorm in a few of my decks i make on the fly, and i have never come across a reason i should win for having used a brainstorm for as cheap as 1 mana, even with 4 of them in the deck, ways to fetch for them, AND returning them to the hand

just kill it quickly and it should be a good waist of their money.

@ lexis136 I would say its more like Cryptic Command then Brainstorm in the sense that you get to choose the very best option for the situation. But other wise agreed letting jace hit gets them something. but so does letting them cast most good spells.

@ lexis136 I would say its more like Cryptic Command then Brainstorm in the sense that you get to choose the very best option for the situation. But other wise agreed letting jace hit gets them something. but so does letting them cast most good spells.

I can definitely see a 'Restricted' status as a possibility, but probably not an outright banning.

I mainly play EDH, and only started during ROE, so I couldn't really care any less. I think I've seen him come out once in a game and he died within the next two player's turns.

one thing I've learnt since I started playing competitive standard just before SOM came out is that you have to build decks with answers to JTMS because you will see alot of him. like you I don't like jace because I'm unwilling to buy a playset. I don't think her should be banned, but I am happy that he'll be roatating out. there will always be cards that define standard. it's your job as a competitive player to learn how to deal with them effectively.new phyrexia will make jace less dangerous.

The local shop owner was telling me that Worldwake never made it to the end of its print run because ROE. Something about it not being played as much in draft, or bought as frequently, so they took it out of print to save cost. I am not wizards though, so all is rumor.