When it comes to MTG Foundations Jumpstart, the anime-art-only legends are hogging most of the spotlight so far. Not undeservedly so: it is true that many of these cards make excellent Commanders, after all. That said, all that attention has overshadowed some of the excellent new non-legendary cards in the set. There are pieces here that will find homes in Commander, Pauper, and possibly even Legacy and Vintage. That sounds like hyperbole, but it really isn’t. The best new cards in MTG Foundations Jumpstart really are that good.
5 | Starnheim Memento
- Mana Value: 3
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Artifact
- Card Text: Tap: Add W.
1W, Tap: Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains Flying until end of turn. Activate only as a sorcery.
Starting out with a hit for the Commander players out there, Starnheim Memento looks tailor-made for the format. Mana rocks, even at three mana, are very popular in Commander. With more time to breathe in the early turns, ramping is often preferable to developing your board. This is no problem for green decks, but other colors need to rely on rocks more often than not. White, in particular, struggles in this area.
Enter Starnheim Memento. This is a three-mana rock that taps for a white. So far, so solid. What puts it over the top is the addition of an activated ability. Two mana to give a creature Flying and +1/+1 for the turn is hardly exciting, especially at sorcery speed. It does provide an outlet for your excess mana later on, however, which is very important in Commander.
This ability isn’t useless, either. Granting evasion is valuable in aggressive decks, or those that need their Commander to get through for damage. Voltron decks like Rafiq of the Many will appreciate this option, for example. Factor in the ever-useful mana production, and it’s easy to see this card becoming a future staple in white decks. It’s not quite Cursed Mirror, but as color-specific mana rocks go it’s more than passable.
4 | Scholar Of Combustion
- Mana Value: 3R
- Rarity: Common
- Card Type: Creature – Human Wizard
- Stats: 3/2
- Card Text: When Scholar of Combustion enters, exile up to one target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard. You may cast that card until the end of your next turn. (You still pay its costs. Timing rules still apply.)
Looking at Scholar of Combustion, your first reaction probably isn’t “This is one of the best cards in Foundations Jumpstart.” It’s likely something more along the lines of “This looks like Snapcaster Mage at home, in a low-income neighborhood.” Look a little deeper and this card’s merits reveal themselves, however.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, Scholar of Combustion is a common. This means it’s legal to play in Pauper, which is a huge deal. Archaeomancer is a card that sees play in multiple viable Pauper decks, and this is essentially the same thing but in red. It even has much better stats, to boot. Sure, getting access to your spell for a turn isn’t as good as returning it to your hand, but Scholar is also a red card, which means it can be played in the likes of Kuldotha Burn.
Though Pauper is where I see this card shining the brightest, it’s not awful in Commander either. The “until the end of your next turn” clause here allows you to cast the exiled spell during any of your opponent’s turns if it’s an instant. This gives it a lot more play than it would normally have in one-on-one games. Spellslinger decks can probably do better, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this pop up in the 99 of some lists.
3 | Eidolon Of Astral Winds
- Mana Value: 2W
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment Creature – Spirit
- Stats: 2/4
- Card Text: Vigilance. Constellation — Whenever Eidolon of Astral Winds or another enchantment you control enters, choose target creature you control. Until end of turn, that creature has base power and toughness 4/4 and gains flying.
This is the point on the list where things get really good. Eidolon of Astral Winds is an absurdly aggressive white creature and one of the best Enchantress payoffs we’ve ever seen. With no other support, a three mana 2/4 that (almost) makes one of your creatures a Serra Angel for the turn is a good rate. When you factor in additional enchantment drops beyond that, things get downright silly.
White decks typically have no shortage of small creatures lying around, and this makes all of them into legitimate threats. It only takes four swings with a 4/4 flier to end the game, after all. While this definitely feels like a Commander card, the sheer efficiency here may actually earn it a spot in something like Legacy Death and Taxes. The deck already plays another enchantment creature in Spirit of the Labyrinth, so it could be a solid fit.
Even if that doesn’t pan out, you’ll still see Eidolon in every enchantment-heavy white deck in Commander until the end of time. Giving your otherwise weak Enchantress creatures real teeth should feel great. It also makes a great target for its own ability, owing to its innate Vigilance. Raw stats aren’t what they once were in Magic, but when they’re this good they still get the job done.
2 | Delightful Discovery
- Mana Value: 4U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Instant
- Card Text: This spell costs 1 less to cast for each spell your opponents have cast this turn. Scry 2, then draw two cards. (To Scry 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.)
Speaking of cards that might have a shot in Legacy, here’s Delightful Discovery. This is an instant-speed draw spell with an interesting cost-reduction clause. It gets cheaper for each spell your opponents have cast this turn. This is why I mention Legacy as it’s such a game-action-rich format that Discovery should cost one to two mana most of the time there.
If your opponent casts a few one-mana cantrips, you can drop this in response to punish their greed. Scry two and draw two is no joke, either. When this hits for one, it’s probably even better than Ancestral Recall. For two, it’s still an incredible draw spell. Getting to perfectly sculpt your hand and generate card advantage should be enough to win plenty of games. This is particularly true in blue, where you can use Discovery to set up counterspell backup.
Of course, the card is also great in Commander. With more players to cast spells, you have more chance of an instant-speed exchange breaking out. In turn, you have more chance of casting this for very little mana. Even at three to four this is still solid in Commander, however. The high-end potential is just gravy on what is already one of the best Commander cards in Foundations Jumpstart.
1 | Scythecat Cub
- Mana Value: 1G
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Creature – Cat
- Stats: 2/2
- Card Text: Trample.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. If this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, double the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature instead.
Surprising no one, Scythecat Cub is the leader of the pack when it comes to the best cards in Foundations Jumpstart. It’s currently one of the most expensive cards in the set and with good reason. Cub is, essentially, a better version of Bristly Bill: a mythic rare from Thunder Junction. I know power creep is a problem in Magic, but you don’t expect a legendary mythic to be superseded by a nonlegendary rare just a few months after release.
That’s exactly what has happened, however. Cub gets the exact same Landfall trigger as Bill, with the added potential of doubling counters on turns with two land drops. This replaces Bill’s own counter-doubling ability, which costs a whopping five mana to use. Getting (largely) the same thing for nothing feels like a much better deal. To top it all off, Cub comes with Trample built-in, which makes it a far better target for its own abilities than Bill ever was.
Interestingly, while it sounds so much better on paper, Cub may not actually replace Bristly Bill in every format. Bill is a staple inclusion in Nadu Combo decks in Legacy, largely down to his mana sink ability. Cub can’t quite replicate that, unfortunately. That said, it will almost definitely be better in Commander, particularly in more aggressive green lists. Doubling counters is a very dangerous ability, especially when it costs no mana as it does here.
