So why does Jace feel so fucking forced. Because he does.
But the reason why seems odd. While there are more Jace cards at 6 now, the gap isn't that large.
5 Chandras, 5 Lillianas, a bunch of 4s.
We got breaks from Jace just like we got breaks from the other ones. He wasn't the blue walker in Alara, Tarkir, Mirrodin.
The only thing I can think of is that he's much more cemented at the 'blue walker' than any other one is as their color walker.
The gap there is much bigger.
The next most common 'blue walkers' only have two cards.
Compare Chandra's 5 to Sarken's 3. Lillian's 5 to 4 sorins. Nissa and Garruk, Lilliana and Sorin. White has Ajani, Gideon, and Elspeth all competing.
And in terms of story relevance, every other color has to compete, of those I listed last paragraph, they've all had a big story role. The other blue walkers have never really stood on their own.
And on top of that, Jace the mind sculptor dominated a format way more than any other planswalker card ever has.
>>48289521
Because MtG writers have trouble not having a white male as their lead. The Gatewatch is their attempt to overcome this, but it just makes it worse.
>>48289521
He's pushed as the face of whatever sets he's apart of. They're now doing the same with the other Origins Five but previously, you didn't see Alara get plastered with Ajani's face to Innistrad gets covered in Sorin's or Liliana's.
>>48289521
Because he's in a lot of marketing shit, plus the stories have him as the main character. But mostly the marketing. They plaster him on everything.
>>48289521
Jace has been the blue walker in every core set since walkers. Chandra's been printed nearly as often in core sets, but then had fewer appearances outside of them (kaladesh should see them even out, though she's still played a smaller part in storylines). Jace also gets a lot more face time and portrayal in art just in general. The real hatred for jace doesn't come from anything he's actually done, except maybe his attitude in flavortext, which is largely untrue to the character. Rather there is a feeling of overexposure and oppression that is just easy to latch on to. Everyone can commiserate about hating the blue mage.
>>48289521
People assume Jace has been printed way more often than he has simply because he happens to be the planeswalker that had the most playable cards so far, so he shows up a lot in conversation and while playing the game.
Even though he a boring, bland character, I don't hate Jace. I'll take bland and boring over the lolrandum, "evil", or simply stupid planeswalkers that we have to put up with.
Multiple reprintings and whatnot.
No on really hates him as a character but you see his face in decks often enough that everyone screams Jace pushing. It's a marketing thing because people have already latched onto Jace as this cool walker dude and Wizard's realizes that people like Jace so they just keep on giving him to us.
Personally I feel like if Mindsculptor wasn't ever a thing there wouldn't be this attachment to him.
If there was a police lineup and you had to pick the person who was most likely to play MTG, would you pick a buff dude like Gideon or Garrick, a female like Lily or Chandra, someone dark skinned like Refer, or are you picking the nerdy white dude that looks like Jace?
It's called marketing. While Wizards may want to diversify, they still no their main audience. I'm just surprised they don't have an obese neck beard Walker.
>>48293346
>Garruk
>Teferi
Damn auto.
The one I have a real beef with is Gideon, though. At least Jace is kind of an asshole, Gideon is just 'generic White hero guy', the Plainswalker.
That's really the problem with the Gatewatch, they're too archetypal and lacking in characteristic nuance, for the most part.
>>48289521
Honestly he isn't as forced as Nissa or Gideon IMO
>>48289905
There are 8 different versions of Jace. He's been printed plenty.
>>48289521
Boring character, boring design, strong cards, got the most attention of the original 5 early on except for maybe Chandra who had shit cards.
>>48290209
>Personally I feel like if Mindsculptor wasn't ever a thing there wouldn't be this attachment to him.
This. Zendikar Block was huge for people starting/returning to the game, so it stands to reason that a big expensive pushed card from that block would resonate with people.
>>48294201
>There are 8 different versions of Jace.
7 cards. Who the hell counts both sides of a flipwalker?
>He's been printed plenty.
Sure. All core-set walkers have. But the last story-set that he was printed in prior to SOI was RTR (2012).
What's the point in bellyaching? They need to keep their main-5 in standard, and they no longer have the core sets to throw them in. Obviously they're going to push them into the story, and that's fine. A throughline narrative that links blocks together via walkers is not intrinsically a bad thing, especially with these shorter blocks. Granted the writing and characterization is far from fantastic, but it's primarily a cardgame anyway, and the majority of players aren't Vorthos.
>>48296120
>>48294201
>>48296120
OP here, good points made, but while I did miss one Jace, I stand by the difference between him and other planswalkers in number of cards isn't that high, but he has the largest gap between him and competition in his color in terms of both number of cards and story importance.
I mean of the "main-5" garruk has been full on replaced, White's spot has been extremely contested, and even red and Black got replaced or had to compete with significant story and card slot.
Jace competing with Tamiyo is the most competition there has ever been for the 'face of blue', and this was a Jace focused set.
>>48289535
Please. He could have been any color he still would have been obnoxious. All the new-walkers are. The mending was a mistake and it won't be fixed because making the game """""""""""""accessible"""""""""" is more important than fun or interesting.
WotC can't write. It was marginally better when they paid for novels to be written - now it's just embarrassing. The last good character - hero or villain - they had was Chainer. Maybe, MAYBE cursed Garruk. Konda was also decent. The protagonists of modern sets are Chad-tier and utterly characterless men, or embarrassing Mary Sue-tier women. The villains are cthulhu, le quirky manic wizard, or straightforward evil person.
Back in the Weatherlight saga Gerrard was similarly poorly written, BUT the side characters were much better and there were actual stakes because characters died (Hannah, Mirri) and not everybody was an overpowered god who can always be more powerful when necessary.
>>48296434
I found the story way better when it was about multiple overpowered gods dicking each other the most in a 4x that spanned the multiverse.
