#ButWhy is this card so expensive... Jace, the Mind Sculptor

In this article, I want to try something new. With our "Weekly Winners" articles, Peter discusses which cards have gone up in the past week and why. When a price changes drastically, there's (usually) a reason for that, for example an unbanning, spoiling of a new card that complements a card, or some new tech. But why are cards expensive that, well, already are expensive? That's what I'm going to try to explore in this article series. This first one will be posted as a bit of an experiment, and from there, we'll see whether it's fun to do this (bi)weekly. Any feedback is appreciated. You can contact us through our Twitter or through e-mail at website@mtgstocks.com.

Aim of this article

Many articles require (some) background knowledge about formats, the metagame and price history of a card and similar cards. We also like to serve newcomers, casual players and infrequent players in the community who would like to understand how or why a card got to where it is now.

In this first instalment, let's go for a card that has been in the spotlight for these past two weeks: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Let's start by looking at the price over time.

From the original printing, in Worldwake, we only have price information from June 2012 onward, where Jace was around $56. During the unbanning announcement in Modern, he briefly shot up to $190 to its all time high, and settling around $140. Up until last week, his last ATH was around $130 in April 2013. Worldwake was a relatively small set with a low supply, meaning that a card that powerful and popular was bound the be expensive.

Abilities

Jace comes with four abilities, instead of three which we usually see on planeswalkers, but all four abilities are strong. When you are ahead, or even slightly behind, on your opponent, Jace will be able to turn the tables in your favor really quickly.

Look at the top card of target player's library. You may put that card on the bottom of that player's library.

This ability can manipulate your opponent's draws. Usually opponents do have outs to a lock, but Jace will make sure he/she won't find it. Adding two counters on Jace immediately makes him harder to kill.

Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.

Brainstorm on a stick. A spell that's arguably already the most powerful card in Magic. Each and every turn you can manipulate the top of your own library and netting you card advantage in the process.

Return target creature to its owner's hand.

Jace can protect itself the turn it comes into play by bouncing a problematic creature, which can then be countered when cast again. It may not be his most powerful ability, but it's a good way to stall your opponent.

Exile all cards from target player's library, then that player shuffles his or her hand into his or her library.

The built in kill condition. You destroy your opponent's library, and the few cards he had in his hands will be in there. So you've destroyed your opponent's hand (which is now empty), and he's on a very short clock.

Standard

Jace was printed in February 2010, and quickly found its way to Standard in Caw-Go decks. The deck only played 4 copies of Squadron Hawk as creatures, together with Gideon Jura and a lot of Counterspells and sweepers. A typical turn was to untap, draw a card and pass the turn, hence "Caw-Go", and keeping your mana open to react to your opponent. Later, Stoneforge Mystic was added to the deck, with a few swords, making it Caw-Blade. Jace is in there as card advantage, control and kill condition. Once he hit the table, it was basically game over. The deck, but mainly Jace, was deemed too powerful and was banned from Standard along with Stoneforge Mystic. At that time you would have to pay $80 for a Jace, which dropped to $65 after the ban announcement.

Eternal formats

After that, if you wanted to play Jace, you had to play Legacy or Vintage. Modern didn't officially exist yet when Jace was banned from Standard. When Avacyn Restored came out, Jace found its home in Legacy's Miracle Control. I remember when watching SCG Legacy events, the phrase "When you untap with Jace, you've probably won" was uttered on multiple occasions. When this deck really took off, Jace went up to around $100. Being able to Brainstorm every turn "for free" and putting your Terminus, Entreat the Angels or the card you were most likely wanting to reveal to a Counterbalance back on top, is nothing short of a miracle (yes, pun).

When Modern was announced in 2011, Jace was on the initial banlist. Wizards also understood how powerful Jace was, and didn't want the same Caw-Blade decks in Modern that they wanted to prevent in Standard. Jace was slowly been coming down in price, since its supply was increasing through reprints in From the Vault: Twenty, Eternal Masters, and now in Masters 25, with it's lowest point around $65 before the unbanning in Modern.

So... #ButWhy is this card so expensive? Well... Short answer: Jace is a powerhouse.