If you thought you’d seen it all in the Magic: The Gathering universe, think again. The Reality Fracture expansion offers a fresh take on certain characters, introduces a new resource type, and even heralds the return of a revisited spell mechanic.

 

Here’s what awaits you at upcoming in-store events featuring the new Jace Beleren-themed set.

Empower Jace

The undisputed star of the Reality Fracture expansion is Jace Beleren. If you haven’t seen his face or the memes circulating over the past few weeks, consider yourself lucky. He haunts us! He watches us! He’s everywhere!

The Empower Jace mechanic works by creating a Jace token with 0 loyalty and adding the number of counters specified by the keyword. For example, "Empower Jace 8" creates a token and adds 8 loyalty counters to it. If you already control a Jace token, you simply add the new counters to the existing total.

The token has two abilities and functions like a standard Planeswalker:
-1 = Surveil 1
-3 = Draw a card

It’s an excellent way to cycle through your deck more quickly. The set includes several cards that synergize to maximize counter generation and keep your token alive, making this a highly viable mechanic. And since the tokens aren't Legendary, any effect that copies them allows you to amass multiple Jaces and reap even greater rewards!

 

Heartwood Tokens

A new predefined resource is making its debut to boost ramp and artifact presence on the battlefield: Heartwood tokens.

These are artifacts that can tap to produce green or red mana. Because they don't require sacrificing themselves, they provide a reliable source of mana, helping you both immediately upon entering the battlefield and throughout the game. Certain cards, such as Aerid Konstrari, were designed specifically to leverage the synergy between mana generation and gaining an advantage based on the number of artifacts in play, fitting seamlessly into most Gruul (Red-Green) decks.

Prepare

Originally introduced in the Secrets of Strixhaven set, the Prepare mechanic is making a strong comeback! Directly echoing the spells used by students at the renowned Arcavios school, the Hexhaven spells are a bit rougher around the edges this time.

The mechanic itself remains unchanged from what we already know. When a permanent becomes "prepared," a copy of the spell is placed into exile, and the permanent's controller can cast it on their turn. Yes, you read that right. If the card changes controllers while prepared, the new controller is the one who can cast the spell from exile. That’s an important detail to remember for your upcoming games.

The Prerelease is coming soon!

Between the board control provided by Jace’s tokens, the mana support from Heartwood artifacts, and the flexibility of the Prepare system, Reality Fracture promises a particularly rich and dynamic Draft and Sealed environment.

Don’t forget to reserve your cards and Prerelease tickets, and come visit us in-store to try out these new mechanics as soon as they officially launch.