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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!


Image from Wizards.com

Jace's Archivist
M12

Reviewed July 12, 2011

Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.20
Multiplayer: 4.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Jace's Archivist

Repeated activations of this card can be an effective milling tool as long as somebody keeps their hand size up-- the problem is, you're milling yourself too. Since the Archivist gives everybody a hand size equal to whoever had the most cards in hand, it can be an effective draw tool against a player with a bigger hand size than you-- the problem is, you're the Blue mage, and should therefore have the most cards in hand. Making your opponents cycle their hand every turn should also make it harder for them to plan their moves more than a turn in advance, allowing you to disrupt their long-term plans-- the problem is, you're in the same boat as them, and again, Blue is the color most likely to be making long-term plans.

But really, the biggest problem with Jace's Archvist is that mill is dead. The Eldrazi Titans make mill a completely non-viable strategy just by your opponent having even one anywhere in his deck, and anyone can keep one in their sideboard. Jace's Archivist might make a comeback once the Titans rotate out of Standard, but in older formats and casual decks he'll never get to shine. Commander treats him the worst-- Emrakul may be banned, but Kozilek and Ulamog are all the more popular due to the format allowing folks to hope to cast them legit someday. Factor in Elixir of Immortality, which is also colorless and is cheap and beneficial enough for people to actually run a playset of in order to cast, and I don't expect to see any successful mill decks anytime soon.
What that means is, Jace's Archivist is relegated to a combo piece. He could be hilarious in a deck with Underworld Dreams or Megrim, or he could team up with a card like Cerebral Vortex, but without some sort of help like that, his only real purpose is adding value to Jace Beleren's story.

Constructed- 1.5
Casual- 2
Limited- 1.5
Multiplayer- 1.75

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Jace's Archivist

When they put a powerful spell effect on a creature, it usually ends up making it stronger, not weaker. Dark Confidant is usually more powerful than Phyrexian Arena. Pestermite is usually more powerful than Twiddle. Aether Adept is usually more powerful than Unsummon. Jace's Archivist . . . well, it may not always be more powerful than Windfall, since it doesn't win the same turn you cast it, barring some kind of shenanigans involving Swiftfoot Boots. Sometimes, though, it'll survive long enough to activate, and you'll draw a bunch of stuff you can play to get even further ahead. And a few times, you'll do that again. And if you're lucky, you'll do it a third time. And if you manage to do those, it'll be hard to lose.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Paul

Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is the interesting wizard version of Windfall Jace’s Archivist. Powerful effects attached to creature bodies such as Fauna Shaman in the last core set continues with our little wizard friend., While a powerful effect  I don’t see many decks in constructed that want to be built  around this effect or are currently searching for the effect, discard decks? Mill decks? Not powerful archetypes. In standard, extended and eternal I don’t foresee this card seeing much play yet, it has a fragile body but a powerful effect time will tell for now I am tentative. In casual and multiplayer this card is  insane having a repeatable Windfall on a wizard its going to be amazing, the amount of combos available to this card and how it supports various popular casual strategies such as  mill, discard, reanimator and more making this a popular  card  at the kitchen table. In  limited I am not sold on this, it’s  not necessarily an effect you want put it could make picking  up extra Tome Scours worth it for a genuinely powerful milling strategy. Overall I am psyched to see more creatures based on power classic cards and this one is sure to see play in casual although I am not sure where else.
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 5.0

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Jace's Archivist which is a three mana 2/2 Blue creature that for one Blue can tap to have each player discard their hand and draw cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded.  This works well with Jace and support an actual mill deck in current formats, disrupt an opponent's hand, fuel a draw draw condition trigger, or just allow you to draw some new cards as needed.  Any of those options make this playable and it will definitely be seen play in some capacity.  Overall this is a solid card with a variety of potential uses and should not be overlooked when building a Blue or possibly Blue/Black deck.
 
In Limited this is unlikely to be as effective as in Constructed formats as the support isn't readily available, but it can still be a useful card in a lesser capacity.  Mill, disruption, and in particular draw are possible uses for this fairly affordable card leaving the primary drawback as the heavy reliance on Blue mana.  Unless the deck is mostly Blue the odds of this entering play on the third turn, or earlier, is slim which reduces the power drastically.  With the color dependency and possibility of helping your opponent as much as yourself it may or may not be worth playing in Sealed which leaves the decision on if other support exists in the rest of the pool.  In Booster you can draft a heavily Blue deck and cards to work with the Archivist, which may be enough to be effective, but even then other rares typically have the edge in this format.
 
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

    Welcome to another card of the day review here at Pojo.com. Today we are looking at Jace’s Archivist from M12. Jace’s Archivist is a blue creature Vedalken Wizard that costs two blue and one generic and is a 2/2. Jace’s Archivist’s ability is pay one blue mana, tap, each player discards their hand and draws cards equal to the highest amount discarded.

     Of all the rare spells based around a Planeswalker in M12, none have the synergy of Jace’s Archivist. If you have out even one Jace’s Erasure, using this ability is a milling machine. And then just imagine if you are able to use Jace’s final ability, you could mill someone instantly.

     But I think that the best way of exploiting Jace’s Archivist is to use it with Liliana’s Caress or Megrim. Of course playing standard requires using the Caress. The ability of forcing discard with that out could make the opponent or opponents in multiplayer lose a lot of life.

     I definitely see this card making waves, both in casual and tournament play.
 
Limited: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Multiplayer: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5


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