Updated for Vendetta

Jayce

Defender of Tomorrow

Mind

BodyAdvanced

Jayce turns Gear activations into the resources for a much bigger turn. The challenge is getting that machinery to produce a threat before the opponent has already taken the points.

Should you play Jayce?

Pick Jayce if you enjoy assembling a resource engine and turning one expensive play into control of the board. The sequencing matters well before the Dragon arrives.

Best for: Players who like ramp, repeatable Gear abilities, and a late game where even a one-damage spell can remove an entire battlefield.
Think twice if: You want every opening card to fight immediately. Jayce can spend several plays preparing a powerful turn while the opponent is already scoring.

Key Cards

Dazzling Aurora is the payoff for the resource engine, and Elder Dragon is what makes that payoff change the game. The registered Main Deck has only three unit cards, all Elders; Man of Progress starts in the Champion Zone. Keep him out of Garbage Grabber's recycling if you want Aurora to keep finding only Elder. Once the Dragon is in play, any amount of your damage is lethal to an enemy unit. A one-Energy Flurry of Blades becomes much more than a small damage spell.

Jayce’s Field Guide

Defender of Tomorrow pays one Energy and exhausts to ready a Gear. Empowering the Legend costs two Energy and two Power of any domain; afterward, its separate one-Energy activation can ready two Gear instead. That is worthwhile when the Gear has another useful activation, not simply because something is exhausted. These abilities have no Action or Reaction, so arrange the resource turn during your own open Main Phase. You cannot enter a Showdown, discover you are short, and activate the Legend there to repair the calculation.

How Jayce wins

Build enough resources and cards to resolve a threat that makes the opponent's board difficult to keep. Platewyrm Egg can supply recurring Energy, draw Gear can keep the hand moving, and the Champion changes how you develop that machinery. Man of Progress can trade a friendly Gear for a cheaper play from hand. Brilliant Inventor instead readies another exhausted thing when he is played and on your first non-token Gear play each turn. Those are different routes, not abilities you get together by choosing Jayce. Whichever route you take, count how many turns the opponent needs to win. More setup is not progress if the important battlefield is going unanswered.

Key interactions

Know when the Egg actually adds resources

Defender of Tomorrow · Platewyrm Egg

Egg enters exhausted. Its Empower ability costs one Energy and an exhaust, and an empowered copy adds two Energy when exhausted instead of one. Once two empowered Eggs are ready alongside an empowered Legend, exhaust both for four Energy, spend one to ready them with the Legend, then exhaust them for four more. That gives seven Energy after paying for the ready. The earlier Empower payments still happened. Readying one unempowered Egg costs as much Energy as its next activation produces, so that is not an extra Energy engine on its own.

Trade the expendable Gear, not the payoff

Jayce, Man of Progress · Gutter Palace · Platewyrm Egg

When Man of Progress is played, you may kill a friendly Gear. If you do, you may play a Gear from hand with printed Energy cost seven or less that turn while ignoring its Energy cost. Any Power still has to be paid. A Gold token or a Gear that has already done its job can become Palace or Egg this way. Dazzling Aurora costs nine Energy, so this Champion cannot put it into play through that ability. Keep the actual conversion in mind when deciding whether to spend a Gold token for Power or save it as material.

Make the Dragon's damage reach the whole board

Elder Dragon · Flurry of Blades · Bellows Breath

Elder's play trigger deals one damage to up to one enemy unit at each location. Its passive ability makes that damage lethal, but preventing the damage still saves a unit. Flurry of Blades can then deal one to every unit at battlefields, while Bellows Breath reaches up to three units at the same location. Your small damage becomes removal as long as Elder remains in play. Flurry also hits your own units, so a board of one-Might Birds does not survive your sweep just because you control the Dragon.

Strengths

An established Gear engine keeps producing resources without needing a new ramp card every turn. The Legend lets the best activated Gear work again.
Aurora can ignore Elder Dragon's enormous base Energy and Power costs. A carefully chosen unit pool makes that end-step trigger much more predictable.
The cheap damage spells remain useful after the late threat arrives. You can clear defenders and start taking points without drawing a different set of removal cards.

Weaknesses

The opening can spend several cards on setup without adding a unit. Opponents who keep scoring force you to use resources defensively before the engine is ready.
Removing key Gear can interrupt both the resource plan and its payoff. Do not assume an exhausted Egg will still be available for the next ready.
Elder in hand needs twelve Energy and four Body Power unless another effect helps play it. Drawing the payoff is not always the same as getting closer to using it.

Shadow's Pick

Jayce tournament list by 黑喵

12th place · S4 Wuhan Regional Open, 2026-08-30

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Deck total $238.51

Legend (1)

1x$0.09 ea.

Runes (12)

5x$0.16 ea.
7x$0.11 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.37 ea.
1x$0.17 ea.
1x$0.12 ea.

Spells (26)

3x$0.15 ea.
Energy
2
3x$0.15 ea.
Energy
7
1x$0.64 ea.
Power
1
Energy
2
3x$3.23 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
3x$1.53 ea.
Power
1
Energy
5
3x$0.18 ea.
Energy
2
2x$0.43 ea.
Energy
4
2x$0.08 ea.
Energy
1
2x$0.22 ea.
Energy
4
2x$0.15 ea.
Energy
3
2x$15.03 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1

Gear (10)

3x$0.15 ea.
Energy
3
3x$46.77 ea.
Power
2
Energy
9
2x$0.20 ea.
Energy
2
2x$0.78 ea.
Energy
4

Units (4)

1xChosen$0.36 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$14.28 ea.
Might
10
Power
4
Energy
12

Sideboard (10)

2x$0.24 ea.
Energy
1
1x$0.18 ea.
Energy
2
2x$0.39 ea.
Power
1
Energy
1
2x$0.08 ea.
Energy
5
2x$0.16 ea.
Energy
2
1x$0.17 ea.
Power
1
Energy
4

Shadow's take

This is my Jayce pick because Man of Progress gives the Gold a second job. Wages of Pain and Deadly Flourish help control the early board while leaving Gear that can supply Power later or be traded for Palace or Egg. The Champion cannot cheat out Aurora, so the ramp and Egg activations still need to do that work. I like that Palace supplies the smaller units without putting small unit cards into the Main Deck. Aurora still finds Elder Dragon, while the Birds can contest a lane or work toward Palace's alternate win. Once the Dragon arrives, the damage spells that bought time start killing much larger units. Dragon Roost is the important finishing option: pay its additional two Power when Aurora plays Elder and put the threat directly onto that battlefield even when you do not control it. Aurora can already play a Dragon at a battlefield you control; Roost is how this list gets one into a lane it still needs to take. Keep an eye on what you spend getting there; an impressive engine does not need another upgrade when the board is already ready to win.

The Game Plan

Early gameKeep ramp or an Egg with a realistic next play, and look for damage when the opponent's first units are likely to start scoring quickly. Mobilize and Catalyst channel exhausted runes, so they build future Energy rather than refunding their cost immediately. You can still recycle those exhausted runes for Power if the current turn needs it. Dredge Up keeps the hand moving and can be played again from the trash for two Energy before being banished. Wages of Pain deals three at a battlefield and always leaves an exhausted Gold; Deadly Flourish only leaves its Gold if its chosen unit dies that turn. Do not keep several Elders as though they were early plays. Man of Progress is already in the Champion Zone, and a useful Gear to sacrifice is more important than drawing another expensive payoff.
MidgameChoose what the Legend's activation needs to accomplish. Readying an empowered Egg can provide Energy, readying Gold can provide a missing Power, and readying Palace can make another Bird if you can afford another discard. These are competing uses of the same exhaust. Empower the Legend when two useful Gear make the investment worthwhile. Garbage Grabber can recycle three trash cards, pay one Energy, and exhaust to draw one; every activation needs all three cards. Leave a dead Man of Progress out of that group to preserve Aurora's Elder-only hits. Using Dredge Up's Flow removes it from that future fuel. Man of Progress can turn an exhausted Gold into Palace without first readying it, but a token you sacrificed cannot also pay for Aurora. Before Promising Future, check both players' resources: it helps the opponent play a card too, and neither player ignores Power costs.
Late gameGet Aurora down with an Elder still in the Main Deck and keep the resources for what happens at the end of the turn. Aurora ignores the Dragon's base cost; Dragon Roost's extra two Power is separate. Temporal Breach can replay an Elder you already control to use its play trigger again. It normally returns to the same location, but paying Roost's additional cost lets you choose to play it there instead. From hand, Breach has neither Action nor Reaction; hiding it earlier creates the later Reaction option. Palace gives another finish when you begin your turn with exactly four cards in hand and exactly four units at battlefields. Set that up before the turn starts, and do not casually Flurry away the Birds you needed to satisfy it. When ordinary conquests and Holds will finish the game sooner, take them rather than arranging the alternate win for its own sake.

Battlefields

Blind

Forgotten Monument

Monument gives the resource cards a little room by stopping each player from scoring here until their own third turn. It does not stop units occupying the battlefield, and it does not protect the other lane. The first player reaches turn three first, so have a plan for that conquest instead of treating the restriction as complete safety. It is the choice when you want time to establish Gear before making the important fight.

Going First

Sigil of the Storm · Mobilize · Platewyrm Egg

Sigil makes the conquering player recycle a rune. That is a cost to your board, not a Power payment that gives you a resource. Jayce can lean on Eggs for Energy and use Mobilize or Catalyst to channel recycled runes again. Choose it when that trade is easier for your engine to absorb than for the opponent. An early conquest is less attractive if losing the rune puts Aurora a whole turn further away.

Going Second

Dragon Roost · Dazzling Aurora · Elder Dragon

Roost lets a Dragon enter directly here when its controller pays two additional Power of any domain. Save that payment for Aurora's end-step Elder when you need to contest a neutral or enemy-held battlefield without waiting for a Dragon at base to ready next turn. Elder still enters exhausted, but can clear a defender with its play trigger and establish control after the fight. The same permission is available to the opponent's Dragons. Do not offer them the quicker route if you cannot support your own.

Sideboard

Protect the Dragon at the battlefield

Repulse

Repulse counters an enemy spell or ability choosing your friendly unit at a battlefield and no other friendly unit. It costs one Energy and one Body Power. It can cover a targeted ability that a spell-only counter would miss, but it does not protect an Elder still at base or Aurora itself, and it does nothing to a sweep that chooses no unit. I would trim a slower draw spell or a Palace when keeping the first Dragon in play matters more than assembling another value plan.

Break the opposing Gear on the right schedule

Turn to Dust · Rocket Barrage

Turn to Dust gives a Gear Temporary, killing it at the start of its controller's next Beginning Phase. It is cheap but delayed. Rocket Barrage can kill a Gear immediately during your open Main Phase, or deal four to a unit in base instead; repeating it requires another four Energy and one Mind Power. Neither card is an instant answer during a Showdown. Start with a Deadly Flourish when there are few useful unit targets, and prefer Barrage when letting the Gear survive until the next turn is unacceptable.

Put units on the board sooner

Sprite Burst

The two Sprite Bursts supply two ready three-Might units for five Energy during your own open Main Phase. They can attack immediately and do not add small unit cards to Aurora's search. Temporary kills them before your next scoring step, so use them to conquer or stop the opponent now, not as a promise of a later Hold. I would replace a Promising Future when helping the opponent develop is too risky, or trim a slower setup card when another turn of ramp would already be too late.

Remove the card they intend to reuse

Decree of Strength · Disposal Order

Decree of Strength can take a Mind unit from a revealed hand, which Sabotage cannot. Swap toward it when that is the card you need removed before the payoff. Disposal Order recycles up to three cards from opposing trashes as a Reaction, or draws one when the trash has nothing worth removing. Use it before a replay has moved the important card out of the trash. Make room among slower draw or removal that has no useful target, while keeping enough ramp and Eggs to actually reach Aurora.