While the majority of the Jumpstart spoilers are slanted to come in tomorrow, we got a good taste today at some of the goodies coming at us in December. MTG’s newest set is a second take on the popular Jumpstart set from years past. The Jumpstart product line is excellent for new players looking to learn the game without worrying about deckbuilding. Jumpstart offers a unique format where you can build a playable deck by combining two packs! That said, the Anime art styles and niche MTG themes have EDH players more excited than ever, so let’s take a look at what was announced today!
The ‘Shapeshifter’ Theme
To kick things off, MTG designer Mark Rosewater spoiled a new pack theme coming in Jumpstart 2022. “Shapeshifter is a theme that only shows up in a single version. Its booster has one rare and one mythic rare. Every Jumpstart Booster has at least one rare or mythic rare, but there are boosters that have more than one (such as the Shapeshifter Jumpstart Booster).”
As may be interpreted from the name, the Shapeshifter theme features cards that enter the battlefield as other permanents already in play. While there are many clone cards in MTG, most of them come at a Rare and Mythic rarity. As a result, considering that only one Rare and one Mythic can be in the pack, options were a bit tight. To flesh this pack out, as a result, Changeling strategies were implemented with various payoffs in the Common and Uncommon slots.
Pirated Copy is the new card spoiled amongst this pack. Pirated Copy simply enters the battlefield as a copy of any other creature in play, but it gains the Pirate creature typing and has an additional ability that allows it or any creature with the same name as it, to draw you a card when they deal damage. Interestingly, this means if you copy an opponent’s creature, you get to draw a card whenever it does combat damage, regardless of who it damages to. Honestly, this is a very cool design that could be considered a payoff in any deck that wants to create multiple tokens. Just make the pirate copy a token and draw a card for each token that deals damage with the same name.
The new Anime art card coming in this pack is a reprint of Mirror Image, one of the few Uncommon clones in MTG. One of these artworks is being featured in each pack of Jumpstart, and this is the one being featured for the Shapeshifters set.
The rest of this pack is comprised with reprints. Some of these have some rather interesting typing synergies with the clones you’re using. The contents of this pack are listed below:
- Pirated Copy
- Gigantoplasm
- Mirror Image
- Bloodline Pretender
- Lookout’s Dispersal
- Heirloom Blade
- Universal Automaton
- Amoeboid Changeling
- Mistwalker
- Littjara Kinseekers
- Chilling Trap
- Crashing Tide
- Thriving Isle
- 7 Island
Magnanimous Magistrate
Spoiled on Amy, the Amazonian’s Twitter was the new cards coming in the Law-themed Jumpstart 2022 pack. Magnanimous Magistrate has a rather unique ability that allows you to recur things when they die – as long as they have a mana value of one or more. You can do this by removing Reprieve counters from Magnanimous Magistrate, of which she enters with five. This card looks like it slots beautifully into a flicker deck. It can easily make soft loops with cards like Charming Prince that can refill her Reprieve counters whenever the Magistrate recurs it.
The anime-style card featured in this theme is Arrest. This kind of ability is pretty standard in Limited at this point and is considered a premium form of white removal in the format.
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Preston, the Vanisher
Preston, the Vanisher, is another card that looks fantastic in a flicker deck. This is a straight payoff for decks that are trying to recur their creatures – whether that be by flickering or reanimating. The sacrifice payoff seems to be a smaller point here but can come in handy when the illusions you’re creating are not all that impressive – something that will likely happen in a game of Jumpstart.
In Commander, however, this card can go nuts. Because the illusions it creates are copies of a creature, this is a two-card infinite with a card like Felidar Guardian.
Two additional new cards (art-wise or card-wise) were also spoiled alongside Preston, the Vanisher in what is the Blink theme in Jumpstart 2022. If you want more information about this theme’s contents, you can find that article here.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
There are a lot of Relentless Rats fans that are incredibly excited about their new overlord. Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm offers a buffing effect as well as a ton of value over time for in its second ability. To add to the excitement, because of its recent reprint in Double Masters 2022, Thrumming Stone, which used to be a $50 card, is now incredibly cheap! It’s never been a better time to be a fan of rats in MTG! If you want to see more of the reprints featured in the Rat theme, AdamTheGathering highlights some of them in his Tweet above.
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Termination Facilitator
Previewed by Twitter user @andremanentii, Termination Facilitator is the only card amongst the pack spoiled on that channel. A lot of the other cards in the deck are interested in dealing small amounts of recurring damage, and Termination Facilitator can turn that damage into kill spells. This, therefore, is interesting in a Pinger archetype in Commander. Unfortunately, most Pinger archetypes are in the Izzet colors, so a black payoff may not fit perfectly into the deck. Either way, listed above are all the cards contained within this pack. The two new arts previewed with this pack (on reprinted cards) are pictured below.
Lita, Mechanical Engineer
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The Detective and Primate Themes
comicbook.com featured two of the new pack themes for Jumpstart 2022. The first of which is the ‘detective’ theme which seems to focus on Investigating and creating Clue tokens, as the name suggests. Pictured above are the new cards Dutiful Replicator and Hold for Questioning. These aren’t incredibly powerful, but are some fun new additions coming with Jumpstart 2022. Magnifying Glass is the anime art reprint of the pack.
Kibo, Uktabi Prince was spoiled a little while ago, but it and Towering Gibbon are the two new cards coming with this theme in Jumpstart 2022. Uktabi Orangutan, an ancient MTG card, is also getting a rehash with a modern look. If you’re interested in finding out what the rest of the cards in these themes are, they are amongst the spoilers listed at comicbook.com.
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Peacewalker Colossus
Peacewalker Colossus is a sweet new card that also cares about Vehicles. While it cannot cheat its own Crew cost, Peacewalker Colossus can pay two mana to turn another Vehicle into a creature until end of turn. This combos incredibly well with some cheap vehicles that have big Crew costs, like Colossal Plow and Consulate Dreadnaught. You can find this, and Lita, Mechanical Engineer’s spoilers over at MTG personality Voxy‘s Twitter.
Spoiler Season Rolls Onwards!
Even as this article was being written, more and more new Jumpstart 2022 cards and art were constantly being spoiled. Since there’s even more to come tomorrow, we’ll round this one off with a quick gallery of things spoiled from all corners of the internet. If you want to see the primary sources for yourselves, Wizards of the Coast has an article up with where players should expect to find Jumpstart 2022 spoilers over the coming days.
Vampire Theme (ChannelFireball)
Wolf Theme (@AliEldrazi)
This isn’t even all the themes spoiled today! We’ll be back tomorrow to highlight more of Jumpstart’s incredible lineup!
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