[m13] Jace's Phantasm

[serracollector]

U
1/1
flying

Jace's Phantasm gets +4/+4 as long as an opponent has 10 or more cards in his or her graveyard.

http://www.magicspoiler.com/mtg-spoiler/jaces-phantasm/


A potential flying 5/5 for one blue mana.  Turn 1 this, archive trap on your fetch/topdeck tutor, means a turn 1 5/5 flyer.  Even late game  a 5/5 flyer for U is still ridiculous.  
With cage printed and in use, mills fears of snapcaster and y will are offset.  I think this card alongside cage could produce a viable mill style deck.

[Daenyth]

I think the natural competition for this slot is Delver. The upside to delver is that you don't need to dilute your deck with jank like trap. The downside is that 5/5 is massive

[Bill Copes]

Thought Scour is vintage playable and aids the activation.  Could pair well with this / Delver / Snapcaster.

[MaximumCDawg]

No, because I believe Phantasm requires the cards to be in an opponent's graveyard.  That makes it quite a bit worse.  Your snapcasters and welders cannot be fueled by this.  Plus, in Vintage, the graveyard is often halfway into play and so you're probably helping your opponent as much as hurting them by archive trapp'n em.

I think this card is nothing like Delver (a blue Nactl) and much more like Scute Mob and the red dragon dude with a similar ability.  It costs 1, but really it only works in the very late game when it turns on.  It lives in a deck that is happy with a 1/1 flier for U, wants to play a long game, and so occasionally hits a big upside.  I don't know that such a deck exists.

[serracollector]

Atm a deck as such may not exist, BUT as i stated before grafdiggers cage helps offset the drawbacks of mill cards.  Archive trap is just one option.  Thought Scour is another option I had not considered, but I had considered Visions Charm.  For those of you who don't know:


Vision Charm
U
Instant

Choose one — Target player puts the top four cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard; or choose a land type and a basic land type, and each land of the first chosen type becomes the second chosen type until end of turn; or target artifact phases out.

So this now reads, Mill top 4, upkeep change all your islands (including duals) in plains/forests/mountain, for a psuedo walk, or phase out that sphere/tangle/lodestone.

With the new phantasm and cage, this card is interesting to say the least.  Also as t1 is a highly Highlander type meta mostly, milling acall, lotus, tinker, y win, etc etc with a cage in play a 5/5 flyer leads to your opponent not having many if any outs, and a fast clock on board.  I see this card making its own deck type that can win thru Millin/Cage or just a fatty 5/5 flyer or 3.

[xouman]

The obvious deck for this card is a milling deck, but there is no such a viable deck right now. Other options are a skullclamp deck (but this card does not seem a great option) or maybe something with goyfs, fueling  graves, but seem too marginal .

[Blue Lotus]

Atm a deck as such may not exist, BUT as i stated before grafdiggers cage helps offset the drawbacks of mill cards.  Archive trap is just one option.  Thought Scour is another option I had not considered, but I had considered Visions Charm.  For those of you who don't know:


Vision Charm
U
Instant

Choose one — Target player puts the top four cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard; or choose a land type and a basic land type, and each land of the first chosen type becomes the second chosen type until end of turn; or target artifact phases out.

So this now reads, STILL DON'T PLAY ME LOL.

With the new phantasm and cage, this card is interesting to say the least.  Also as t1 is a highly Highlander type meta mostly, milling acall, lotus, tinker, y win, etc etc with a cage in play a 5/5 flyer leads to your opponent not having many if any outs, and a fast clock on board.  I see this card making its own deck type that can win thru Millin/Cage or just a fatty 5/5 flyer or 3.

FTFY

[brianpk80]

It does fuel Welder if one uses Welder defensively.  Like most of these newer cards, this one is solid if someone has the brainpower to conceive the right shell for it.  The fact that that doesn't happen often doesn't indict the new sets for being weak; on the contrary, they're strong. 

Archive Trap might be a stretch, but Jace's Phantasm would work as a 1-drop in an aggro-control list that has something inherent about it that produces large graveyards for the opponent.  Something more organic than Turn 1 Glimpse the Unthinkable.  Can one build an aggro-control list that profits from Windfall & Wheel of Fortune?  Maybe.  We'd probably want Ethersworn Canonists in the 2-slot to prevent graveyard shenanigans.  Ninjutsu is online if the 1-drop is a flier.  Balance is a strong card on its own that tends to fill graveyards.  Chains of Mephistopheles becomes a consideration for maindeck disruption.

Overall, it's a respectable 1-drop for .  After a few turns, even without explicit support, it can impact the opponent's play decisions heavily.  I wouldn't mind having it against Dredge.     

And on a fun note...

[Guli]

Wasteland, Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, Diabolic Edict, Mental Misstep, Liliana are all cards that put cards into the opponents graveyard.

They will probably crack a fetch, play some spells on their own.

[Bill Copes]

Well, it's better than Flying Men.

[MaximumCDawg]

Actually no, because flying men has a better creature type for Vintage nowadays.

[Shax]

I think this thing is going to be pretty broken. With this and Smelt, are U/R Fish decks going to make a rise? Delver coupled with this thing and your dealing a massive 8 damage with flyers a turn(!) for only 2 blue mana. Sounds like Blue Aggro just got a jumpstart kick in the junk. Just need to see what decks like getting cards in the graveyard fast.. hmmmm?

[Bill Copes]

Actually no, because flying men has a better creature type for Vintage nowadays.

My bad.  I forgot about the sheer power of uncounterable Flying Men via Cavern of Souls.

[RecklessEmbermage]

I have had problems finding evasive early drops to turn on ninja of the deep hours without being useless in the deck otherwise. Sadly, ninja was good a few years ago and I don´t see how this card makes it good again by itself.

Would love to use it in casual though. Mono blue with this, ninja, snapcaster, delver and back to basics could be fun.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Playing bad cards to make other bad cards good is not a winning strategy.  Vision Charm is terrible, Thought Scour is terrible, and this card is terrible as well.