Back for our second installment of the Planeswalker Deck Project! If you missed Monday's kickoff article or PDD #1, make sure to check them out!
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets was a rare version of the character that didn't make a huge impact in its Constructed lifespan. Maybe it's because it isn't utterly broken like its Mind Sculptor or Vryn's Prodigy brethren, or because it didn't play a massive role in Standard like the Architect of Thought or the OG Beleren. This Jace was merely...fine.
As far as inspiration goes, the Unraveler of Secrets doesn't provide too much mechanically, as it's merely an incremental value engine like so many from its era. However, it does give me a unique opportunity to base this deck around a Rare that I've long thought of as really cool and underplayed: Drake Haven.
As a lover of the Cycling and Madness mechanics, Drake Haven is right up my alley. And just to make sure the gas tank doesn't reach E, I've included an Investigate package to flavorfully reinforce this particular Jace's detective status on Innistrad.
Behold:
Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Jace, Unraveler of Secrets by Andy Hurst
'Jace, Unraveler of Secrets' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!
Created By: Andy Hurst
Event:
Rank:
Freeform (Casual)
Market Price: $38.52
Miscalculation
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.42
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/6343_200w.jpg
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/6343/magic-urzas-legacy-miscalculation
Ominous Sphinx
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.05
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/136488_200w.jpg
Flying Whenever you cycle or discard a card, target creature an opponent controls gets -2/-0 until end of turn.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/136488/magic-hour-of-devastation-ominous-sphinx
Masticore
Market Price: $23.84
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/6207_200w.jpg
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Masticore unless you discard a card.
{2}: Masticore deals 1 damage to target creature.
{2}: Regenerate Masticore.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/6207/magic-urzas-destiny-masticore
Coral Atoll
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.09
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/227336_200w.jpg
Coral Atoll enters the battlefield tapped.
When Coral Atoll enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you return an untapped Island you control to its owner's hand.
{T}: Add {C}{U}.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/227336/magic-commander-legends-coral-atoll
Tamiyo's Journal
Market Price: $2.00
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/114853_200w.jpg
At the beginning of your upkeep, investigate. (Create a colorless Clue artifact token with "{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
{T}, Sacrifice three Clues: Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/114853/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-tamiyos-journal-entry-434
Drake Haven
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212390_200w.jpg
Whenever you cycle or discard a card, you may pay {1}. If you do, create a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/212390/magic-commander-2020-drake-haven
Compulsion
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.26
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/9665_200w.jpg
{1}{U}, Discard a card: Draw a card.
{1}{U}, Sacrifice Compulsion: Draw a card.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/9665/magic-torment-compulsion
Vizier of Tumbling Sands
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.17
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212370_200w.jpg
{T}: Untap another target permanent.
Cycling {1}{U} ({1}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Vizier of Tumbling Sands, untap target permanent.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/212370/magic-commander-2020-vizier-of-tumbling-sands
Sacred Excavation
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/130269_200w.jpg
Return up to two target cards with cycling from your graveyard to your hand.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/130269/magic-amonkhet-sacred-excavation
Traumatic Visions
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/236210_200w.jpg
Counter target spell.
Basic landcycling {1}{U} ({1}{U}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/236210/magic-commander-2021-traumatic-visions
Complicate
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $1.83
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/10328_200w.jpg
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}.
Cycling {2}{U} ({2}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Complicate, you may counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/10328/magic-onslaught-complicate
River Serpent
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/130267_200w.jpg
River Serpent can't attack unless there are five or more cards in your graveyard.
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/130267/magic-amonkhet-river-serpent
Hekma Sentinels
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.01
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/130232_200w.jpg
Whenever you cycle or discard a card, Hekma Sentinels gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/130232/magic-amonkhet-hekma-sentinels
Circular Logic
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.26
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/180805_200w.jpg
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1} for each card in your graveyard.
Madness {U} (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/180805/magic-ultimate-masters-circular-logic
Island
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.05
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215717_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {U}.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/215717/magic-core-set-2021-island-264
Cunning Survivor
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.01
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/136682_200w.jpg
Whenever you cycle or discard a card, Cunning Survivor gets +1/+0 until end of turn and can't be blocked this turn.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/136682/magic-hour-of-devastation-cunning-survivor
Obsessive Search
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.25
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/9614_200w.jpg
Draw a card.
Madness {U} (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/9614/magic-torment-obsessive-search
Lonely Sandbar
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/236228_200w.jpg
Lonely Sandbar enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {U}.
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/236228/magic-commander-2021-lonely-sandbar
Daring Sleuth
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/115903_200w.jpg
When you sacrifice a Clue, transform Daring Sleuth.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/115903/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-daring-sleuth
Curator of Mysteries
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.13
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/243922_200w.jpg
Flying
Whenever you cycle or discard another card, scry 1.
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/243922/magic-commander-adventures-in-the-forgotten-realms-curator-of-mysteries
Hieroglyphic Illumination
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.07
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212396_200w.jpg
Draw two cards.
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/212396/magic-commander-2020-hieroglyphic-illumination
Erdwal Illuminator
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.21
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/116387_200w.jpg
Flying Whenever you investigate for the first time each turn, investigate an additional time.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/116387/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-erdwal-illuminator
Sky Diamond
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.18
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/254197_200w.jpg
Sky Diamond enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add {U}.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/254197/magic-commander-innistrad-crimson-vow-sky-diamond
Stalking Stones
Market Price: $0.20
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/11588_200w.jpg
{T}: Add {C}.
{6}: Stalking Stones becomes a 3/3 Elemental artifact creature that's still a land. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/11588/magic-mirrodin-stalking-stones
Gone Missing
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/116402_200w.jpg
Put target permanent on top of its owner's library.
Investigate. (Create a colorless Clue artifact token with "{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/116402/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-gone-missing
Shoreline Ranger
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.04
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/161830_200w.jpg
Flying
Islandcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for an Island card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/161830/magic-masters-25-shoreline-ranger
Zenith Seeker
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.06
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/130303_200w.jpg
Flying Whenever you cycle or discard a card, target creature gains flying until end of turn.
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/130303/magic-amonkhet-zenith-seeker
Windcaller Aven
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/191739_200w.jpg
Flying
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Windcaller Aven, target creature gains flying until end of turn.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/191739/magic-modern-horizons-windcaller-aven
Lay Claim
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.14
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/130244_200w.jpg
Enchant permanent
You control enchanted permanent.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/130244/magic-amonkhet-lay-claim
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $4.05
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/115593_200w.jpg
+1: Scry 1, then draw a card. −2: Return target creature to its owner's hand. −8: You get an emblem with "Whenever an opponent casts their first spell each turn, counter that spell."
Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/115593/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-jace-unraveler-of-secrets
Deep Analysis
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.18
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/196570_200w.jpg
Target player draws two cards.
Flashback—{1}{U}, Pay 3 life. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/196570/magic-commander-2019-deep-analysis
Drownyard Explorers
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/116380_200w.jpg
When Drownyard Explorers enters the battlefield, investigate. (Create a colorless Clue artifact token with "{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/116380/magic-shadows-over-innistrad-drownyard-explorers
Choking Tethers
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.02
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/190628_200w.jpg
Tap up to four target creatures.
Cycling {1}{U} ({1}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Choking Tethers, you may tap target creature.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/190628/magic-modern-horizons-choking-tethers
Blasted Landscape
Market Price: $1.35
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/166738_200w.jpg
{T}: Add {C}.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/166738/magic-commander-anthology-volume-ii-blasted-landscape
Merfolk Looter
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.09
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/243949_200w.jpg
{T}: Draw a card, then discard a card.Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/243949/magic-commander-adventures-in-the-forgotten-realms-merfolk-looter
Striped Riverwinder
Color Identity:U
Market Price: $0.43
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/136719_200w.jpg
Hexproof (This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
Cycling {U} ({U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)Buy This Card! https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/136719/magic-hour-of-devastation-striped-riverwinder
Use cyclers, looters, and clues to churn through the deck and keep a flow of threats going, while taking advantage of the synergies generated from said churn. The early creatures block fairly well and can surprise the opponent in combat, while the late game threats are either large or evasive—sometimes they're both!
The removal isn't great, which shouldn't be surprising in a Mono Blue list. Lay Claim is the best option here, although there are several very solid counterspells here in Miscalculation, Complicate, and Circular Logic that play well with our other synergies. If you've never cycled a Complicate to nab an important spell and draw a card in the process, well, then, you simply haven't lived. Choking Tethers and Gone Missing do a fine job of buying time, along with the trigger on Ominous Sphinx.
Nostalgia Alert! There was a time when this was on the very short list for Best Creature Ever. It could go in any deck, it had great stats for the cost (things were different back then), and its abilities allowed you to swiftly dominate the board and even survive some removal. It's (correctly) considered one of the most absurd Limited Rares of all time, and still would be even in today's draft environments.
It does have a pretty restrictive drawback, forcing a discard every upkeep that can turn into getting "locked" if you're not careful with how you deploy your hand. In this deck though, the Nasty Masty's drawback creates a trigger for our various discard payoffs every turn and provides a Madness outlet when necessary. Pitching Obsessive Search to Masticore slaps, as the kids say.
One of the problems with a deck like this is that you cycle a bunch to try and keep turning cards into other cards, but you just draw lands instead, and then the fun ends. Curator can keep the party going by scrying away those boring extra lands to get to the good stuff. Oh yeah, and it's also a 4/4 flyer with no drawbacks for 4 mana. If for some bizarre reason that's not good enough, we can cycle it and spin the wheel again.
The raison d'etre for this version of the deck. We're trying to make a ton of Drakes and beat the opponent up with them. I played Astral Slide back when it was a Standard deck and it would have been absolutely fascinating if Drake Haven was around at that time. I like Cycling, Madness stuff, and creature tokens and this Rare provides a haven for those proclivities. Drake Haven is the card we're most hoping to see every game.
This here is the rare occasion of a card being featured in one of these Planeswalker decks while featuring another Planeswalker's name! However, in the lore of the Shadows Over Innistrad set, Jace does stumble upon Tamiyo's Journal during his attempt to unravel those secrets and (presumably) gleans some valuable information. Here, the Journal can help you get ahead on cards to make your filtering that much more effective and make absolutely sure those Daring Sleuths flip. If you get to Tutor, go get that Drake Haven!
Personally, I think it's a major "Level Up" moment for a Magic player when they realize that Merfolk Looter is really powerful. It's easy to teach a new player "more cards = more options = stronger chance to win the game", but for some reason looting for the sake of looting (i.e. not taking advantage of graveyard shenanigans or madness synergies, etc.) is tougher to sink in.
I remember years ago when The Looting Case Study took over Magic social media for like 2 weeks. When I was starting to play in tournaments and with groups larger than just my immediate friends at school, Looter was a key player in Standard specifically because there were Madness cards to enable, Threshold to reach, and Flashback cards to dump.
But it was playing it in such an environment that I finally had that light bulb moment of "Wow, this card is amazing, even if I don't have any direct synergies with it." Filtering cards is just a very powerful thing to do repeatedly for no extra mana, and this list has many ways to take advantage of what you're looting away.