Magic: The Gathering's Reality Fracture set has no shortage of brilliant cards, but as usual, playability is split across multiple formats. We're going to focus on the best cards for Standard, Magic's default competitive 60-card format. This means these cards need to sit well within the current meta, but also have enough power and playability to withstand some changes, especially with the 2027 Standard rotation on the horizon.

We'll also identify existing meta decks within Magic across paper and digital play, and highlight where these cards fit in, or whether they're just a generically good card that is worth trying to build around or fit into a deck that matches its identity.

We're kicking off with a ten-card cycle build around the Empower Jace mechanic, which is already proving popular in both Standard and Draft formats. Each color identity has an Echoed Pair, but each card shares the same core mechanic: when it enters play, you Empower Jace 5.

From there, each of the cards moves in a slightly different direction. The two blue cards either give your Planeswalkers an additional ability or let you draw a card when spending exactly two loyalty counters on an ability. The black cards either give your Planeswalker an additional ability to create token creatures, or make it so that when creatures you control die, your Planeswalkers get additional loyalty counters.

Across all five colors, there are some really useful abilities, all of which interact with Planeswalkers you control, and knowing that you get to Empower Jace 5 when they are first cast, you know you're going to get some decent mileage out of them without having to scramble to get another Planeswalker into play somehow.

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