Build a board; turn selection into pressure
Put creatures between the opponent and your Jace, then use flying attackers and selection-triggered bonuses to win. Surveilling should improve a board you already have, not replace developing one.
Consider Fatehold when early white or blue creatures and useful selection effects are arriving together. Add selection payoffsThe reward for doing a thing. A lifegain payoff needs actual lifegain cards, not just other payoffs. after checking the creatures and mana that make their triggers useful.
Four checks while you draft
Does this pick give me a creature I can cast before my four-mana rewards?
A cheap creature can block for Jace or carry the later counter. Flying remains useful when the ground clogs.
Does it let me scry or surveil while adding to the board, and can I pay that cost?
Peer Review supplies a creature as it surveils. Jace can supply repeated surveils, but each use competes with drawing a card.
Do I already have another creature for Futurescribe to improve, or a selection reward worth supporting?
Futurescribe improves another attacker; Saheeli creates flyers; Proft converts spare mana into growth and cards.
Does it answer the blocker or threat my flyers cannot handle?
An answer to their best permanent or a timely bounce preserves attacks without requiring every creature to become huge.
Choose the missing job before another reward that needs it.
You have Futurescribe but rarely scry or surveil before combat.
Look for a prepared body that supplies Peer Review.
Chronologist develops a flyer first; Foreseer surveils on entry. Both leave a paid spell for later.
Selection and rewards are plentiful, but the first creature costs four.
Use a pick on an early body before another expensive reward.
An early creature protects Jace and gives Futurescribe another target.
Your creatures develop well but cannot attack past one permanent.
Take interaction that opens the relevant attack.
Memory Trap can exile a nonland permanent; Fatehold Charm offers different answers. Check the target before choosing.
The support is missing
Without selection rewards, retain the flyers, blockers and removal. If one color offers no early creatures or answers, compare a different partner color before spending more picks on a narrow engine.
Repeated useful cards are clues, not proof that the colors are open.
Surveil before Futurescribe’s trigger resolves; the first main phase is easiest. Surveilling after it resolves cannot upgrade it.
Proft still needs two mana for each rewarded event. Spending mana to trigger him can prevent casting the blocker you need.
Taking Futurescribe and another selection reward together still leaves the deck needing affordable scry or surveil and an early battlefield.
Desperate Futurescribe3.5/5
Fatehold Charm3.5/5
Hexhaven Battalion3.5/5
Koth of the Homestead3.5/5
Proft, Consulting Detective3.5/5Grades by J2SJosh · Review 1 ↗ · Review 2 ↗ · Review 3 ↗ · checked Sep 26, 2026 · Individual general Limited grades; not pair-specific ratings.
The Theorist, Jace Beleren 2UUEarly creatures protect its repeatable card draw. UU calls for a blue base, not a light splash.
Denzilore Fatehold 1WUUScry and surveil grow your whole team. WUU needs blue as a main color; splash W only with reliable fixing.J2SJosh · MTG Arena Zone · Sep 26, 2026
Fatehold ChronologistA two-mana flyer now, with a separately paid Cadet-and-surveil spell later.
Campus CrierDevelop a two-mana body; after it reaches your graveyard, its paid exile ability can empower Jace.
Semester ForeseerSurveils on entry and offers another surveil through its prepared spell.
Way of the HealerEmpowers Jace and grants a loyalty ability that creates a Cadet and surveils.
Desperate FuturescribeSelection upgrades its combat bonus to a lasting counter on another creature.
Saheeli, Consul of OversightMakes a Thopter on your first scry or surveil event each turn; plan for double white.
Memory TrapExiles an opposing nonland permanent while this enchantment stays on the battlefield.
Prophesied End
Proctor of PotentialCheap creatures become repeated surveil events; plan for its conditional return without treating a finality counter as unlimited recursion.
Denzilore FateholdA wider board makes each scry/surveil event affect more creatures. Protecting existing bodies may beat adding another selection-only card.
Germinate RecruitsA potentially enormous payoff that can also do nothing.
Gideon's MemorialIts discard ability gives it a real removal floor; the permanent is a token/walker support piece.
Way of the HealerA repeatable body-making plan that also surveils.
Plan for All OutcomesAn initial nonland answer plus a continuing source of loyalty.
Denzilore FateholdDesperate FuturescribeFatehold Charm
Paradox ShaperProctor of Potential
Prudent Fateseer
Vigorbloom Vanguard
Karn, Gilded GuardianExamples apply the printed rules; judge the board, costs and timing.
| Pick-Two | One-pick | Sealed | Reality Echoes |
|---|---|---|---|
| When a selection reward is already in your pool, pair an affordable selection body with the early creature or answer you still lack. Two rewards do not make the selection happen. | With one pick, a Chronologist that fills the curve can be more useful than another reward. Do not pass the needed enabler assuming the next pack will supply it. | Draft can assemble many redundant selection pieces. Sealed needs its creatures and removal to function even when the single payoff is missing or destroyed. | Choose one complete pair before the game only when its castable half helps this deck. If you exile the Saheeli pair, then resolve Saheeli, Consul of Oversight for {3}{W}{W} before a prepared Peer Review to add a flying Thopter when its surveil resolves; Consul triggers only once each turn. Normal costs and timing still apply; only one half can be cast from exile. You may leave the other half in exile instead of shuffling it. Ask your store whether both halves must be in your deck. |
