Magic the Gathering - Duel Decks Jace VS Vraska - Vraska Deck Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

After taking a look at the  Jace side of the Duel Decks, some may decide that the deck is already worth buying. That is easily the case. With Remand being a Modern blue staple and  Jace, Architect of Thought still has some value due to play-ability in Modern and Commander, this product is already worth the $20 MSRP.

But wait a minute, guys. There’s a whole other deck here. It's hard not to like Vraska the Unseen. She may not be the greatest card in competitive play, but she has seen some Standard play before and she’s very good in Commander. Let’s see what her Golgari friends have brought to the party.

LANDS
9 Forest
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Rogue’s Passage
11 Swamp
2 Tainted Wood

CREATURES
1 Acidic Slime
1 Corpse Traders
1 Death-Hood Cobra
1 Drooling Groodion
1 Festerhide Boar
2 Gatecreeper Vine
1 Highway Robber
1 Mold Shambler
1 Nekrataal
1 Ohran Viper
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
1 Pulse Tracker
1 Putrid Leech
1 Reaper of the Wilds
1 River Boa
1 Sadistic Augermage
1 Shadow Alley Denizen
1 Slate Street Ruffian
1 Spawnwrithe
1 Stonefare Crocodile
1 Tavern Swindler
1 Vinelasher Kudzu
1 Wight of Precinct Six

NON-CREATURE SPELLS
1 Consume Strength
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Hypnotic Cloud
1 Last Kiss
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Night’s Whisper
1 Stab Wound
2 Tragic Slip
1 Treasured Find
1 Underworld Connections

PLANESWALKER
1 Vraska the Unseen

In the mana base, there are two copies of Tainted Wood, which is a great little dual land as long as you control a Swamp. These types of land tend to be included in duel decks, and they’re actually quite handy. This Tainted cycle was printed in Torment, however, which is why you’ll never seen them in Modern.

Creatures

The rares in this deck are actually quite decent. Four of them are creatures. Ohran Viper is the “money” card here, being worth a few dollars. Originally from Coldsnap, it only really sees play in Cube anymore, but it was a really good card in Standard at one point. You can see why. Whenever it deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature at end of combat. It’s sort of like deathtouch, but not quite. Also, whenever it deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. Having both of these abilities on one card is pretty cool. Really good creature that just doesn’t have a home in competitive formats now-a-days. Some Commander decks still use it, though.

Reaper of the Wilds is a strong creature from Theros. There were people extremely excited about this card when it was first spoiled. It’s a 4/5 Gorgon for 2BG, which is already pretty good, and you can scry 1 every time a creature dies. That’s a really nice effect, as setting up your draws is always important, especially in colors that don’t get to scry often.  But the fun doesn’t end there. She also has the ability for a single Black mana to gain deathtouch until end of turn. If that wasn’t enough, she can also become Hexproof for 1G. She can be tough to remove and gain deathtouch and let you scry. And she’s a 4/5 for 4 mana. Unfortunately for speculators, she’s in a duel deck, but I like her chances of being a really strong card down the road.

Spawnwrithe is an old Commander favorite, and actually was pretty decent at one point in Standard (at the same time as Ohran Viper, in fact.) The fact that he doubles himself when he deals combat damage to a player, and makes doubles that can then double themselves, makes him pretty vicious. He’s not worth much at all anymore, but in the days of Shadowmoor, he was a really scary little card if you couldn’t deal with him quickly enough!

The last rare creature is Vinecreeper Kudzu. It doesn’t look incredible at first, but it essentially has a landfall ability that gives it a +1/+1 counter whenever a land enters the battlefield. It also has incredibly amusing flavor text. If you can fetch up lands quickly and/or keep hitting your land-drops, this Plant can really grow to hate your opponents and swing it for some massive damage.

The other honorable mentions for creatures in the deck include Nekrataal, the 2/1 first strike Human Assassin for 2BB that destroys a non-artifact, non-black creature when it enters the battlefield. He’s a Cube card, and was good in Constructed for a long time. Putrid Leech gets awesome new art, and it was a force in Jund at one point. Having a creature that can become a 4/4 at the cost of 2 life is actually pretty worth it if you can attack in freely with it (or just to win a combat). Besides that, there are a bunch of okay commons and uncommons that work well enoguh with the deck. Sadistic Augermage is the only one I don’t particularly like, as why would you want to put a card back on top of your deck when it dies? It does make opponents do this, as well, but I don’t see the advantage.

Non-Creatures

There aren’t a ton of non-creature spells in the deck, but most of them are pretty good. I especially like Consume Strength and Marsh Casualties, both of which are solid cards. Night’s Whisper is okay, as are most of the removal spells, but Hypnotic Cloud doesn’t do much for me as a discard spell. Two copies of Tragic Slip are excellent. However, easily the best rare in this entire deck outside of the planeswalker is  Underworld Connections. Card draw at the cost of a single life point is always okay, and it’s proven itself in Mono-Black Devotion in Theros Standard. It’s a bit too slow for Modern, so its Eternal value lies in Commander, but it’s still a solid card.

Vraska, the Unseen

I’ve always liked Vraska the Unseen, but as a 5-drop planeswalker with dual colors in her casting cost, she hasn’t really found a competitive home. She has seen play in some black/green decks, and she can destroy a non-land permanent as soon as she enters. Her +1 is interesting, in that she can protect herself by taking any creature that attacks her to the grave, but most of the time it’s the -3 to destroy a permanent that she’ll be used for.

Her ultimate is definitely not to be overlooked, however. She starts with 5 loyalty, and the ultimate costs 7. She makes three 1/1 black Assassin creature tokens that have “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game.” Obviously, I love this effect because those creatures literally say, if you’re playing one-on-one, “whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you Win Target Game.” This effect has definitely gone off in Commander on many occasions (especially with Doubling Season about) and can kill an entire table in one shot if they can be made un-blockable. However, most of the time, you’ll be lucky to destroy a permanent, tick her up one, and destroy a second permanent before she goes away. A two-for-one for 5 mana is certainly okay.

Deck Overview

While the Jace deck definitely has more money value, the Vraska deck is aggressive and has, in my opinion, a lot better creature base. It has solid removal, and while Jace’s deck has the ability to slow you down, Vraska can kill an opposing Jace (or any planeswalker or problematic creature) with her ability and the deck has enough of a removal package to deal with most of the threats Jace’s deck has.

I realize that these Duel Decks are purposely designed to face one another one-on-one. But I think the Vraska deck is better in the short game. If it goes to a long game, I see the Jace deck winning (especially with four Remand and Lord of the Unreals). But the Vraska deck could be easily upgraded, as well, with four copies of Putrid Leech, four Ohran Vipers, and four Spawnwrithe, taking out some of the filler creatures. With a few more tweaks to an already solid removal base, this is a real deck. It’s not anything incredibly competitive, but it’s a fun starter deck.

Overall, between this and the Jace deck, I think that the Vraska deck would be more fun for me to play than the Jace deck. I’d love to see how these decks actually interact, however. If you’re reading this after they’ve been released, let me know what your experiences are with the decks. In any case, definitely pick these decks up. The Remand and planeswalkers alone are worth the money.