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Video Daily Digest: Jace Turns Modern

New idea: You can just put Jace into…whatever! What if you got to Brainstorm two or three times in a row? What if you got to do everything more times in a row? Boy, this format is about to get wild…

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf are almost assuredly going to have an impact on Modern, both immediate and in the long-term. The obvious homes for both cards are disruption-heavy midrange decks, since both cards play so well with cheap removal.

However, it’s been years since either was in Modern, and in that time there are lots of cards that have been printed and new strategies that have been discovered that could also be bolstered by an incredibly powerful four-drop. Today’s list is just such a deck, utilizing Jace, the Mind Sculptor in a Taking Turns shell.

Traditionally, the archetype has used cards like Howling Mine and Dictate of Kruphix to keep the gas flowing as you cast Time Warp and Temporal Mastery, but Jace’s Brainstorm ability is just as good there, if not better, and it’s attached to a card that is much better in the abstract. Combine this with the As Foretold/Ancestral Vision engine that some Taking Turns lists have incorporated and you have a deck that doesn’t need any copies of the symmetric card draw spells. It can more than get by with cards that are excellent while combo-ing off and still quite good when not.

That ability to play a normalized game is further supported with the white splash in the sideboard. Terminus and Timely Reinforcements give the deck a mini-transformation into a combo-control deck that should be excellent against aggressive decks that think they can bring in a few disruption spells and win the race as their creatures go unanswered. Actually winning the game under this plan may seem daunting, but Jace, the Mind Sculptor does literal everything so it’ll be okay. Just run your opponent clear out of resources and start fatesealing.

The combo turns in this deck aren’t going to be as dramatic as previous lists, but they’ll be easier to execute and more effective because the deck isn’t as all-in. You can absorb a discard spell or two with Ancestral Vision and take the heat off with a Turn 4 Jace or a sideboard Terminus. Keep your opponent off balance with disruption until they open a window and start taking turns until the game literally ends or you’re so far ahead it doesn’t matter that the game keeps on going.

Oh, and Jace is great with Temporal Mastery, just in case you didn’t think it did literal everything.