Smart, powerful, brooding, and appearing on plenty of busted cards, it’s little wonder that Jace Beleren is one of the most popular MTG planeswalkers around. Though he’s hogged the limelight less often lately, Jace is probably the closest thing to a main character that Magic: The Gathering has got. He’s popped up in tons of sets, merch, and MTG books, and has helped save the multiverse plenty of times.
Jace Beleren’s powers of choice involve mental magics. He’s skilled in casting illusions, reading minds, messing with memories, all that jazz. In Magic: The Gathering, he’s associated with Blue mana, counterspells, milling opponents, and drawing a ton of cards.
Here we’ll fill you in on Jace’s backstory, and the top Jace planeswalker cards he can be found upon. Obviously, Jace the Mind Sculptor is the main one to watch out for – it’s a card so strong it’s basically a meme. With Jace taking a slight backseat in Magic’s story of late, it would not be surprising if many players don’t know much of his origins. Worry not, we’ll fill you in.
MTG Jace Beleren lore
Jace Beleren hails from a plane named Vryn, where he was the apprentice to a sphinx named Alhammarret. Vryn was a troubled plane. Lacking in mana, the world relied on giant circular structures called mage rings to channel and harness magic, and the political situation was fraught.
Jace eventually discovered his planeswalking powers when he learned that Alhammarret was the mean, tricksy kind of sphinx, wiping the apprentice’s memory to keep his abilities locked away. Oh, and he was also a war profiteer who deliberately kept Vryn’s factions fighting for his own benefit. After defeating his former master in a mind duel, Jace planeswalked away and ended up on the urban plane of Ravnica.
Jace has since got up to all kinds of hijinks, becoming the living guild pact of Ravnica, responsible for keeping the factions from each other’s throats; leading the fight against the Eldrazi; having a ‘will they, won’t they’ romance with the gorgon Vraska; combatting Nicol Bolas, and so on. He was last seen on the plane of Zendikar, getting into some messy drama with Nissa and Nahiri.
MTG Jace Beleren cards
Jace the Mind Sculptor
You can learn more about the awesome power of this card in our best planeswalkers guide. Essentially, Jace the Mind Scuptor offers superb flexibility at a very low mana cost.
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
You’ve gotta love alternative win conditions. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries lets you mill yourself out and win the game. He can also mill your opponents and draw you some cards, but the best use for him is in an irritating combo deck that wants to dump all its cards in the graveyard and win.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is about as vanilla as planeswalker cards get. You’ve got a +1 ability that draws you a card. You’ve got removal on a minus ability (in this case, a bounce effect). And you’ve got a splash ‘finisher’ move that will probably win you the game if you’re able to tick up to a high loyalty. However, being bog-standard doesn’t make a card bad – each of these abilities is extremely useful, making this a powerful Jace indeed.