Jester's Cap MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 10 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityRare
TypeArtifact

Key Takeaways

  1. Jester’s Cap offers disruptive play by exiling crucial cards from an opponent’s deck, shifting game momentum.
  2. Activating at instant speed, the Cap allows surprise strategy disruption without telegraphing moves in advance.
  3. While powerful, it’s a single-use artifact with a hefty activation cost, demanding strategic deck inclusion.

Text of card

,oc T: Sacrifice Jester's Cap to look through target player's library and remove any three of those cards from the game. Reshuffle that library afterwards.

"Know your foes' strengths as well as their weaknesses." —Arcum Dagsson, Soldevi Machinist


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Jester’s Cap provides a unique form of card advantage by allowing you to look through an opponent’s deck and exile key cards. This disrupts their strategy and can potentially deprive them of their best answers or win conditions, tipping the game in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: Although Jester’s Cap itself does not accelerate resources in the traditional sense of providing extra mana, using it effectively can accelerate your path to victory. By removing crucial pieces from your opponent’s deck, you reduce their ability to respond or compete, indirectly leading to a faster win.

Instant Speed: While Jester’s Cap is not an instant, its activation can be done at the speed of an instant. This means you can end your turn without revealing your intentions and then activate Jester’s Cap during your opponent’s turn in response to their actions, or simply before they draw a card they might need.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Jester’s Cap necessitates sacrificing itself to activate its ability, which can be a setback as it removes itself from the game, limiting its usability to just one occasion.

Specific Mana Cost: Requiring a solid investment of four generic mana, this card demands careful consideration in deck building, especially when competing with other impactful four-mana spells.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Given its steep activation cost of two additional generic mana, Jester’s Cap can be seen as a considerable resource drain in contrast to other disruption tools that players may have at a lower cost.


Reasons to Include Jester’s Cap in Your Collection

Versatility: Jester’s Cap has a universal appeal as it can be slotted into various deck archetypes. Whether you’re playing control or combo, being able to surgically remove key cards from your opponent’s deck never goes out of style.

Combo Potential: This card holds the power to dismantle your opponent’s strategy by removing essential combo pieces, potentially disrupting their game plan beyond recovery.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where knowing and outmaneuvering the meta can make all the difference, Jester’s Cap serves as a preemptive strike against common meta threats, giving you an edge before threats can even emerge.


How to beat Jester’s Cap

Unraveling the mystery of Jester’s Cap in the realm of MTG requires strategic finesse. This artifact possesses the unique ability to meddle with an opponent’s deck by exiling key cards. To face and defeat the strategic advantage Jester’s Cap offers, consider incorporating instant-speed interaction that can handle artifacts. Cards like Disenchant or Naturalize allow you to destroy Jester’s Cap before it can activate, maintaining the integrity of your deck composition.

Another effective tactic is to rely on redundancy in your deck. By ensuring that your deck is filled with multiple cards that fulfill similar roles, you dilute the impact of Jester’s Cap. This means that even if critical pieces are exiled, your deck’s functionality remains largely intact. Additionally, many players favor graveyard recovery spells as a safeguard. Cards like Regrowth or Eternal Witness can retrieve key components from your graveyard, mitigating the loss caused by Jester’s Cap.

Ultimately, while Jester’s Cap can be a formidable tool for disruption, a careful composition of your deck, combined with artifact removal and graveyard recovery, can effectively nullify its potential to hamper your strategy in MTG.


Cards like Jester's Cap

Exploring the wide range of artifacts in MTG, Jester’s Cap stands out for its distinctive ability to meddle with an opponent’s deck. This card shares conceptual space with the likes of Sadistic Sacrament. Though the latter is a spell, not an artifact, it similarly exiles cards from an opponent’s library for a steep three black mana, bypassing any possibility of those cards being utilized. However, Sadistic Sacrament does not boast the flexibility of being reusable, which is where Jester’s Cap gains an edge.

Another card to consider in this conversation is Cranial Extraction, which also targets an opponent’s deck to remove threats before they arise. Unlike Jester’s Cap, which provides a broad glance at the opponent’s entire library, Cranial Extraction requires you to name the card. This tricky mechanic means a player must have prior knowledge of the opponent’s deck composition, raising the skill ceiling for its optimal use.

While examining Jester’s Cap and its peers, it’s clear that its unique function of disrupting opponent strategies gives it a special place. It provides a strategic advantage by extracting key components directly from the library, making it an essential tool in the arsenal of players looking to execute a control-centered game plan.

Sadistic Sacrament - MTG Card versions
Cranial Extraction - MTG Card versions
Sadistic Sacrament - Zendikar (ZEN)
Cranial Extraction - Champions of Kamigawa (CHK)

Cards similar to Jester's Cap by color, type and mana cost

Conservator - MTG Card versions
Jayemdae Tome - MTG Card versions
Juggernaut - MTG Card versions
Dancing Scimitar - MTG Card versions
Grinning Totem - MTG Card versions
Lodestone Myr - MTG Card versions
Krark-Clan Ironworks - MTG Card versions
Ur-Golem's Eye - MTG Card versions
Bottled Cloister - MTG Card versions
Gnarled Effigy - MTG Card versions
Scrapbasket - MTG Card versions
Magnetic Mine - MTG Card versions
Eye of Doom - MTG Card versions
Well of Lost Dreams - MTG Card versions
Coercive Portal - MTG Card versions
Aetherworks Marvel - MTG Card versions
Nevinyrral's Disk - MTG Card versions
Sword of the Paruns - MTG Card versions
Grappling Hook - MTG Card versions
Clock of DOOOOOOOOOOOOM! - MTG Card versions
Conservator - Fourth Edition (4ED)
Jayemdae Tome - Introductory Two-Player Set (ITP)
Juggernaut - Collectors' Edition (CED)
Dancing Scimitar - Revised Edition (3ED)
Grinning Totem - Mirage (MIR)
Lodestone Myr - Modern Masters 2015 (MM2)
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Ur-Golem's Eye - Commander 2014 (C14)
Bottled Cloister - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)
Gnarled Effigy - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Scrapbasket - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Magnetic Mine - Mirrodin Besieged (MBS)
Eye of Doom - Commander 2013 (C13)
Well of Lost Dreams - The List (PLST)
Coercive Portal - Conspiracy (CNS)
Aetherworks Marvel - Kaladesh Promos (PKLD)
Nevinyrral's Disk - Modern Horizons 2 Promos (PMH2)
Sword of the Paruns - Commander Anthology (CMA)
Grappling Hook - Commander 2017 (C17)
Clock of DOOOOOOOOOOOOM! - Unstable (UST)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Jester's Cap MTG card by a specific set like Ice Age and Pro Tour Collector Set, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Jester's Cap and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Jester's Cap Magic the Gathering card was released in 6 different sets between 1995-06-03 and 2023-01-13. Illustrated by 4 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11995-06-03Ice AgeICE 3241993normalblackDan Frazier
21996-05-02Pro Tour Collector SetPTC mj3241993normalgoldDan Frazier
31996-05-02Pro Tour Collector SetPTC ml324sb1993normalgoldDan Frazier
41997-03-24Fifth Edition5ED 3851997normalwhiteDan Frazier
52005-07-29Ninth Edition9ED 301★2003normalblackD. Alexander Gregory
62005-07-29Ninth Edition9ED 3012003normalwhiteD. Alexander Gregory
72010-08-27From the Vault: RelicsV10 52003normalblackD. Alexander Gregory
82023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 3811997normalblackJesper Ejsing
92023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 4492015normalborderlessMatt Cavotta
102023-01-13Dominaria RemasteredDMR 2272015normalblackJesper Ejsing

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Jester's Cap has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

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