How are you evaluating empower Jace?
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2026 7:56 pm
Sorry Guardman, didn't mean to ignore your comment. I actually completely agree, their are a couple limited discords out there, but I just don't think Discord is a great platform for large communities. They are still probably your best bet for limited discussions, just a bit repetitive.
On the flip side, I don't really know what else to add to that discussion XD. Splashing felt really bad in Hobbit, though I did have some good success with bant (read: Green Blue was open, but green is so shallow that even then it's usually worth it to bolster it with a couple white uncommons)
However, there is something new I've been thinking about a lot and that's the new Empower Jace mechanic in Fractured Reality. I'm curious to hear other people's evaluation of it.
I'm excited for the mechanic from a gameplay perspective, I agree with @DirkGently that low-power planeswalkers are really interesting. Strong planeswalkers just kind of win the game, but lower power ones introduce a lot of decision points both for the controller and the opponent that I enjoy.
But just how strong is it? Like if an Average-power card has "empower Jace 2" stapled on it, how much does that improve the card?
So hear are some thoughts:
Obviously empower Jace 3 is a huge power spike over Empower Jace 1 or 2.A
I also think empower Jace 1 and 2 aren't much different, obviously 2 is better, but I think the difference is kind of small, since you can't immediately cash in that second loyalty counter.
I think any card that both empowers Jace while also helping protect him (so for the most part: creatures) will get a lot more out of it.
I think the effect is probably going to be over-valued at the start of the format.
Empower Jace doesn't really get better in multiples. It does a little bit (empower Jace 2 twice gets you a card when doing it once doesn't), but I don't think it'll be anything like the ring tempts where the more you have, the more you want.
On the flip side, it's not like amass, which gets much worse when you play your second amass card.
As a quick thought exercise, I went through all the cards printed so far with "empower jace" and imagined what the card would look like if it only gave you the immediate, guaranteed, value (so, empower Jace 1 & 2 are now "surveil 1" and empower Jace 3+ is now "draw a card"). Looking at these hypothetical cards, they all look about right for modern limited. So that suggests that empower Jace isn't too much stronger than those effects.
I could be dead wrong though, even if you just get one activation then your opponent kills it, at least it helped preserve your life total.
I guess it's worth mentioning that Empowering Jace can be worse than straight surveil 1/draw a card if you already have a Jace token with since you can only activate it once per turn.