It’s that time again, my favorite way to experience a Magic set. This time we’re diving into Reality Fracture, and with reality itself falling apart, things are about to get weird. With the introduction of the one-of-a-kind Token Planeswalkers, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to build a Horde deck around Jace Beleren and his seemingly endless manifestations.
So this time around you’ll be fighting Jace, Jace, and probably some more Jace! As the multiverse begins to fracture, you and your fellow Planeswalkers must work together to put a stop to his plans before it’s too late. But with an army of Illusions, Cadets, and countless versions of Jace standing in your way, stopping him won’t be as simple as defeating a single Planeswalker.
Welcome to Jace, the Ever-Present, a Reality Fracture Horde experience where your greatest enemy is quite literally everywhere at once.
What is Horde Mode in Magic: the Gathering?
Horde Mode is an overlooked casual Magic format that challenges the human players to team up against an automated deck composed primarily of creature tokens. It’s a fun, thematic change of pace that lets your Commander pod step away from the usual multiplayer arms race.
Rather than battling one another, the entire table works together to withstand wave after wave of creatures, spells, and whatever other chaos the Horde deck sends their way.
For Reality Fracture, we’re taking that concept a step further. Instead of simply fighting an endless army of creatures, you’ll be facing Jace Beleren and his army of Illusions, all while countless Token Planeswalkers threaten to overwhelm the battlefield. Just because you defeated one Jace doesn’t mean another won’t take his place.
How do you play Horde Mode?
Horde Mode is incredibly simple to set up. The human players use a shared life total, while each person brings a regular Commander deck. That said, "regular" comes with an asterisk. I wouldn't recommend showing up with a Bracket 5 cEDH deck and immediately comboing the Horde out of existence. That misses the entire point of the format.
For the best experience, Bracket 2 decks and lower-powered Bracket 3 test decks are likely the ideal range. After all, the whole point of this experience is to feel like you're fighting against overwhelming odds, not steamrolling Jace before he even has a chance to put his plan into motion.
The game begins much like a standard Commander match, with one important exception: the players receive three setup turns before the Horde becomes active. Think of this as your final opportunity to prepare before Jace's forces begin breaking through reality. This gives the table time to develop its mana, establish a few creatures, and prepare its defenses for the opening assault.
Once those three turns are over, reveal cards from the top of the Horde deck until a nontoken card appears. Every token revealed this way enters the battlefield, while the nontoken card resolves immediately unless one of the players counters it. All creatures under the Horde's control have haste and attack as soon as they enter.
With this Reality Fracture Horde deck, those waves can include an army of Illusions, Cadets, and the set's unique Jace Token Planeswalkers. As the battle continues, you'll have to decide whether to focus on surviving the creatures attacking you or dealing with the growing number of Jaces threatening your chances of victory.
If the players survive the first round, they can reset the game and advance to Round 2. The rules remain mostly unchanged, but the Horde now reveals cards until it finds two nontoken cards rather than one. This creates larger waves, more dangerous attacks, and an even greater need for the table to coordinate its defenses.
Thematically, this is where Jace's plan begins to accelerate. Reality is becoming increasingly unstable, and his forces are growing faster than you can defeat them. What started as a manageable battle against a handful of Illusions can quickly turn into a battlefield filled with creatures and Planeswalkers.
Reality Fracture Horde Deck Overview
The theme of this deck is Jace, Jace, and even more Jace! Since Horde decks primarily focus on tokens, it wasn't until Reality Fracture introduced the brand-new Token Planeswalkers that a Horde deck like this really became possible. Now, obviously, Planeswalkers can't attack, so we'll need to mix in some creatures to keep the pressure on, but the idea is simple: Jace is everywhere, all at once.
This deck will have you fighting wave after wave of Jace Planeswalkers, alongside an army of Illusions, Cadets, and other creatures standing between you and victory. Just when you think you've dealt with one Jace, another will take his place, forcing you to constantly decide which threats deserve your attention.
Unlike a traditional Horde deck, where the biggest threat is usually the sheer number of creatures attacking you, this one adds another layer of chaos with Planeswalkers constantly appearing on the battlefield. Your goal is to survive the endless manifestations of Jace, keep his army under control, and eventually run the Horde deck dry before his forces overwhelm you.
The Story Behind Jace, the Ever-Present
Jace Beleren's plan is already in motion, and reality itself is beginning to fracture. As the multiverse unravels, countless manifestations of Jace stand between you and your final objective. Every illusion you destroy, every Planeswalker you defeat, and every victory you claim brings you closer to stopping him. But how do you defeat an enemy who is everywhere at once?
With the boundaries between realities collapsing, Jace has become an ever-present threat, appearing in countless forms across the Echoverse. Some are illusions, others are alternate versions of himself, but all are working toward the same goal. Even the greatest heroes and minds of the multiverse have found themselves caught in his plan, standing against anyone who dares to interfere.
Now, you and your fellow Planeswalkers must make one final stand to stop Jace before his vision becomes reality. But the closer you get to stopping him, the more overwhelming his forces become. Defeating one Jace only means another is waiting to take his place, and with every passing moment, reality slips further from your grasp.
Building the Jace, the Ever-Present Horde Deck
The Jace, the Ever-Present Horde deck is actually fairly simple to put together. The whole idea is to overwhelm players with an endless army of Jaces while using creatures and spells to protect and Empower them.
Starting with the tokens, you're going to need 20 2/2 colorless Cadet Creature tokens, 20 1/1 blue Illusion Creature tokens, and 18 Jace Planeswalker tokens. These make up the bulk of the Horde deck, with the Cadets and Illusions providing an army of attackers while Jace continuously threatens the players with his Planeswalker abilities.
For the nontoken creatures, you'll need four copies of each of the following: Arcane Amphisbaena, Inspired Tethermage, and Keeper of the Quiet Hour. You'll also need two copies each of Repurposed Enforcer and Sanctum Lurker. This creature package is built around Empowering Jace and protecting your Planeswalkers, making it increasingly difficult for players to deal with the growing number of Jaces on the battlefield.
Next up is the noncreature package, which consists of 14 Sorceries and 10 Enchantments. For the Enchantments, you'll need one copy of each of the "Way of the" Enchantments from the main set. These help reinforce the idea that Jace is drawing upon different powers and possibilities from across the fractured multiverse. (Examples below, but not all are pictured).
For the Sorceries, you'll need four copies each of Hexhaven Battalion, No Admittance, and Protege's Awakening, followed by two copies of Overwrite the Multiverse. These spells help keep the pressure on players while supporting the Horde's army and its ever-growing Planeswalker presence.
Last thing you’ll need is both copies of the Jace Planeswalkers from the main set: Jace, Reality Sculptor and The Theorist, Jace Beleren.
And that's it! You've got yourself a full Jace, the Ever-Present Horde deck, ready to throw wave after wave of Jaces at your Commander pod. The deck might be simple to build, but surviving an entire multiverse's worth of Jaces is going to be a completely different story.
Full decklist available here: Jace, the Ever-Present Horde Mode Deck
Jace, the Ever-Present Special Rules
Since Horde Mode decks operate automatically, you'll need a system for making decisions in an unbiased way. I do my best to build these decks so that you'll have to make as few decisions as possible, but to keep each Horde experience unique, sometimes a few additional rules are necessary.
With Jace, the Ever-Present, things get a little more complicated thanks to the brand-new Token Planeswalkers and the various ways Jace can manipulate the battlefield. To keep everything running smoothly, here are some special rules to reference when playing against this deck.
Empower Jace: Whenever the Horde plays a card that says Empower Jace, always Empower the Jace Token Planeswalker with the lowest number of loyalty counters. If there are no Jace Token Planeswalkers on the battlefield, create one instead.
Jace Token Planeswalkers: Whenever you reveal a Jace Token Planeswalker from the Horde deck, it enters the battlefield with loyalty counters equal to the round you're currently playing. For example, in Round 1, Jace enters with one loyalty counter, while in Round 2, Jace enters with two.
Activation Order: The Horde will always activate all available Planeswalker abilities before moving to combat and attacking the human players. If multiple Planeswalkers are on the battlefield, resolve their abilities before declaring any attackers, following each Planeswalker's individual activation rules. This ensures that Jace and his countless manifestations have the opportunity to strengthen their forces, draw additional cards, and manipulate the battlefield before launching their assault.
Activating Token Planeswalker Abilities: Jace Token Planeswalkers have two abilities: a -1 ability to Surveil and a -3 ability to draw a card. For this Horde deck, never activate the -1 ability. Instead, the Horde will always prioritize activating the -3 ability to draw an additional card whenever it has enough loyalty counters to do so.
Defeating Jace Token Planeswalkers: Whenever a Jace Token Planeswalker is milled from the Horde deck through damage or defeated by attacking it directly, place it into a separate exile pile instead of the graveyard. This pile serves as a record of permanently defeated Jaces, and these tokens cannot be shuffled back into the Horde deck for any reason. Since tokens normally cease to exist after leaving the battlefield, treat this pile as a special Horde Mode tracking zone. This will become especially important for the deck's unique win condition.
Drawing a Card: Whenever the Horde has an effect that allows it to draw a card, immediately reveal and resolve that card if it's currently the Horde's turn. If the effect occurs during a human player's turn, set the card aside and wait until the Horde's next turn to resolve it.
"Way of the" Enchantments: Each of these Enchantments comes with a powerful Empower Jace ability. Follow the same rules for Empowering Jace as mentioned above. However, for the "Way of the" Enchantments that grant Planeswalkers additional abilities, treat them as pseudo-Auras. The Jace that was Empowered by the Enchantment is now considered to have that additional ability and will prioritize activating it whenever possible.
Additional Rulings
Below are some specific card rulings to help keep the game moving without requiring players to make too many decisions on behalf of the Horde.
Jace, Reality Sculptor: This Planeswalker will activate its +1 ability every turn until it's able to activate its 0 ability. For the +1 ability, X will equal the highest number of loyalty counters among Jace Token Planeswalkers rather than the number of Islands.
Additionally, the first time Jace reaches each of the following loyalty counts, it will activate its -3 ability instead: 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, and 26. Each threshold can only trigger this behavior once.
The Theorist, Jace Beleren: During each draw step, Jace will draw one additional card for each human player. Temporarily exile those cards until the Horde's next turn, then immediately resolve them. These cards do not count toward the Horde's nontoken spell limit for that turn.
This Jace will never activate its -2 ability. However, it will activate its -6 ability whenever it reaches seven loyalty counters. For this ability, X will equal the total number of cards on the battlefield under the Horde's control.
Inspired Tethermage: Every three turns, activate Inspired Tethermage's ability to Empower Jace 2, following the standard Empower Jace targeting rules.
No Admittance: Whenever the Horde resolves No Admittance, always target the human players' shared life total.
For an additional challenge, consider establishing a Rule 0 restriction that prevents players from using mass graveyard-exile effects, such as Bojuka Bog. Since the Horde relies on its graveyard for part of its unique win condition, removing everything at once could make the experience significantly easier.
How to Win Against Jace, the Ever-Present
Normally, when playing against a Horde deck, all you have to do is survive long enough to reduce the Horde's library to zero cards. Well, I'm about to Fracture your Reality, because this Horde deck has a completely different win condition.
You can't simply outlast Jace. You have to stop him!
To defeat Jace, the Ever-Present, players must permanently remove every Jace Planeswalker, token or otherwise, and reduce the Horde deck to zero cards. That means clearing the battlefield of Jaces while making sure none remain in the Horde's graveyard.
Remember earlier when I mentioned exiling defeated Jace Token Planeswalkers? Well, that's where this mechanic becomes incredibly important.
Whenever a Jace Token Planeswalker is defeated, it is placed into a separate exile pile that remains outside the game. These defeated Jaces are permanently removed from the Horde and can never return, even if the Horde's library is reshuffled. Nontoken Jace Planeswalkers, however, follow the normal rules for entering the graveyard unless another effect exiles them.
Because this Horde deck draws so many additional cards, there's a very real possibility that it will run through its entire library before the players have managed to defeat every Jace. But Jace isn't going to let something as simple as an empty library stop his plans.
If the Horde deck reaches zero cards and there are still Jace Planeswalkers on the battlefield or in the graveyard, shuffle the Horde's graveyard back into its library and continue playing. Cards in the separate Jace exile pile are never shuffled back in.
This means players can't just sit back, defend themselves, and wait for the Horde to run out of cards. You'll need to actively hunt down Jace, defeat his countless manifestations, and find a way to permanently put an end to his plan.
Once the Horde's library is empty and there are no Jace Planeswalkers remaining on the battlefield or in the graveyard, the human players win!
This will definitely make Jace, the Ever-Present more difficult than most of the Horde decks I've put together, but that's part of the charm. Reality Fracture is the culmination of a very long story arc, and I think it's only fitting that its Horde Mode experience feels like one final, overwhelming battle for the fate of the multiverse.
After all, Jace is everywhere, and until you've defeated every last one of him, the battle isn't over.
Final Thoughts
Jace, the Ever-Present might be one of my favorite Horde decks I've put together so far, simply because of how unique it is. The introduction of Token Planeswalkers in Reality Fracture opens the door for an entirely different kind of Horde experience, one where you're not just fighting an endless army of creatures, but an endless army of Jaces. With all the Empower Jace abilities, additional card draw, and Planeswalkers constantly appearing on the battlefield, things can get out of hand incredibly quickly.
I also really like the idea of changing the traditional Horde win condition. Instead of simply surviving until the deck runs out, you're forced to actively hunt down Jace and permanently remove every last one of him. It makes the whole experience feel like you're actually trying to stop his plan rather than just waiting for the battle to end. This is definitely going to be one of my more challenging Horde decks, but considering Reality Fracture marks the end of such a massive story arc, I think that's only fitting. So grab your favorite Commander deck, team up with your friends, and get ready to face Jace, Jace, and even more Jace. Good luck, you're going to need it!
And if you're looking for a new Commander deck to take on Jace and his endless army, be sure to check out my Best Reality Fracture Commanders Guide, where I break down some of my favorite new Commanders from the set and how to build around them!
