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Jace, Jace Everywhere: Reality Fracture Debut Stream Unveils Empower, Hexhaven's Founders, and a Green Obliterator

· 25 sources

The Reality Fracture debut dominated the day, and all three majors have you covered. [EDHREC](https://edhrec.com/articles/reality-fracture-everything-revealed-in-the-debut-stream/) rounds up everything revealed on the...

Quick Hits

  • Reality Fracture spoiler season is officially underway. Magic's first in-Multiverse set after back-to-back Universes Beyond releases opened its debut stream with the new Empower mechanic (which creates Jace planeswalker tokens), all five Sphinx founders of Hexhaven, Elder Sphinges, and a green Obliterator. (EDHREC, Draftsim, MTGGoldfish)
  • Baleful Strix is up 972%. Per Draftsim, the budget bird skyrocketed over Labor Day weekend following an announcement from Gavin Verhey tied to Secret Lair unbans.
  • Empower Jace has a designer and a wild as-fan. Mark Rosewater credits Jeremy Geist with creating the mechanic in exploratory design — "we never looked back" — and says that counting Empower cards, Reality Fracture's Jace as-fan is over 1. (Blogatog)
  • Tomer draws a hard line on unbans: he makes the case that Jeweled Lotus and Griselbrand are fun-looking cards that are "terrible for the format" and should never come off the list. (MTGGoldfish)
  • Can Pauper save Magic? MTGGoldfish Podcast 604 wades into the disastrous Zeta Secret Lair release and Mengu's pitch for fixing the game. (MTGGoldfish)

Set News

The Reality Fracture debut dominated the day, and all three majors have you covered. EDHREC rounds up everything revealed on the stream, while Draftsim frames the set as Jace Beleren's long-running scheming finally coming to a head — a "What If?"-style set — and dives into Empower separately, likening it to a bizarre planeswalker take on Amass.

MTGGoldfish's September 8 spoilers column has the specifics: the Jace planeswalker token Empower produces, all five Sphinx founders of Hexhaven, Elder Sphinges, and that green Obliterator. Already looking past this set? Rosewater stonewalled a question about islandwalk in Nauctis — no info until previews begin.

Commander Corner

Competitive Scene

MTGGoldfish's Best Standard Deck Ever bracket hits the second-chance semis: the Power 9-fueled The Deck (1995) versus the iconic Delver tempo deck (2012). A classic "power versus precision" matchup.

Meanwhile, Blogatog hosted a spirited Standard-pool debate: a reader argued that a larger card pool forces netdecking because only a handful of decks stay competitive, and Rosewater pushed back — he's been told Vintage and Legacy have very robust metagames, which he says contradicts the idea that bigger pools limit diversity.

Finance & Market

The Baleful Strix spike is the story of the weekend: Draftsim reports the long-budget bird soared 972% after Gavin Verhey's Secret Lair unban announcement. If you needed a copy, that ship has sailed. Elsewhere, EDHREC's "One Time Only" surveys blue's best one-drops that have never been reprinted — always a watchlist for future reprint equity.

Design & Lore

  • Rule 603.1 trivia of the day: asked whether a fourth word could someday join "when," "whenever," and "at" for triggered abilities, Rosewater said, "I never say never."
  • Hexhaven Sphinxes making waves: a fan's love letter to the new "hodgepodge," symbolically-assembled sphinx designs got a simple "I'll pass that note along" — a good sign for fans of weirder blue iconics.
  • Color pie check-in: Rosewater explains Red is #1 at Treasure because it's #1 at temporary mana, while Black only gets Treasure by spending an additional resource. And False Orders? No longer in Red's slice of the pie.
  • Behind the curtain: set design goes "hands off" when handing off to editing, after one last batch of note-driven changes. And for Reality Fracture's mirrored pairs, some pairs include a multicolored card.
  • Spiciest exchange of the day: a reader claimed modern design makes "rate monsters that can be shoved into any deck" and that diversity comes from rares that suck in Limited. Rosewater's full rebuttal: "There are still rares that suck in limited."

Sources

Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Was Jace bitten by a dog as a kid? I’m trying to understand why the Echoverse hates dogs: first you tease Yoshimaru, Scrappy Stray, and now you tell us that Mowu is dead.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Listening through the Reality Fracture story episodes so far, combined with what I know of existing cards, I can’t help but think it would be really funny to have a Jace in every pack. You’ve got enough different ones to choose from for it to work It’s not likely (and I think having an Echoverse double is a better choice anyways), but it did make me chuckle when I thought of it, so I thought I’d share. Anyways, much kudos! Reality Fracture is genuinely one of the most exciting sets I’ve encountered since I started playing a few years back
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
In the past I’ve voiced my dislike for Sphinxes as blue’s iconic creature- while their character as riddling tricksters fits perfectly, their designs often amount to a human head stuck on a lion with wings, which doesn’t feel very blue at all. I am in LOVE with these hexhaven sphinxes. I would love to see more representational, symbolic, elementally-assembled, “hodgepodge-looking” sphinxes in the future.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Hi Mark, I want to start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Empower Jace mechanic. I love tokens, I love amass, and I love Jace. I can’t wait to start building with it. I’m also curious if there is a possibility for other characters getting an empower mechanic?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Reality Fracture looks more fantastic with every new card and story revealed! High fives to the design and creative team, I am so excited for it!
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
I really love the “Way of” enchantments. Is this the start of a mega cycle mechanic? Kind of like the “Oath of” cards back during the gatewatch days. I could see a superfriends deck with a ton of these really appealing to the sliver fans of the world.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Where is the Maro ability on the storm scale?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
If sets are 3-4 years in development, how long would a Secret Lair be? (whether mechanically unique, or not)
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
would we ever see a universes within standard set completely divorced from the story? specifically im thinking abt like using it as a chance to explore past versions of planes or tell stories that havent been given as much light like winding back and looking at some time inbetween neon dynasty and original kamigawa or spend time on innistrad immediately after the trevails.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
It’s not just size of formats that makes them diverse. Older formats were designed in a less homogeneous fashion. Older formats have cards that require deck design commitment and sacrifices to make work. Modern design makes rate monsters that can be shoved into any deck. Diversity comes from rares that suck in Limited. No?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Hey Mark, props to the design team on the empower Jace mechanic. Such an interesting space to play in, I’m very excited for the Reality Fracture release!
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Did you consider other planeswalker tokens besides Jace or was Jace always the only planeswalker token?
Draftsim · 2026-09-09
All 14 Digital-Only Mechanics in Magic Ranked
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
When a set mechanic is present at low rarities and seen generally across all colors, how do you (and/or set design) decide exactly how many cards to print with that mechanic in each color?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
You said in the article that every mirrored pair has cards with different color identites so that they look different immediately. Are there any pairs with different multicolored identities, or would both cards being gold-framed not be distinct enough for that goal?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Love reality fracture so far, kinda angry that the sphynxes work better with there schools then their dragon counterparts but besides that really like the fact that the whole school is a military academy. Really like fatehold so far as my favorite (why wouldn’t I they make soldiers) but super excited to see what come out of each of them but so far give high fives to the design team and request more echo verse at some point from me.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Ever been on a warship (museum or active)?
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Empower Jace is an extremely exciting mechanic and my mind is going crazy in anticipation for potential other Empower Planeswalker variants! I really hope those get the opportunity to get printed.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Outlaw was by far the best thing OTJ contributed to Magic IMO. Has there ever been consideration for batching other permanent types? It seems odd the idea hasn’t been revisited.
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
Was Empower Jace designed specifically to not add counters to The Theorist? Thanks!
Reddit Magictcg · 2026-09-09
My Lotus Token got spoiled! First MtG Art
Markrosewater · 2026-09-09
The flavor of karn, gilded guardian is so good: not only does it hint at a reality where mirrodin is “pure” but also one where colored artifacts exist in mirrodin (like it was the plan for the first mirrodin set if I remember correctly).
Edhrec · 2026-09-09
Blue's Best Single-Printing One-Drops | One Time Only
Edhrec · 2026-09-09
Bow Low to Marchesa of the Black Rose and Her Trimmed Thefts
Edhrec · 2026-09-09
Am I the Bolas? - Big Turn for Me, but Not for Thee
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