Jace, Unraveler of Secrets Deckbuilding Challenge thread

Hibernum_JC · February 2017

Post your decks here!

THEMAGICkMAN · February 2017

Here is my Jace, Unraveler of Secrets common and uncommon only deck!

Decklist:

Creatures
Drownyard Behemoth
Runaway Carriage
Mockery of Nature
Daring Sleuth

Spells
Chilling Grasp
Gone Missing
Pore Over the Pages

supoorts
Trail of Evidence
Ongoing Investigation
True Faith Censer

Guide:

The Creatures:
Runaway Carriage and Drownyard Behemoth are both here due to their hexproof abilities. this is a very relevant keyword as removal is so prevalent in the meta. the P/T to cost ratio doesn't really matter, as the strategy involves stalling until you hit your ultimate and win the game very fast. Mockery of Nature is decent support removal, which is very, very important in the current meta, as there are many supports that can spell the end in the game. It can also become a very large beater with your third ability. Daring Sleuth is pretty "meh" when he's unflipped, but after he's flipped he becomes a GOD with ongoing investigation. the card advantage this brings is absolutely insane, and with our ultimate out it gets ten times better. sometimes a little tough to flip, but so worth it when he does.

The Spells
Chilling Grasp and Gone Missing are the removal and stall package for this deck. Gone Missing is great as it investigates, letting us draw a card, and also doesn't require your opponent to have less than 6 cards in hand like other bounce effects. Chilling Grasp lets us disable not one, but TWO creatures until our next turn. This is an amazing stall card and its madness keyword works nicely with Pore Over the Pages. Remember the aim is to stall until we can play our third ability and end the game very fast. Pore Over the Pages is an amazing draw spell that also gives us a bit of mana. Its discard clause synergizes well with Chilling Grasp. This is definitely the best draw spell we can use, very good card.

The Supports
Now here is the meat of the deck! Trail of Evidence is a great draw engine with the number of spells we have, you'll be triggering this quite often. Letting us draw extra cards while our ultimate is out is the end-game plan of the deck, and this card does that very well. Ongoing Investigation is an absolutely insane card with this deck, picture this: you have 2 creatures out and your ultimate and Ongoing Investigation, you'll be drawing 3+ cards per turn which is an insane amount of P/T buffs on our creatures, this is the main engine of the deck and the primary way you will win games. True Faith Censer is decent end-game protection. You only really want to play this when your creatures are very large from your ultimate so that they can block for pretty much forever.

Tips and Tricks
Try and make sure you have ongoing investigation and a couple of creatures out when you play your ultimate, that way you can start dealing tons of damage even sooner, barring that have a fully charged Pore Over the Pages to give your creatures and immediate buff.
Always have one removal/disruption spell available when possible. This deck is slow to set up, and you need to survive until your end-game. Keeping removal charged will help you survive until then.

Other Notable Information
This deck is most effective against PVE bosses, its generally too slow for PVP. against some of the higher health bosses this does really well. Adding some ramp to help get the deck off the ground would be a great idea if you were planning to use this in PVP.

Strengths and Weaknesses
the decks strengths are:
against another slow deck
against a removal heavy deck (most of your creatures are hexproof)

the decks weaknesses are:
Flyers, you can add Ghostly Wings and combo that with True Faith Censer to take out flyers late game, but there wasn't enough space in this list
Aggro, this is a slow deck, slow decks generally lose to aggro
Hexproofs, your stall cards can't target them, so there isn't a way to deal with them until you're in your late game with True Faith Censer (that card really is an all star)

Hope you enjoyed this list! I used a very similar strategy when I was levelling up my Jace2, and it is very effective.

Grenade110 · February 2017

This is my Jace, Unraveller of Secrets Combo-Control deck.

Creatures: (1)
Drowner of Hope

Spells: (4)
Stratus Walk
Scour From Existence
Whir of Invention
Foundry Of the Counsuls

Supports: (5)
Sphinx's Tutelage
Oath of Jace
Skyline Cascade
Thopter Spy Network
Shivan Reef

The idea is to get Drowner of Hope out with Thopter Spy Network and at least one other support.

Drowner of Hope is pivotal to this deck and absolutely brutal. The Scions he spawns will help trigger him and will also defend against any hasty creature that comes out.

Stratus Walk generally hits the tokens from Drowner to increase their effectiveness, but can also hit Drowner to let him soar.

Whir of Invention will put one support on the board which will add to the number of supports or reinforce one I already have out.

Scour From Existence is the removal of this deck and it investigating can add to the control elements of this deck.

Foundry Of the Counsuls will give me four Thopters which will trigger Drowner.

Shivan Reef is a bit of a filler since I don't have Corrupted Grafstone or Sunken Hollow yet. Either of them would be ideal since Jace2 gets more mana from blue and black matches.

Skyline Cascade will disable a creature for a turn and assist the Reef in gem conversion.

Sphinx's Tutelage slow the opponent down considerably with each card draw.

Oath of Jace will slow down the opponent as well and will trigger Sphinx's Tutelage if Tutelage comes out first.

Thopter Spy Network is crucial to the deck as it combos with Drowner of Hope to lock the opponent down enough for the Thopters to beat them.

I've used this deck for weeks with varying lists as I leveled both Jaces with this but I've found that Jace2 is so much faster with this deck due to his first ability. The mana gain can get insane especially with 3+ supports out.

buscemi · February 2017

Jace2 lvl 60 deck

Rattlechains
Startled Awake
Niblis of Frost

Imprisoned in the Moon
Catalog
Pore over the Pages
Engulf the Shore

Fevered Visions
Tamiyo's Journal
Corrupted Grafstone

Spirits, spirits, and more spirits! This deck features an extreme amount of card draw, for two reasons; firstly because once Rattlechains is in play, each Startled Awake drawn becomes free, and each Niblis of Frost nearly free... and secondly, once Jace's 3rd ability is active, your creatures will get very large, very quickly. You may end up drawing so many cards that you'll be exiling some of them every turn just to draw more, but it'll be worth it! Being a mono-blue planeswalker, Jace has no easy answer to enemy supports, but he should be able to deal damage quickly with his creatures, and Fevered Visions doubles up not only as card draw, but as a creatureless source of damage.

Falizar · February 2017

Jace 2.0 Level 60 Deck

Forgotten Creation
Thing in Ice

Fevered Visions
Trail of Evidence
Tamiyo's journal

Gone Missing
Pore over Pages
Chilling Grasp
Imprisoned in the Moon
Engulf the Shore

Played something close to this in the original **** events,.

Basically keep opponents creatures neutralized and swing away with a flipped Thing in Ice.

JTyler · February 2017

Here is my Jace lvl 60 unravel deck: https://mtgpq.info/deck/detail/bhc

As you probably know, it's a slow deck until you can hit your Unravel ability. Then this deck goes crazy. Every time you play Forgotten Creation with the unravel support, each creature gets +24/+24, which will have a 50% chance of play with no mana cost at the start of every turn with Gisa and Geralf.

In early play, use the Talent of Telepathy card as often as you can to pick cards strategically. You will need supports to gain mana and change gems so as to play cards quickly, the downside of the Forgotten Creation card is that it clears your hand randomly.

Grimmening · February 2017

Deck Name: "MHGrim's Unraveled Spirits"
Category: End Game
Expansion: Shadows Over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon
Planeswalker: Jace Unraveler of Secrets

Deck List:
Creatures
Rattlechains
Startled Awake/Persistent Nightmare
Nibilis of Frost

Spells
Engulf the Shore
Pore Over the Pages
Imprisoned in the Moon

Supports
Ongoing Investigations
Choked Estuary
Drownyard Temple
Mind's Dilation

Explanation of Strategy
TLDR: This deck provides massive mana gain and card draw which powers almost unrivaled denial of enemy creatures and reliable flying and unblockable damage throughput. The flavor of this particular build focuses more heavily on the mana and card draw than other builds with this theme.

This deck focuses on Rattlechains, and its ability to hexproof and summon other spirits. The deck requires precision in card stacking and therefore has a very high skill cap in playing it correctly. Rattlechains summons and protects Startled Awake and Niblis of Frost. Startled Awake in turn provides massive mana for playing mana fixing cards, and then damage, denial (enemy creature denial), and draw cards.

The concept of using Rattlechains with other spirits is obvious in his ability, and the only choice of planeswalker in this deckbuilding challenge is of course Jace Unraveler of Secrets. The synergy of massive card draw with JaceUS 3rd ability is also a fairly obvious conclusion, if the support can be played and kept on the board. This however is never guaranteed, so the deck requires reliable and cheap removal to deal with enemy threats to give time to build either sufficient spirits, or the Unravel Support. The strengths of this iteration of the JaceUS/Rattlechains is found in the synergy of Imprisoned in the Moon/Engulf the Shore and in the triple mana fix of Choked Estuary/Drownyard Temple/Mind's Dilation. Choked Estuary/Drownyard Temple/Mind's Dilation are great together because Drownyard Temple and Mind's Dilation offer a high probability of adding mana into and fully casting any non-spirit card in hand between the end of your turn and the beginning of your next turn. Choked Estuary is INCREDIBLY important because of Startled Awake. Startled Awake should be moved to the TOP of the hand at the beginning of the turn because of the mana it provides, and multiple SAs should be stacked. Since you can't guarantee that SA will be towards the top of your hand as you draw them, Choked Estuary greatly increases the chances you'll be able to get the blue or black match required to "ignite" the first SA in the chain.

Startled Awake and Niblis of Frost are the most powerful choices to go with Rattlechains in that their abilities are strong, and they are directly summoned by Rattlechains. Startled Awake is summoned for free, and Niblis of Frost is reduced to a cost of 1. In order to proc Niblis of Frost reliably however, a VERY CHEAP spell should be included in the deck, which is Imprisoned in the Moon. Imprisoned in the Moon may provide a small boost in mana to the opponent, but can be easily cleared with Engulf the Shore. The reason for the inclusion of three separate mana fixing cards becomes apparent when you clear your hand multiple times on many turns. Ongoing Investigation reliably brings your card draw/turn to 4 cards, and this is boosted by successive casts of Pore over the Pages. This card draw not only procs the support Unravel, but also provides for the aggressive removal potential which easily allows for kills without Unravel.

Updated Comments
6:02pm 18FEB2017: When I was creating my supporting graphics and doing my writeup, I had not yet seen "buscemi's" deck. I imagine there will be quite a few Jace2/Rattlechains decks that will utilize a lot of the same cards. I think my version distinguishes itself in the choice of supports. I feel that Catalog is unnecessary in that Pore Over the Pages already fills that roll better, and MUCH more card draw can be gained from good supports. Corrupted Grafstone is inferior to Choked Estuary in that CE provides specificity of color matching for Jace2 and the delirium effect of potentially changing 6 gems. It's slightly more expensive, which is easily offset by the mana gain focus of my version of the deck. Ongoing Investigation regularly nets 2-3 cards/turn whereas Tamiyo's Journal averages only 1. Fevered Visions provides card draw to the opponent, and provides only limited direct damage. Mind's Dilation hinders the most dangerous counters to this deck, heavy spellcasting decks, and drastically increases the chances of being able to "ignite" Startled Awake chains each turn, and so is more beneficial to the heavy mana needs of clearing a hand every turn and reliably casting Engulf the Shore.

Supporting Graphics
Visual Representation of Deck

Visual showing the potential for mana flow and potential to cast 6+ cards in a turn.

buscemi · February 2017

Grimmening wrote:

Updated Comments
6:02pm 18FEB2017: When I was creating my supporting graphics and doing my writeup, I had not yet seen "buscemi's" deck. I imagine there will be quite a few Jace2/Rattlechains decks that will utilize a lot of the same cards. I think my version distinguishes itself in the choice of supports. I feel that Catalog is unnecessary in that Pore Over the Pages already fills that roll better, and MUCH more card draw can be gained from good supports. Corrupted Grafstone is inferior to Choked Estuary in that CE provides specificity of color matching for Jace2 and the delirium effect of potentially changing 6 gems. It's slightly more expensive, which is easily offset by the mana gain focus of my version of the deck. Ongoing Investigation regularly nets 2-3 cards/turn whereas Tamiyo's Journal averages only 1. Fevered Visions provides card draw to the opponent, and provides only limited direct damage. Mind's Dilation hinders the most dangerous counters to this deck, heavy spellcasting decks, and drastically increases the chances of being able to "ignite" Startled Awake chains each turn, and so is more beneficial to the heavy mana needs of clearing a hand every turn and reliably casting Engulf the Shore

Oh, we're critiquing each other's decks, are we? I see. You've written a lot of things there that sound very plausible, but most of them aren't true.

Ongoing Investigation only draws more cards than Tamiyo's Journal when you're already ahead on the board, and as such it's a 'win more' card.

The card draw that Fevered Visions gives away is trivial, and it's direct damage is far from 'limited'; ask any Platinum Tier player.

Mind's Dilation is a card for swapping in against specific decks, and practically useless in many matchups.

Corrupted Graftstone can be cast in a single turn off a black OR blue match, and you seem to be implying that it does not produce mana specific to Jace 2? The delirium effect on Choked Estuary is largely irrelevant; after all, if there is a deficit of black and blue gems on the board, it's probably going to take you 4 matches at 3 mana a time to cast it.

I do not feel that Catalog is unnecessary! It very quickly allows me to draw into whatever cards are relevant at each stage of the match, from Startled Awake, Grafstone, FV and Journal in the early game when I need resource generating cards, through to Imprisoned in the Moon when problematic creatures start to come into play, and more spirits, all of which become cheaper when Rattlechains is in play. Did you not notice that I am playing Catalog AND Pore over the Pages? It sounds like you didn't notice that.

Note to moderators: I'm not going to write critiques of everyone's decks, but I do intend to write critiques of their critiques of my decks.

Astralwind · February 2017

Deck Name: "Unraveller of Horror"
Category: Mid Game (1 Mythic only)
Expansion: Shadows Over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon
Planeswalker: Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

Creatures
Thing in the Ice
Niblis of Frost
Docent of Perfection

Spells
Chilling Grasp
Imprisoned in the Moon
Haunted Cloak
Pore Over the Pages
Catalog

Supports
Trail of Evidence
Fevered Visions

As this deck only has one mythic card, it's suitable for mid-game.
Thing in the Ice requires a bit of observation and planning to use. When you feel absolutely overwhelmed and the hand card sucks, activate it.
Nibils of Frost is a creature to buy time. It can disable the first creature of the opponent permanently as long as there are spells in the hand.
Docent of Perfection is to provide some synergy to the deck. Spell casting puts a 1/1 human wizard into play and before docent transforms, it is an insect horror and is not affected by Thing in the Ice.
Notice that the spells included in this deck are not that high in cost. Even the supports are low in cost.
Since this deck is designed for mid-game, the planewalker's mana gain has not reached its full potential and hence, it's important to keep cost affordable.
With trail of evidence and fevered visions to keep the card coming in, as well as pore over the pages and catalog, the hand should be pretty full most of the time.
But there is no point keeping your hands full of cards if you can't have enough mana to cast them out and hence, the low cost of cards in this deck.

Chilling grasp serves to buy time until Thing in the Ice is activated to send away all creatures.
But it's bad to keep relying on Thing in the Ice. So there Imprisoned in the Moon to deal with huge creatures and haunted cloak to deal with smaller creatures.
If Docent of perfection is already in play, simply turn the disposable wizards into meat shield with haunted cloak. Haunted cloak is a very flexible card and can even force opponent's creature with menace or flying to block.
Nibils of Frost works well too by disabling hexproof creature and you can finish it off with Imprisoned in the moon.
Thing in the Ice is good against decks that likes to deal damage to it. e.g. Koth that cast Tyrant of Valakut that will activate it instantly.

To sum it up on how to use this deck,
Keep drawing cards and keep gaining loyalty points.
Play creatures when available.
Do creature control on the opponent's creature and delay them until the horror emerges from Thing in the Ice.
Continue to keep the cards coming in for more Thing in the Ice, more Imprisoned in the Moon, more Chilling Grasp.
Do not use Jace's 1st or 2nd ability if possible unless the situation is absolutely perilous. Aim for the 3rd skill.
Once the 3rd skill is out, draw cards furiously and finish off the opponent in a few turns.

Grimmening · February 2017

buscemi wrote:

Oh, we're critiquing each other's decks, are we? I see.

Whoa man... whoa.

My intent, Sir, was to distinguish the choices I made, and my understanding of why I preferred them. It was not a personal attack against you, at all. I didn't know that distinguising my choices (which I began with the phrase "I feel or I prefer") was "critiquing", but whatever.

I didn't mean to trigger you.

I have responses to each of your assertions, and was preparing a graphic looking at statistical probabilities of matches/delirium hp lost/turn etc... but I think in the spirit of good sportsmanship, and given my perception of your "ask any platinum player" discontent with my opinions, and given the apparent hostility towards discussing these differences, I'm just going to say good day. I wish you well man.

Mainloop25 · February 2017

Here is my mid-level Jace2 deck. I like this planeswalker because he doesn't have to rely on the most rare hard-to-find cards to be competitive if you know how to pilot his abilities. There are a few key rares that are a must-have, so I included him.

Mid Game (Planeswalker levels 40 to 60, build using level 40 restrictions)
Mostly uncommons, rares, and 1 Mythic maximum.

I went back and forth with what would be the best Mythic to go with for this challenge. I finally settled upon Startled Awake. Its 13-mana boost is such a kickstart to the rest of your hand that it becomes essential not only to cast the rest of your cards, but also to save loyalty for his 3rd ability, which is the game winner.

The other creatures are going to be Niblis of Frost and Docent of Perfection. We are going spell-heavy to take advantage of the other creature's abilities. Imprisoned In The Moon is one of the best creature removal spells in the game, because you can also use it on one of Docent of Perfection's Wizard tokens and buff it to generate your own mana battery. Haunted Cloak can be used to create a cheap blocker to help stall while you build loyalty for the 3rd ability. Murderer's Axe can help buff up that blocker. The 4th spell slot is a little flexible. I went with Ghostly Wings just to give your blocker flying and a slight bump, but Chilling Grasp, Broken Concentration, or a different spell of your choice could also fit. Niblis of Frost and all those spells being cast basically shuts down your opponent's first creature slot, and you can cycle between the rest of your creatures as you see fit.

Tamiyo's Journal is pretty much an auto-include for Jace 2, if you have it. It basically guarantees an extra card a turn, which lets you get to your most important cards quickly. Trail of Evidence will also get you tons of clues once you're casting all those cheap spells. Corrupted Grafstone is the best gem converter for any mono-color Planeswalker and should be in any Jace2 deck.

As long as you can wait long enough to play Unravel, it should be a quick and easy victory for almost any match from there.

span_argoman · February 2017

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets

Level 1
Daring Sleuth
Wicker Witch
Stitchwing Skaab
Runaway Carriage
Trail of Evidence
Choked Estuary
Vessel of Paramnesia
Murderer's Axe
Chilling Grasp
Ghostly Wings

Level 40
Rattlechains
Niblis of Frost
Nebelgast Herald
Mercurial Geists
Corrupted Grafstone
Tamiyo's Journal
Fevered Visions
Slayer's Plate
Imprisoned in the Moon
Gone Missing

Level 60
Startled Awake
Rattlechains
Emrakul, the Promised End
Niblis of Frost
Corrupted Grafstone
Tamiyo's Journal
Fevered Visions
Slayer's Plate
Imprisoned in the Moon
Engulf the Shore

mingninja · February 2017

Detail - The deck build around these theory
1.AI will use 1st ability the most and sometime 2nd. Jace gain mana like crazy. That's great for any strategy.
2.The deck for each Planeswalker must also contain only cards of the expansion it came in. It suppose to face the deck in the same condition.
3.AI can't oder combo. So we avoid complicated play.

Early Game (Planeswalker levels 1 to 40, build using level 1 restrictions) deck by RungsitX
Only commons and uncommons.

Drunau Corpse Trawler
Nebelgast Herald
Aberrant Researcher
Daring Sleuth

Gone Missing
Broken Concentration
Just the Wind

Magnifying Glass
Trail of Evidence
True-Faith Censer

Mid Game (Planeswalker levels 40 to 60, build using level 40 restrictions) deck by RungsitX
Mostly uncommons, rares, and 1 Mythic maximum.
Startled Awake
Distended Mindbender
Lashweed Lurker
Fevered Vision
Imprisoned in the Moon
Tamiyo's Journal
Corrupted Grafstone
Gone Missing
Drownyard Temple
Mockery of Nature

Late Game pw lv 60 by mingninja
Startled Awake
Decimator of the Provinces
Lashweed Lurker
Mockery of Nature
Fevered Vision
Imprisoned in the Moon
Tamiyo's Journal
Corrupted Grafstone
Engulf the Shore
Drownyard Temple

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets Deckbuilding Challenge thread

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