Repeatable burn is always nice, especially when
it can deal more than 1 damage at a time. Jaya
Ballard can effectively turn any card in your
hand into a Pyroblast, Incinerate, or Inferno,
which means you'll never run out of solid burn
spells... until you run out of cards in hand.
Red is quite good at running out of cards in
hand, and when that happens, this becomes a Gray
Ogre. Still, it's always nice knowing that
whatever you topdeck could be an Incinerate or
Inferno instead if you prefer it to be. There's
also the little problem of Jaya having no way of
protecting herself from her own Inferno-- unless
you're running Darksteel Plate, that trick only
works once. And of course, she legendary, so I
have to mention that monored Commander decks
tend to struggle unless they're combo decks.
Jaya is good if you need to make sure you can
draw a kill spell when you need it (and the
thing you need to kill has 3 or less toughness)
but she's not a great card to rely on. She was
made into a card for nostalgia purposes, and so
she satisfies her purpose, but the truth is,
she's just not that great of a card as the story
of Jaya would imply.
Red, as our readers will have ample time to
consider this week, is about more than just fire
and lightning. It's about individualism and
freedom. It's about passion and creativity.
Having said that, Jaya Ballard is all about
fire, but here that's a good thing. Her
abilities foreshadowed the planeswalker cards of
the very next block, and called back to the
classic cards Pyroblast, Incinerate, and
Inferno, which happened to be among the best red
spells ever made. Getting a repeatable version
of them is great. Synergizing with madness and
flashback is amazing. While it feels a little
odd to have a creature version of arguably the
most quotable personality in Magic's history,
you can't argue with results, and if you've ever
seen Jaya take over a game, you know the results
firsthand.
Today's card of the day is Jaya Ballard, Task
Mage which is a three mana
2/2 Red legendary creature that can effectively
turn any card in hand into Pyroblast,
Incinerate, or Inferno at the cost of a discard
and one, two, and seven mana respectively.
The first ability is primarily sidedeck or
situational, though the second being reusable
Incinerate is enough to maindeck her in many Red
burn builds. The Inferno effect may not
see play as often as Incinerate or even
Pyroblast, but the option is nice for a finisher
should the game go on for a while or in
Multiplayer. Haste or Hexproof effects are
an excellent addition to a deck with Jaya
andSwiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves are
practically made for her. Overall this is
a very powerful card that embodies versatility
and aside from needing cards in hand, which can
somewhat be mitigated by card drawing engines,
this is one of the most flexible and effective
creatures with tap effects.
For Limited this is a major bomb that can make
any deck drastically better just by being in it.
Removal wins games and turning any card you draw
into it is a fast path to victory. The
format often has a lack of natural removal and
an excess of mana or bad topdecks, all of which
is addressed by Jaya. The Legendary status
isn't a drawback when you only have access to
one and any Sealed should run her provided most
of the mana sources are Red to get over the two
thirds specific casting cost.
The lack of real drawbacks also make her an
absolute first pick in Booster and a card to
worry about for any opponent.
Welcome to a new
week of card of the day reviews here at
Pojo.com! This week, my family and I chose some
of our favorite cards, and they all turned out
to be red, so get ready for a heat wave! Kicking
off the week, we look at Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
from Time Spiral. Jaya Ballard is a rare red
legendary creature human spell shaper. Jaya
Ballard costs two red and one generic mana. Jaya
Ballard is a 2/2 that has three abilities. The
first ability is pay one red mana, tap Jaya
Ballard, discard a card from your hand, destroy
target blue permanent. Her second ability is pay
a generic mana and a red mana, tap, discard a
card, deal three damage to target creature or
player, a creature hit this way cannot
regenerate. Her last ability is pay five generic
and two red mana, tap, discard a card, deal six
damage to each creature and each player.
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage was a planeswalker before
there were planeswalkers, that is why she has
three abilities. And they all are amazing! I
love Jaya Ballard so much, she is definitely one
of my favorite Legendary creatures. So
versatile, and so useful. I do wish that the
toughness had been a bit higher, but she
certainly serves her purposes. Any blue
permanent had better be careful of her first
ability, planeswalkers included. Three damage
can handle many things, or just be a decent blow
to your opponents face. And her final is just
crazy for board control. There will be things
left after it goes off, but not much.
I really wish that Jaya would have had
protection from her own spells, but I guess that
would have made her too powerful, and besides,
she is just fine the way she is. Going to
continue blowing things up with her, see you
guys tomorrow for more card of the day reviews
here at Pojo.com!
