Wizards of the Coast has recently introduced a new Magic: The Gathering play style and booster pack branding called Jumpstart. This new style emphasizes instant fun and deemphasizes deck-building. For example, players who enjoy sending pirates into battle with unicorns no longer have to worry about getting lucky in boosters. Wizards has found a way to merge the Limited and Constructed properties of Magic in Jumpstart, and it releases on July 3.
Magic: The Gathering Jumpstart explained
Jumpstart booster packs consist of 20 cards all pertaining to a specific theme. Most themes released in Jumpstart have multiple variations, “enough to make 121 possible 20-card lists inside any given pack.” The themes range from familiars like Garruk to the curious types like Doctor, and Wizards of the Coast encourages mashing up bizarre combinations. However, some pack themes are Mythic Rare and offer no variation, such as Unicorn.
Each pack will have one basic land card, many of them featuring new art. There are nearly 500 reprints in this series, and 37 new cards will be introduced as well. Wizards says Jumpstart shares “a lot of content” with Core Set 2021 but is a standalone product. Jumpstart cards will be legal in Eternal formats: Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
Pre-release event
A Jumpstart pre-release will occur June 20-21. The event will take place at select local stores carrying Magic: The Gathering decks. During the event, players will be given two Jumpstart boosters; then they’ll go straight into playing. After playing a certain number of matches, players will earn a promo card. There is apparently no limit to the number of promo cards a player may earn beyond time restrictions.
Meanwhile, MTG Arena will also be hosting a Jumpstart event later on in the year. All cards from the event will be counted as Historic.
Ultimately, Jumpstart was developed to generate fun simple gameplay. Let us know your thoughts on this new game style! To keep up with more Magic: The Gathering coverage, stay tuned with Daily Esports.
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