Jumpstart Introduces A New Way to Play Magic: The Gathering

Wizards of the Coast has announced a new Magic: The Gathering product that introudces a new way to play Magic, and it's called Jumpstart. Here's how it works: players open two Jumpstart booster packs, shuffle them together, and you're ready to play, but according to Wizards, Jumpstart reveals an "intricate play experience unlike anything in Magic."

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Each Jumpstart booster contains 20 cards, and all of those cards fit a theme, and most themes have multiple variations —enough to create 121 possible 20-card lists inside any given pack.

Themes range from the curious ("Doctor") to the familiar ("Garruk"), and two themes can be formed together in unlikely ways ("Doctor Garruk"). Other themes Wizards mentioned include cats, goblins, walls, Phyrexians, and unicorns.

Here are some key things about Jumpstart:

> Each booster contains 20 cards centered on a theme. What theme each booster contains is randomized, but each themed 20 cards will be sealed inside the pack and labled.

> One in three boosters includes an extra rare.

> It's loaded with reprints—almost 500!

> Jumpstart introduces 37 new cards to the game. These will not be Standard-, Pioneer-, or Modern-legal cards. They are legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.

> It's closely tied to Core Set 2021—they share a lot of content and release near one another—but Jumpstart is a stand-alone product.

> All cards are legal in Eternal formats (Legacy, Vintage, and Commander)

> Every pack includes one basic land with art that matches the pack's theme. A few of them use thematically appropriate lands from M21, but most of them use brand-new themed land art created for Jumpstart.

This sounds like a fun casual way to play Magic without having to take a lot of time to build decks. I'm looking forward to see what cards will be included in Jumpstart.

Are you excited for the new Jumpstart product? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Here's what I think:

Jumpstart will be released on July 3, Prerelease will be on June 20-21! Check with your local game stores to see if you can sign up for a Jumpstart event.

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