Reality Fracture: Jace's Multiverse of What-Ifs

Have you ever wondered what things would be like if somewhere down the line your life took a different turn? Where would you be now if you went down an alternate career path? What would things be like if you didn't become a scary necromancer? And what if instead of being a big chomping T-Rex you were a big booty Triceratops? If you've ever asked such questions, you're in luck! Famed fan fiction author and pirate Jace Beleren decided that this would be a fun thought experiment to actually enact on the multiverse. We get to see sphinxes in place of dragons. We get to see a Chandra that's mono-blue. We even get to see a version of Karn that isn't horribly traumatized! What other strange and mystical wonders lie within Jace's distorted dream of what could have been!?! Join me as we explore the coolest new cards, mechanics, and parallels presented within Magic's new set, Reality Fracture!

If you're like me, when I first heard Reality Fracture would take place on an alternate version of Strixhaven, I thought this would be a spellslinger focused set. Now that the set is being spoiled though, this is looking more and more like a planeswalker set. On top of multiple versions of Ajani, Chandra, and Garruk, there is a new Jace planeswalker as well as many cards that make planewalker tokens. Jace's Machinations is one such card that lets you summon a Jace planeswalker token at instant speed and then activate your planeswalkers on someone else's turn. Cards like Way of the Pyromancer and Way of the Chryomancer also are very much planeswalker support cards. Giving all of your planeswalkers the ability to make mana or copy spells can be very strong if you already have a planeswalker boardstate. Plus, giving your Jace tokens more options than drawing or surveiling makes them more useful. In fact, any of the new cards that start with the words "Way of the" seem fairly strong in the right planeswalker decks. Further, Way of the Pyromancer might be my favorite but Way of the Paradox looks like it has the most potential. Lord Windgrace decks would be perfect for such a card.

Another strong card for planeswalker decks is the new WUBRG super-friends commander, Tam, the Possibility. She is cheap to summon, reduces the costs of your planeswalkers, and can proliferate a bunch. Realistically, Tam is probably cracked if she has time to cook. Excessively proliferating can be crazy but getting to the point where you have a few planeswalkers, Tam, and five mana might be the removal check of all removal checks. If someone shows up with a Tam deck, it's probably wise to bully them the same way you should bully any super-friends deck. You will likely see your demise coming a long way out against a deck like this and if the table doesn't immediately arch-enemy the Tam player, things might get crazy. This is coming from a commander player with two super-friends decks already. If you don't bully the super-friends player, they will likely bully the whole table. Also, if the super-friends player gets salty when the table bullies them, they weren't ready to play that archetype yet anyway.

The final card we should at least touch on that pertains to planeswalkers here is Sanctum Lurker. Letting planeswalkers not die from their ultimate or from being hit is a strong ability in any super-friends deck. The fact that the lurker gives your planeswalkers a +2 ability also helps build back loyalty faster even if the ability itself isn't super strong. Keep in mind though, any minus ability a planeswalker has is a cost, so you must have the loyalty counters to be able to use it.

Reality Fracture is thematically similar to Lorwyn Eclipsed in that it presents two sides of the same characters. Many Lorwyn characters had their Shadowmoor side and this set's characters have their Mirrorverse side. One of the big standout parallel cards here is Hexhaven Invigorator. This is of course a parallel to the mono-black version Phyrexian Obliterator but also to the mono-white Phyrexian Vindicator. One day it would be cool to see the cycle compleated with a red version and a blue version but I guess we'll see. Hexhaven Invigorator is particularly strong because you can search for any land with its ability, not just basics. Akoum Hellkite combos well with the Invigorator as well as Valakut, Molten Pinnacle. Cards that let you re-trigger this creature after it gets hit are good ways to get additional value. I would say that the strongest part about this version of the archetype is that it is mono-green and thus has fight spells. Phyrexian Obliterator feels limited by being four black pips but four green pips is the exact color you need for such a powerful effect.

Another card that now has three versions is Craterclaw Colossus. This is naturally a red version of the classic Craterhoof Behemoth that already saw a white version with Moonshaker Cavalry. There's not too much to say about this card other than it's neat they're giving this type of card to red now. Like the Invigorator I would be interested in seeing the other two possible versions someday.

Speaking of two possible versions, Rise to the Light Realms is a fun innovation on Rise of the Dark Realms. Mono-white has done reanimation of permanents before so this feels right. Plus, I just love the original card so much that I enjoy the remake. No notes. 10/10.

As a final notable parallel, Face Yourself feels like a red version of Clone Legion. Red has been doing copy effects that make you eventually sacrifice the token for a while now so it's neat to see that effect happen on a larger scale. This card can be a legitimate game ender in certain circumstances but that is completely dependent on the board state. My favorite use for a card like this is in spell copying decks where you can double the largest army on the board.

Now we could cover cards like the mono-blue Chandra, the mono-black Garruk, and the mono-white Liliana but I think we should go over the more funny or wild decisions within this set. For starters, Thunder-thighs Yargle is an objectively hilarious choice. Yargle, Goliath of Otaria just having opposite stats of classic Yargle is a great new twist on the card. Also, Jace changed Ghalta's entire species in this fanfic. Seems crazy but it's kind of funny too. This isn't a shift like in Bloomburrow I don't think; this is just Jace thinking things would be better if Ghalta were a thicc Triceratops. I do like this card but the species change stood out to me. To be fair, Jace did change the Strixhaven Elder Dragons to Elder Sphinxes but those have different names so I got the impression they were different entities entirely.

Another odd change that Jace made was making Ajani consumed by vengeance. Ajani, Unrelenting seems mechanically interesting but story-wise I'm not sure why Jace would think this helps Ajani in any way. Mono-white Ajani seemed a lot happier and far more likely to help the multiverse than his mono-red counterpart.

Finally, why did Jace kill Jiang Yanggu's dog? Like I thought the premise was Jace trying to set the universe right with this whole thing but he turned Jiang from being a happy guy with his dog (Jiang Yanggu, Never Alone) to being John Wick (Jiang Yanggu, Alone). Just the contrast in names of those cards feels so tragic and I'm unsure as to why Mowu had to die.

Draconic Visitor is a good little dragon that turns artifact tokens into other good little dragons. This is reminiscent of the enchantment Divine Visitation but is objectively cooler because dragons are cooler than angels. Take note though, if you are planning on going infinite with Draconic Visitor and Ganax, Astral Hunter, make sure that you have an Impact Tremors effect or something else to finish the game because these cards go infinite but cannot be stopped. Neither of their abilities say "may" so you won't be able to stop the infinite dragons once the combo starts.

Now for the bad…Emrakul, the Exigent Doom isn't great compared to previous Emrakuls. The mana ability might be the best part of this just because it makes this card more versatile. A mix between Valgavoth and Zacama on an eldrazi is neat but there are so many powerful eldrazi at this point this one doesn't feel as intimidating. Which hey, I kinda like that.

But now let's cover a truly cracked card. What if the first time you gained life each turn, you got a Black Lotus? Well, with Kwia Vigorbloom you can! This card also has ward 2, lifelink, vigilance, and flying as well as a 6/6 statline. Do you have to have six mana already to cast this? Yes. But if you have any Soul Warden like card, you immediately get three of that mana back. Gaining life is such an evergreen mechanic that it really isn't hard to trigger this even on your opponents' turns. Any card that gains life when your opponents play creatures is a shoo-in for this deck. Also, any flicker effects will let you double dip on the black lotus triggers. Overall this card feels very strong and it seems only balanced by the fact that it takes six mana to summon.

I personally was hoping for even more prepared spells in this set. I really enjoyed Secrets of Strixhaven and the prepared mechanic in general is such an interesting way to design new cards without making them too overpowered. One of the earliest cards spoiled for Reality Fracture was Bloodline Recollector. In an aristocrats themed deck, this likely won't be the hardest to prepare but three creature deaths in one turn still takes some setup (or at least a board wipe). A mono-black version of Ancestral Recall is such a fun idea and it's a joy to see designs like this. I hope Wizards continues to create cards like this.

Another intriguing card that pertains to prepared cards is Codie, Ravenous Codex. The original Codie is already a favorite of mine and this Codie might have outdone the last one. A WUBRG prepared deck sounds like a blast! I'm not sure this codex will be stronger than the original but it does seem like an enjoyable casual commander that can get out of hand quickly. The only thing holding this back is that prepared is such a new mechanic that the deck will likely be about the same no matter who builds it. All the strong prepared cards will be there as well as some of the weaker ones. If we keep getting prepared spells this commander will truly blossom but currently it feels like the Ravenous Codex has about as much support as Marina Vendrell has for five color rooms. I'd say, this commander would be neat to build now but it will hopefully get more cards to choose from in the future.