Planeswalking – Jace vs. Vraska

Deck Builder’s Toolkits, Fat Packs, Intro Decks, Event Decks, Commander Decks, Duel Decks and Boosters, there sure are a lot of ways to buy Magic cards these days. It might seem like a bit of a scam to the outsider but players know that each of these has a purpose and a target audience, even if that audience might not be themselves.

Duel Decks are a bit of an oddity, presented as two prebuilt, ready to play, decks sporting opposing themes they are priced the same as a single Event Deck. Their power level sits well above what can be found in an Intro Deck making them perfect for players that are comfortable enough with the game to start working with more complex mechanics and strategies.

This particular release happens upon an issue that we see from time to time with prebuilt decks in that it contains several cards whose combined market value exceeds the cost of the product. In this case it’s the two Planeswalkers [mtg name=”Jace, Architect of Thought”]Jace[/mtg] & [mtg name=”Vraska the Unseen”]Vraska[/mtg] and the blue counter spell [mtg]Remand[/mtg]. This usually lowers the value of the cards in question slightly but can also cause shortages of the product. A shame when the product was intended to be played, more so when it’s actually a really fun set of decks as is the case here.

A couple of games in and you’ll soon see that these decks pretty much hate one another, each having answers to the other’s strategies. Games tend to go long and end in hard won victories. Where Vraska is looking to get threats on the field quickly, Jace bides his time with delaying tactics. Both are extremely interesting to play and are filled with cards I’d never played with before, if you have two sets of the decks between friends and I highly recommend trying a game of Two Headed Giant. Our double Jace vs. double Vraska took hours before Team Vraska finally triumphed.

Ignoring the value of the cards, as I prefer to do, these are some seriously fun decks to play against each other. Outside of that I can’t see myself playing them against other casual decks but by that point you can just de-construct them into your collection and be happy that you now own another couple of Planeswalkers and a Remand!

The Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck is available now for £19.99 (RRP)