You know, you're right, mtear. This card is overhyped and rather useless and inferior to Tezzy in every way.
That's why absolutely zero top decks (those who got 13 points or better) in the 2010 Worlds Extended tournament ran Tezzy, while, by my quick count on the Wizards site, 13 ran Mind Sculptor.
At the September Pro Tour - Amsterdam Extended event, 12 of the top decks ran Mind Sculptor and none ran Tezzy.
Even in Legacy - the only remotely recent one I could find was a MTGO Legacy event in August 2010. Of those, 8 ran Mind Sculptor. Exactly 0 ran Tezzy again.
In fact, even if you look at the Pro Tour - San Diego, when BOTH Tezzy and Mind Sculptor were in Standard...if you look at the deck listings for everyone who got up to 17 points - I'm talking the alphabetical, multiple-page listings of decks - do you know how many Tezzeret decks you'll find? 8. How many decks have Mind Sculptor? 81. That's not a typo. And 14 of the decks in that Top 8 had Mind Sculptor; zero had Tezzy.
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Posted By:
Magnor_Criol
(12/20/2010 12:49:49 AM)
This card is an investment, monetarily speaking of course, but also in game; for four mana, you get a card that can flip your opponent's threats to the bottom of their deck (or get rid of your useless cards when they aren't needed), Brainstorm at no cost to either your mana pool or Jace, bounce a powerful creature (such as a leveler, which will destroy any counters on it), and end the game given enough time. Run him with proliferate to rocket him to his ultimate ability even faster.
It's sickening that this card costs as much as it does, but that's simple economics. At any rate, a card is judged on its merits, not its cost; it breaks the game for blue in some ways. Build around it and see. It is not essential to win, but it certainly helps. 5/5
Posted By:
d-101
(1/4/2011 6:40:12 PM)
Time to put a dollar value on Powercreep in Magic!
Jace, The Mind Sculptor ($90)- Brainstorm ability ($0.90) - Unsummon ($0.01) - Powercreep = Precognition ($0.30)
Rearranging our Equation and solving for $$$ yields:
Powercreep = $88.79
Posted By:
tcollins
(1/4/2011 10:57:11 PM)
Strictly worse than Storm Crow.
Posted By:
Spags
(11/3/2010 2:11:46 PM)
And for you, my son, many a kingdom lay dormant in await of your swift and sagacious conquest, just not standard.
Posted By:
LandKraken
(6/20/2011 11:55:35 AM)
You can say it's broken, you can say it should never have been printed, but you can't change the fact that it was the most used card in standard before zendikar block rotated out.
Posted By:
divine_exodus
(9/16/2011 3:57:02 PM)
0.5/5
Discards to Despise.
Posted By:
MacBizzle
(2/10/2012 4:37:20 AM)
You know what my worst memory of this guy is? Running into him in a limited match. I still have no idea why they printed him, if he could somehow counter spells he would be doing the job of just about every notable blue card on his own. He is on the cheaper side for planeswalkers. Why? He has a neutral ability that gains you card advantage. Why? His plus is not +1, but +2. Why? His last ability is closer to "you win" than any other planeswalker. It honestly feels like they just wanted to one-up every other planeswalker out there.
I understand how skullclamp happened. I suppose I understand Trinisphere slipping through. But what were they thinking here? How can anyone look at this card and not apply the strictest scrutiny before letting it through? This was slated as a mythic, they know added complexity is a balancing challenge, and he is the first four ability planeswalker. Every single red flag should have gone up when they saw this guy.
Posted By:
Enelysios
(4/13/2012 2:28:41 AM)
@kungfu1: You do realize that the "Legendary" rule applies to Planeswalkers of the same name, right? Your idea won't work. You can't have 2 Jaces, even if one is Beleren and one is the Mind Sculptor.
Amazing card. Brainstorm is SO much better than Ponder.
Posted By:
statiefreez
(2/9/2010 7:48:41 PM)
This card is the jack of all plainswalkers, i use it in my control deck and three are perfect. He is fantastic with gideon jura.
Posted By:
Rootbeers27
(8/7/2010 9:39:05 AM)