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Magic: The Gatheringhas an almost overwhelming number of different rulesets you may play with, known as ‘formats’: Modern, Vintage, Legacy,Commander, Pauper, Pioneer, Oathbreaker, Historic, Tiny Leaders, Penny Dreadful, the list goes on and on, and knowing what cards you can play in what format can be tough. Fortunately, one MTG product answers that problem with an elegant solution: enter Jumpstart.
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Jumpstart is one of the fastest ways to get into a game of MTG. The setup takes seconds, there’s no having to worry about building your deck, and every game can feel completely different. Here’s everything you need to know about Jumpstart.
What Is Jumpstart?
Jumpstart is both a format – a way of playing Magic: The Gathering – and a line of products. It debuted in 2020, with the original Jumpstart set achieving massive popularity for its original way of playing and ease of use. Since then, there have beenmultiple sets made specifically for Jumpstart, and it has even been adapted into a regular fixture of each major release.
The idea of Jumpstart is simple: each Jumpstart booster pack has20 cards, including lands. Each pack is based on aspecific theme, such as Goblins, Angels, and Vampires, or more abstract ideas like “Well-Read” and “Gross”. By opening and shuffling two of these packs together, you’ve got aready-made 40-card deckthat you can play with straight away.
This means Jumpstart is alimited format, like draft or sealed, but has amuch quicker set-up time, and doesn’t overwhelm you with choices before you’ve even started playing.
How To Play Jumpstart
As mentioned, Jumpstart is incredibly simple to set up, all you need is:
Unlike draft and sealed, youdo not need any spare land cards.Every land you need is already in the boosters, and will be enough for your deck to function.
Each player takes two Jumpstart booster packs, and opens both. Remove the explainer card inside the packs that explains what the theme is, and then shuffle the remaining cards together intoa single, 40-card deck. And that’s it,your deck is now ready to play.
When playing one-on-one, you and your opponent start with the regular life total of 20. If you’ve got more than two players,you may want to scale the life total, as more damage will be flying around the table. Starting at anywhere from 25 to 30 is a good idea.
Officially, Jumpstart is only a one-on-one format. Expanding to more players isn’t officially supported, and you may find games either drag on longer or end quicker than you like if you add more people to your table.
Once you’re all set up, and have decided who goes first, the game now proceeds the same asany other game of Magic: The Gathering would. Draw seven cards, try and get your opponent’s life total to zero, or try and win using an alternate win condition like milling or poison.
How To Play Jumpstart Digitally
Jumpstart is not available on Magic Online, or inMagic: The Gathering Arena. However, Arena has its own version of the concept, withJump In!.
Jump In!can be accessed in the Events tab of Arena, underLimited. Each deck you make will cost either1,000 gold or 200 gems, however you can repay this at any time to roll a new deck, and will still keep all the cards you previously acquired.
The key difference between Jump In! and Jumpstart is that Jump In! is based on the digital-only Alchemy format, whereas Jumpstart uses specific sets. This means you’re able to encounter digital-only mechanics likeboons, perpetuity,andconjuringin Jump In!.
Jump In! also allows you greater control over the packs you pick. Instead of just opening two packs and shuffling them together, you are given two sets of three themes to choose from. As a result, you’re able to more easily make synergistic decks in Jump In! by ensuring you’re matching colours, have themes that feel close to each other, or are playstyles you particularly enjoy.
