Reality Fracture releases this Friday, October 2nd. It’s a super ambitious set with all kinds of interesting card designs, and the set’s headliner mechanic – “Empower Jace” – is a big part of that.
In the story, Jace is attempting to create a new version of the multiverse and overwrite the old one. Many parts of psyche were against this plan, so Jace started removing parts of his identity that weren’t on board. Each of these parts of his identity took physical form. This resulted in several different Jaces appearing in the story.
The Empower Jace mechanic reflects this story beat mechanically. When you “Empower Jace” you create a token Jace planeswalker if you don’t already have one and he gets loyalty counters equal to the Empower value. If you already control a Jace token, you put those counters on it. Many cards with Empower Jace give you a ton of loyalty for a very low cost.
However, there’s more to this mechanic than meets the eye. While they were careful to make it so that you could only put loyalty counters on a Jace token, that doesn’t mean you can only put the counters on Reality Fracture’s relatively underpowered Jace Token. In this article, I’m going to explore some of the ways you can get far more out of Empower Jace.
JACE HAS MADE TOKEN COPIES OF HIMSELF BEFORE
While Reality Fracture is the first time we’ve seen Jace Tokens appear on such a large scale, there are actually two older Jace cards that have built in ways to make token copies – Jace, Cunning Castaway and Jace, Mirror Mage.
The former makes two copies of himself with his -5, and the latter makes a copy of himself if you kick him. Using Empower Jace to put counters on copies of Jace, Cunning Castaway is particularly spicy, because you can keep firing off those -5s until you have a board jammed full of Jace tokens that can also produce lots of 2/2 tokens and draw you cards.
OTHER WAYS TO MAKE JACE TOKENS
While using other Jaces that make token copies of themselves is the most straightforward way to find new ways to use Empower Jace, using any other effect that lets you make token copies of a Jace planeswalker works too. The bad news is there aren’t an incredible number of ways to make token copies of planeswalkers, and the ones that do exist make legendary copies, so you end up losing your original Jace.
That said, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze here, as being able to empower onto any token copy of Jace is a very powerful thing. This is because you can use Empower to rapidly raise their loyalty and gain access to incredibly powerful ultimates. That means you can quickly get Unraveler of Secrets’ game-breaking emblem, the Living Guildpact’s asymmetrical wheel effect, the Architect of Thoughts’ ability to let you cast the best card in all opposing libraries for free, and the Mind Sculptors’ library-obliterating ultimate.
BUFFING YOUR JACE TOKENS
In addition to making copies of Jace, there are also some cards that just make all of your planeswalkers better by giving them better loyalty abilities and other payoffs. This works just as well alongside nontoken Jaces, but because Empower can raise loyalty so effectively, token Jaces can really reap the rewards.
Ichormoon Gauntlet makes it so all of your planeswalkers can Proliferate for 0 loyalty – something that gets more potent the more Jaces you have. Perhaps more importantly, it also gives all of them a -12 that lets you Time Walk.
Teferi’s Talent lets you add loyalty to the enchanted planeswalkers whenever you draw a card, and also gives it a -12 that makes an emblem that makes all of your loyalty abilities instant speed.
While all Jaces are monoblue, there’s some value in dipping into other colors too, as there are a limited number of powerful planeswalkers out there. Most notably, there’s the rest of the Talent cycle, all of which both grant powerful loyalty abilities while also giving the enchanted planeswalker a triggered ability of some kind.
WHO IS THE BEST COMMANDER FOR ALL OF THIS?
Fittingly enough, the character who inherited Jace’s spark is probably the best Commander for this deck. While it’s true her proliferate isn’t going to go off in a tech featuring only Jace planeswalkers, her ability to let you cast them at a discount while giving you access to all five colors is plenty. With a limited number of Empower Jace cards, planeswalker copying effects and planeswalker payoffs out there, you want access to as many of them as you can get to go off with Empower Jace.
In addition to effects that just outright buff planeswalkers like the Talents, there’s also stuff like the Oath cycle, which are all pretty great when you are using a deck jam-packed with planeswalkers
END STEP
Empower Jace is a cool mechanic, and there are lots of interesting ways to take advantage of it. Are there any that you think I left out? If there are, let me know over on X or Bluesky.
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.