Preview season for MTG Foundations has officially begun and it’s shaping up to be an absolute whopper. Not only is there the colossal main set to consider, but also the Beginner Box and the 350-card Starter Collection. Even considering its status as a five-year Standard set, which you’d expect to be substantial, Foundations feels massive. That’s all before you bring in Foundations Jumpstart, too, yet another new product which also got a nice batch of spoilers today.
This is essentially a full-on Jumpstart set for 2024. We’re talking new mini-archetypes, a bunch of new eternal-legal cards, and some new anime-art masterpieces. Based on the cards we saw today, this is looking like a worthy addition to the Foundations lineup.
What Is Foundations Jumpstart?
Before we get into the spoilers, we should clarify a few things about Foundations Jumpstart. Jumpstart is a product line that started in 2020, and it has had multiple releases since then. The original Jumpstart and Jumpstart 2022 featured original cards, while the other set-specific Jumpstart sets were entirely made up of reprints. Despite being tied to Foundations, this new Jumpstart set will follow the original and include plenty of new cards.
Jumpstart as a whole is designed as an alternative way to play Magic. You open two 20-card Jumpstart boosters, combine them into one deck, and duke it out with your opponent. It’s essentially a streamlined take on Sealed. Each booster is built around a particular theme: Goblin Typal, blue card draw, etc. Some of these have fixed contents, while others have a number of variants you can open.
The most important thing to note about Foundations Jumpstart is that the cards within are not Standard legal. Everything else in the Foundations product line is, but not this set. You can only play with the cards you open here in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage. Keep that in mind as we go through the spoilers below.
It’s also worth noting that Foundations Jumpstart continues the anime art trend introduced in Jumpstart 2022. Just like that set, you’ll find one card with ‘anime-inspired art’ in every pack. While these cards took various forms in Jumpstart 2022, Wizards has confirmed that all of the anime-inspired cards in Foundations Jumpstart will be legendary creatures. Great news for those who like these sets for their Commander applications.
New Anime Legends
Now onto the Foundations Jumpstart spoilers! We’ll kick things off with some of those anime art legendaries we just mentioned. We saw five of these today, three of which are brand-new to this set.
Let’s look at General Kreat, the Boltbringer first. Despite being an uncommon, this might just be the scariest card of the bunch. She combines Goblin token production with a built-in Impact Tremors. The fact that her first ability doesn’t specify ‘nontoken’ Goblins is very relevant, letting your tokens make more tokens when they swing in. This ability still only makes one Goblin a turn though, so it’s not super-impressive. Regardless, Kreat is immediately a solid option for a Goblin Commander, or a must-have in the 99.
Next up we have another Typal legend, Shroofus Sproutsire. Beyond looking absolutely fantastic, Shroofus is a very powerful card for the underrepresented Saproling archetype. It creates 1/1 Saprolings whenever any of your other Saprolings, tokens included, deal combat damage to players. Like General Kreat, this can snowball out of hand fast. Shroofus also comes with Trample, which makes him a solid choice for a Voltron Commander.
Finally, Taeko, Patient Avalanche is the most complex new anime legend of the bunch. To address the elephant in the room first: yes, per his typing, he is a Ninja Turtle. He’s also clearly designed as a Commander or support card for a deck built around the Ninjutsu mechanic. His scaling ability, which requires creatures you control to leave the battlefield but not die, is very specific, and Ninjustsu is a way to trigger it. His last ability also lets creatures slip through unblocked, meaning he’s both an enabler and payoff for Ninjutsu. Entering tapped is annoying, but Taeko still looks great.
Pricey Reprints
The anime legends in the set aren’t limited to just new cards. There will also be some spicy reprints as well. We saw a couple of these today, both of which have some serious existing value.
Leading the charge here we have Brimaz, King of Oreskos. This is a hyper-efficient three drop first printed in Born of the Gods, a whopping 10 years ago. The card is mostly used as a powerful synergy piece for Cat Typal decks in Commander, but it also sees some fringe Pioneer play in both Azorius Control and Selesnya Company. This is a Cat with a definite forever home, in other words. Being a mythic and never getting a reprint outside of Secret Lair and The List means this card has held its price well. A regular copy will run you around $13 right now, and I can only imagine this anime version will go for more.
The other returning legend here is in a similar boat. Vilis, Broker of Blood has only been reprinted in Game Night: Free-for-All and Secret Lair since its Core Set 2020 debut. Since it was only a rare, its price is a little bit lower than Brimaz’s at $12. It also doesn’t see any real play outside of Commander. In Commander, however, it’s an absolute staple.
Vilis is one of the best reanimation targets in the format, capable of drawing you a ridiculous number of cards with ease. In fact, he’s probably the closest parallel we have to the infamous Griselbrand; a card that was banned in Commander way back in 2012. Seeing him again here, with sweet new art no less, is fantastic stuff.
Synergy Pieces
That’s all of the anime art goodness out the way. Now let’s get into some more Foundations Jumpstart spoilers. These are cards you can open in regular boosters as your rare, and each clearly supports a particular Jumpstart theme.
Generous Pup, for instance, is almost certainly the rare for a +1/+1 Counters pack. When this card gets a counter, he makes sure all your other creatures get a counter too. For obvious reasons, this is a ‘once per turn’ effect, but it’s still incredibly powerful. Placing counters is trivial these days, and buffing your entire board can close out Commander games real fast. Two mana is a great rate for this card, too.
In a fun flavor twist, Generous Pup actually synergizes quite nicely with another of our new cards today, Scythecat Cub. Cats and Dogs are traditionally mortal enemies, but Cub can place a counter on Pup each turn with its Landfall ability, leading to a lot of extra stats. It’s unlikely that these two cards are part of the same pack, but they are an example of the kinds of synergies Jumpstart play offers. While no all-star, Scythecat Cub feels a lot like a miniature Omnivorous Flytrap: a Duskmourn card that has been doing rather well for itself lately.
Finally, Frontline Heroism is a clear pick from a Heroic theme pack. It brings in a 1/1 with Haste and creates more each time you target one creature with a spell. Crucially it also copies the spell you cast on the new 1/1, leading to some potentially devastating swings in decks like Feather, the Redeemed. Of these three, Frontline Heroism looks the most likely to see serious play in Commander. Players are always looking for more Dogs and Cats though, so don’t count the others out.
Thematic Commons
Finally, let’s round out today’s Foundations Jumpstart spoilers with a couple of commons. These are a lot less exciting than the cards above and were mostly spoiled now to give an idea of the themes the set will offer. That said, it’s important not to write them off right away.
Look at Hinterland Sanctifier, for example. This is a Soul Sister-type effect with one extra toughness; a notable improvement over most creatures like this. It’s also a Rabbit, which is a relevant creature type no thanks to Bloomburrow. It’s not going to beat out Guide of Souls in anything other than budget lists, but this is still a remarkably solid card for a common.
Hearts on Fire doesn’t fare quite so well. This is your bog-standard combat trick, with no notable bells or whistles. It’s not efficient enough to see play in older formats, nor exciting enough to see play in Commander. Hilariously, it’s also a bit of a non-bo with Frontline Heroism from earlier. Maybe the Heroic theme packs include a mixture of Heroic and Valiant effects, but if not then this is a bad, bad choice. It does give you an excuse to break out into the classic John Cafferty song from Rocky IV, however, which is always nice.
