Let’s start with the interesting ones first. Making a triumphant return from the dark horror filled plane of Innistrad, are Dual Faced cards returning in the form of the five Planeswalkers driving the story of this set. Each starts as a Legendary Creatures with a trigger to ignite it’s spark and turn it into a Planeswalker.

Let’s look at everyone’s favourite Planeswalker, Jace:

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1U

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

0/2

T: Draw a card, then discard a card. If there are five or more cards in your graveyard, exile Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner’s control.

Jace, Telepath Unbound

*Blue*

Planeswalker — Jace

5

+1: Up to one target creature gets ­2/­0 until your next turn.

-3: You may cast target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard this turn. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.

-9: You get an emblem with “Whenever you cast a spell, target opponent puts the top five cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.”

When not on the battlefield Jace will always have the attributes of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and then when on the battlefield he will have the attributes of which ever face is showing, now here comes the interesting part… what happens when you manifest Jace? With the release of Fate Reforged and the introduction of the Manifest mechanic, all Dual Face cards gained a third face that allows them to be placed face down. While we’re on the topic of faces what happens when you have a Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Jace, Telepath Unbound on the battlefield at the same time, well actually nothing happens. State Based Actions check for Legends of the same name or a Planeswalkers with the same subtype meaning that you can have both faces on the battlefield and they will get along happily.

Let’s talk about what happens when a Planeswalker’s spark ignites and their ability triggers, there are two times the ability could trigger 1) in your main phase with an empty stack and 2) every other time. If it triggers in your main phase when it returns to the battlefield as a Planeswalker you will have an opportunity to activate one of their abilities before your opponent gets to respond. When the ability triggers at any other time when they return as a Planeswalker you will not be able to activate any of their abilities before your opponent has the chance to destroy them.

Scry

Calling Scry a returning ability is a slight stretch as it is yet to leave Standard after coming in during Theros. The mechanics of Scry X is simple, you look at the top X cards and choose to put any number on the top or bottom in the order of your choice, simple. When it gets tricky is when it makes you Scry and the top card is revealed.

Scry normally comes from two sources, it’s either attached to spell or it’s attached to a triggered ability. When a spell with scry (Magma Jet for example) resolves you are not allowed to let your opponent forget to scry, so unless they make mention that they are scrying and leaving them as they are, you need to remind your opponent to scry. If a triggered ability is the source of the scry (Thassa for example) then due to the missed trigger policy you are allowed not to remind them to scry, we’ll go into more detail about the missed trigger policy at a later date. Now let’s move onto a returning ability that’s a little older…

Prowess

Now Prowess is quite an old, hang on… wait that isn’t right, Prowess is less than a year old making it the baby of the returning Mechanics. Prowess is a fairly simple ability really it gives the creature it’s attached to +1/+1 when you play a noncreature spell, this happens whether the spell resolves or not. It’s that old missed trigger policy that makes things slightly more interesting. When you have to show awareness of the Prowess trigger is when it would have a visual effect on the game, this is typically when the creature would deal damage.

The real big news for Prowess and Scry is that they have become “Evergreen” this means that they no longer need to be attached to a set as a mechanic to be printed onto a card.

New abilities

Renown

Our first new keyword is Renown, this ability wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Theros block and works very similarly to the Monstrosity ability. However, instead of being activated, it triggers when the creature deals combat damage to a player, when it does deal combat damage it will get a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number after Renown.

It won’t trigger if the creature attacks a Planeswalker or deals combat damage to a creature, also like the Monstrosity ability, once the creature becomes Renowned that is it, no matter what happens with those +1/+1 counters the creature will be Renown all the time it’s on the battlefield.

Spell Mastery

Next up we have Spell Mastery, this  one is fairly simple. If you have two or more instant or sorcery cards in your graveyard when the spell resolves you get an extra effect on your spell.

It’s checked on the resolution of the spell not when you cast the spell or while the spell is on the stack. If you manage to get the two or more cards required the spell will gain it’s extra effect or if your opponent manages to remove them it won’t get the extra.

This isn’t true of Exquisite Firecraft and Swift Reckoning. As Swift Reckoning’s Spell Mastery alters when you can cast the spell it is checked when you start casting the spell. With Exquisite Firecraft it just makes the spell uncounterable while you have two or more instants or sorceries in the graveyard.

Menace

We’re at our last ability, Menace. The effect of Menace is not new, it’s simply been given a keyword. The creature must be blocked by two or more creatures, if a creature has multiple instances of Menace this will satisfy all of them.

Removing blockers to reduce the number of blockers to less than 2 will not stop the creature being blocked.

Here is the answer to last weeks question:

You draw two cards, Precursor Golem states it creates copies for each other legal target. If you cast repeal for 0, Precursor Golem itself isn’t a legal target so a copy wouldn’t be created targeting it.

For this week’s question lets have some fun with the new Planeswalkers:

You are playing Abigail. You control Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and have 4 cards in your graveyard. Abigail in her second main phase targets Jace with Hero’s Downfall, in response you choose to Jace’s ability. What happens as the stack resolves?

Have fun this weekend and if you have anything interesting come up, let me know!

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