A brand-new way to play Magic: The Gathering consisting of a mashup of 2 thematic booster packs is coming to paper Magic and its online counterpart Arena.
Game makers Wizards of the Coast just announced Jumpstart, which doubles as both a new product line and its own format.
The new style of game will be played by purchasing and combining together two 20-card booster packs designed especially for the new environment. Every pack will sport its own theme and each theme will complement the others to create a crazy mash-up deck, not unlike the extremely popular card game “Smash Up”.
Every pack will include cards of the same theme and of the same one color. Confirmed themes found inside Jumpstart feature:
- Flying
- Cats
- Eldrazi
- Garruk
- Goblins
- Hounds
- Phyrexians
- Pirates
- Spooky
- Unicorns
- Vampires
- Walls
Keep in mind that packs with the same theme can still have different cards in them and one out of three packs will have an extra Rare. Every pack will also bring one land card with an artwork that matches the theme - a very nice touch!
The set comes with more than 500 reprints from Magic’s history and 37 brand-new cards designed especially for the format. All of these will be tied to the Core 2021 set and share mechanics with them. These will not be legal in Standard, Modern or Pioneer, but are okay in Eternal formats such as Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
When it comes to MTGA, Jumpstart will be available to play and all of its cards will make it to the MTGA-specific Historic format, which is a much-needed shot in the arm.
While looking like great fun, the format was met with mixed reactions by the community. It’s true that the game of Jumpstart itself looks promising and a great way to enjoy Magic on the cheap, but the upcoming releases of Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths, Core 2021 and a slew of Commander products are taking away from the gamers’ excitement, as the overwhelming release schedule for Magic sets takes its toll on fans’ sanity and wallets.
