Multiverse Reforged Upgrade: 20 Swaps for Jace's Polymorph Deck

Turn five. Jace, Multiverse Architect lands off a rock, Lingering Souls has left a couple of Spirits behind, and Dreadhorde Invasion has been growing an Army since turn two. You -3 on a 1/1 Spirit, reveal until a creature or planeswalker, and flip into Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel. It's a six-mana engine that wants a lifegain deck, and you aren't playing one. That's the stock list in one picture.

Multiverse Reforged is a true polymorph deck. Cheap token makers feed Jace's -3, Mass Polymorph and Synthetic Destiny, and about a dozen rocks get you to the six-plus-mana creatures you're cheating in. The engine is great. A third of the payoffs do nothing. Jace's +1 is fine support (draw two, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library), and Nissa, Leyline Tamer is a seven-mana, four-color landfall engine that cheats creatures in, which is mostly a second copy of what Jace already does. Interaction is thin on counters, and Jace's combat tax only protects Jaces. It is not Propaganda.

The stock ceiling is roughly bracket 3, with a spicy Dack and Venser sequence inside. The fix is a 20-for-20 swap: weak targets out, ETB bombs in, real counters and tax enchantments, a few engine pieces, and untapped lands.

Nothing on this list gets cut. Each card is either the reason the deck works or too annoying to replace.

Here are 14 nonland cuts, least painful first. The lands come later.

Jace's -3 exiles one creature or planeswalker you control, then reveals until a creature or planeswalker. The reveal is random unless you stack your top card with Brainstorm or similar. Every hit needs to be a bomb.

Hullbreaker Horror is the headline add and costs about $6. Every spell you cast bounces a spell or nonland permanent. With a dozen rocks, Sol Ring taps for more than it costs, so recasting rocks gets cheap fast. This is a power-up beyond precon bracket, so flag it before you sit down. Tidespout Tyrant runs a similar line, but it isn't one of the 20.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite makes your Spirits 3/3 fliers and kills the table's small stuff. Angel of the Ruins exiles two artifacts or enchantments on entry and plainscycles for {2}, so it's never dead. Absolute Virtue and Avacyn, Angel of Hope are the protection top-end. Avacyn's indestructible permanents make Martial Coup and Elspeth's -3 one-sided. Blightsteel Colossus and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are lateral splurges, not extra slots.

Swords, Path, Despark and Stroke of Midnight handle problems on the board. The deck has nothing to say to the turn you go off.

Propaganda fixes face protection, and Ghostly Prison is the same card in white. Both protect you and nothing else, so pair them with Jace's trigger, which covers only Jaces. Elspeth and any other walker stay exposed. Pick the cheaper one.

Counterspell is the premium counter, and the rocks make UU easier than it looks in four colors. Arcane Denial and An Offer You Can't Refuse are the budget counters. Denial gives an opponent up to two cards, so use it when you must. Offer only hits noncreature spells, which is what you're afraid of anyway: wraths and removal on Jace.

Divergent Transformations is the polymorph effect I add. It's an instant that exiles two creatures and costs {1} less per opponent, so in a four-player pod it's four mana. Aim both at your own tokens and you get two random bombs. Polymorph is the single-target alternative. Aimed at an opponent, either card hands them a creature, so treat that mode carefully.

Turn six. Jace is on the table at 4 loyalty and you cast Spark Double, copying Jace. The copy enters with 5 loyalty and isn't legendary, so both stay. Both -3s go off this turn. The tax trigger shows up twice, so opponents owe {2} twice or can't attack either.

Oath of Teferi lets Jace +1 then -3 in one turn (4, 5, 2) and still survive. It can also blink Archon of Cruelty at end step for a second ETB. Aminatou, the Fateshifter is the sneaky one. Her -1 exiles and returns Jace with a fresh 4 loyalty, which means a second -3 the same turn.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Brainstorm are how you stack the top of your library. Crack the fetch first and stack afterward, since the shuffle wipes out anything you set up before it. Scroll Rack and The Eternal Wanderer are lateral options. I pass on Bitterblossom at that price when Lingering Souls and Dreadhorde Invasion already feed the -3. Empower Jace cards such as Plan for All Outcomes are a side bonus, not the plan.

Shock lands pay 2 life to enter untapped: Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Godless Shrine, Steam Vents, Blood Crypt and Sacred Foundry. Together they cover every color pair this deck wants.

They replace Restless Spire, Perilous Landscape, Contaminated Landscape, Restless Anchorage, Kher Keep and Path of Ancestry. Those six are all slow or colorless, and Path's scry never triggers with Jace. Keep the pain lands, the filter lands and the Turbulent lands. Life matters here, since Dreadhorde Invasion and the Talismans already cost you some.

Buy these last. They improve consistency, not power.

Talk to your pod first. Even with Dack and Venser gone, the Hullbreaker line pushes this deck out of precon-bracket territory.

I'd cut Omnath from every list, no exceptions. Fact or Fiction is the card people overreact about. It's fine, just not as good as the counters.

The upgraded list plays differently. Stock reaches Jace on turn five and flips into a Niv-Mizzet that does very little. This one gets the same turn five, but the reveal lands on a bomb, and the table usually has no answer ready. Nissa, Leyline Tamer is a different landfall-engine project, so leave her for another build.