Whether you play competitive Magic: The Gathering or not, if you live in the world of gaming there's a high chance you've heard of Jace, The Mind Sculptor (at least from some memes). The incredibly powerful and iconic card dominated the game's Standard format while it was legal and made blue one of the most unbalanced colors in the game. The card was eventually banned from both Standard and Modern Magic: The Gathering formats, but a new era is upon the game...

After years collecting dust; Jace, the Mind Sculptor is about to return to the Modern format. This is pretty jaw-dropping news and is gaurenteed to completely shake up the current metagame and strategies for upcoming Modern format tournaments. In addition, the announcement will likely also shake up the game's economy, since the card suddenly will be in much higher demand considering the growing popularity of the Modern format.

"In watching the format evolve, we've observed that decks seeking to control the game have struggled against the speed and variety of threats present in the format. Often these decks have been forced to adopt an explosive win condition of their own. Out hope is that Jace, the Mind Sculptor will provide yet another option in an already diverse format, giving controlling decks an alternative way to close out prolonged games."

As if that wasn't enough excitement in the world of planeswalkers, Wizards also revealed that one of the game's most powerful midrange creatures is also getting unbanned in Modern: Bloodbraid Elf. This creature may not be quite as iconic as The Mind Sculptor, but it's still incredibly powerful and opens up some very interesting deck options in the format.

"There are now sufficient options available to have confidence that Bloodbraid Elf will no longer be as detrimental to deck diversity as it once was... As a four-mana card that doesn't necessarily win the game on the spot, Bloodbraid Elf is at its best when games are longer and resources are being exchanged. Although an aggressive card on its face, Bloodbraid Elf should provide further incentive for deck builders to move up the mana curve and play interactive games."

It will be very interesting to see the two cards face off against each other as players try to find the best decklists to take advantage of the new tools that have been added to their modern arsenal.

Is anybody else heading home to check their tradebinders and make sure they still have a playset of each?

Magic: The Gathering is available now. Magic: The Gathering Arena is currently in closed testing and does not have an official release date.

Source: Wizards of the Coast