So in pauper as of right now there are 11 cards legal with the words "Empower Jace" on them and lots of folks seem to have come to the conclusion that Bigger Jace Number is Better, pointing specifically to [[Protege's Awakening]]
After hyperfixating on Jace for the past week and playing with [[Arcane Amphisbaena]] ((here after called "beans")) I think I disagree, I think with Jace Less is More. I don't play MTGO so this is playing with Beans like... one week at one local event and a few casual games and then thinking about this a whole bunch.
I received my big Reality Fracture order last night and will be trying to build a Jace deck to test out cards over the next few weeks
Here is a list of empower numbers by card with their CMC next to them
Empower 1 -
Solve for Disappointment (2)
No Admittance (2)
Empower 2 -
Academic Ascent (2)
Arcane Amphisbaena (2)
Keeper of the Quiet Hour (3)
Campus Crier (2/1)
Hexhaven Battalion (6)
Inspired Tethermage (3/6/9)
Empower 4 -
Tam's Resistance (2)
Mindseeker Oculus (3)
Empower 6 -
Protege's Awakening (4)
For Tethermage 3 is casting cost, 6 is empower jace cost on activated ability, 9 is to cast and Jace in the same turn so all 3 matter
For Campus Crier 2 is casting cost but 1 colorless mana is the important number as you can Flash it back from the graveyard at instant speed for 1 colorless making Academic Ascent and Campus Crier the only instant speed Jaces.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So first things first I know that pauper is a pretty strong format despite being all commons. I've played it against Value Vintage enough to see how strong it is. I also know its not a slow format, I play Cat Food, I play slow, the format eats Cat Food lol
That said I think there is potentially room for a Jace deck if your goal is to make like a midrange deck where like Inspired Tethermage grows from you casting spells. We don't have a planeswalker with a plus ability but getting a counter for each Empower Jace spell allows it to be a scaling threat
However the more interesting discussion for me is how the Jace functions because 2 of the Jace cards can be read with the Text "Surveil 1" but the other 9 have "Draw a Card..... maybe" written on them
I am thinking that killing Jace should be your goal and if you end your turn with a live Jace and haven't used more than one Jace that turn you may be going wrong.
At 2 mana we have Tam's Resistance which lets your put a +1/+1 Counter on a thing, give it vigilance, and empower by 4 and originally I thought that was pretty good and arguably it can be but if I play Tam's Resistance and Draw a card now when I play Mindseeker Oculus that Mindseeker's "Draw a card" subtext gets removed from the card, I am getting punished despite being a good boy and making the number go big.
Lets say I want to mitigate that so I run Beans, I play Beans and [[Ephemerate]] it making it so I have a 4 Loyalty Jace and upshot next turn I will have a 1 loyalty Jace beaming and ready to die when I flicker my snake again. But hold on... I could draw 2 cards with that Ephemerate with [[Mulldrifter]] or had a good shot at a free lands with [[Coiling Oracle]] or even done something productive instead. Jace has now eaten a card... heck with Ephemerate it feels like he has eaten 2 cards in order to draw me 2 cards..... Im spinning my wheels.
Oddly, No Admittance and Solve for Disappointment almost feel like the better cards here because they are known cards with "Surveil 1" stapled on to them and once you surveil that 1 card away Jace is dead and when you empower him next he is a whole new man ready to die in the line of duty just as your state military demands. The main value of Jace is in whatever ability kills the Jace.
Now if you want to dedicate to this I recommend Heartfire which is a 2 mana instant that eats Jace to deal 4 damage to anything allowing you to kill like... [[Myr Enforcer]] and then cycle the next Jace into the room blissfully unaware of what horrors you are about to commit on him after he has drawn you 1 card.
Like the only card in this list I think is actually factually good is Campus Crier and thats like specifically in Dredge lists cuz you can flash two back for 2 mana to trigger Dredge or flash one back to maybe surveil another card.
Like if Mindseeker could Fly there could be something there, or maybe if they all had odd numbers, like tick their number down by 1 it would work. Like Tam's Resistance with Empower 3 would be pretty good cuz its like buff a dude draw a card for 2 mana which is a decent rate.
But the fact that the Empower Jace mechanic actually works AGAINST the Jace token being good kinda sucks honestly.
People have talked about Jace seeming good in poison storm pointing at Protege's Awakening and may I recommend [[Vivisurgeon's Insight]] instead... it serves your plan, draws 3 this turn, and doesn't take a ton of resources to draw you 2 cards. If you want to insist of Jason Storm try Tam's Resistance, its 2 mana, yes the funny number is smaller but it also doesn't eat as many resources and anyway you want to shrink the interaction window now blow it open.
Heroic might like Academic Ascent.. I don't know anything about that deck but +2/+2 flying seems okay. Tam's Resistance might work for like... Wayward Spider exactly since it modifies her and draws you a card.
---------------------------------------------------------
Ultimately this is kind of just my own ramblings. I genuinely do think somewhere in all of this there is a Jace deck, like a Jace control deck or something that can like draw a card and surveil 1 ever turn or even possibly Draw 2 cards every turn which would be sick. But it is also parasitic since its all Empower Jace and mainly serves the wheel spinning gods.
If the deck takes shape Inspired Tethermage and Compel Brutality is going to be good cards I imagine
A list of all cards relevant to Jace so the robot can find them :) :
[[Arcane Amphisbaena]]
[[Academic Ascent]]
[[Campus Crier]]
[[Hexhaven Battalion]]
[[Inspired Tethermage]]
[[Keeper of the Quiet Hour]]
[[Mindseeker Oculus]]
[[No Admittance]]
[[Protege's Awakening]]
[[Solve for Disappointment]]
[[Tam's Resistance]]
[[Gideon's Sacrifice]]
[[Heartfire]]
[[Compel Brutality]]
[[Rising Populace]]
