Jumpstart Spoilers

[Slyvester12]

I mean, Mystery Booster have lots of reprints that are significantly cheaper than their original cards, and there were almost 1700 cards in that set.

I, for one, am excited. We saw how well Mystery Boosters did reprint-wise, C20 wasn't as bad as c18 was reprint-wise, M21 had solid reprints, and now Jumpstart not only has fantastic, big-ticket reprints like Craterhoof Behemoth & Exquisite Blood, they have commanders like Neyith of the Dire Hunt that explore new, unique design space. I really hope this trend continues with Commander Legends (and Double Masters although I will never be directly participating with Masters sets).

About the rare land cycle, I think they are best compared to trilands, as others have said. I would never run them in 1-2 color decks, would almost never run them in 3 color decks, and may run some in 4-5 color decks. I know that, especially when on a budget, it's good to lean into green in your mana base and rely on ramp like Cultivate to consistently get your other colors, so running Thriving Grove to get green and the most useful color at the time could be helpful.


*moans*
an ELF? Hoo hoo boi! It's only 1 mana, tells nasty blue players to piss off, and turns your elves into DINOS!!?? Slyvester, get over here and look at this beaut!

It's a strictly better Gaea's Herald, but is the dino thing ever going to get used? I guess against type-specific boardwipes (or someone cheating with Kindred Dominance in a Zacama deck) it could be a situational dodge.

[Morganator 2.0]

I guess against type-specific boardwipes (or someone cheating with Kindred Dominance in a Zacama deck) it could be a situational dodge.

More likely Toxic Deluge, but you're already using Ezuri as your commander, so you have a ready-to-go buff effect. With enough elves on the battlefield it might be a more mana efficient way of giving a buff.

[WizardSpartan]

The buff is somewhat useless in Ezuri, but as y'all have pointed out it's slightly more efficient than Ezuri's first pump in a board of 1/1s. I am more interested in the flavor win. Instead of telling your opponents you are swinging at them with an army of Elves for 26,534 damage, you get to tell them you are swinging at them with an army of Dino Elves for 26,534 damage.

Making all your green spells uncounterable in addition to being uncounterable itself in addition to being 1 mana in addition to being an Elf is the reason why I plan to get one ASAP. It's leaps and bounds better than the other options, even excluding its activated ability.

[Slyvester12]

Making all your green spells uncounterable in addition to being uncounterable itself in addition to being 1 mana in addition to being an Elf is the reason why I plan to get one ASAP. It's leaps and bounds better than the other options, even excluding its activated ability.

This is what I was talking about. The dino ability isn't necessarily useless, but a better Gaea's Herald for G is a really strong card to have around for heavy control matchups. Probably still not main deck, but I want one in a binder somewhere.

[HowlingLotus]

I am very intrigued by Ormos, Archive Keeper.

If you have an empty library there are better ways to win the game, that can win on the spot, but it's neat that activating its ability puts 25 +1/+1 counters on it with an empty library. The activated ability alone can fuel graveyard shenanigans in something like Muldrotha, The Gravetide.

[WWolfe]

Some content creators on Twitter are saying that Wizards spoiled their cards before their preview was scheduled. Probably a time mix up or something but kind of sucks for those content creators.

Some of the new legendaries...

[WWolfe]

A couple more "packs" or "sets" or whatever you want to call them are starting to be previewed. No real cards of note yet but among the packs are ones called Spooky, Plus One, and Spirits.

edit- or they may just be grouping the previously spoiled ones together by pack.

[HowlingLotus]

Well, this certainly works in combination with a bunch of existing things. The fact it's an advisor, too.

[WizardSpartan]

It's like they wanted a perfect fit for Persistent Petitioner tribal. Nice.

[Soren841]

They made mill a keyword

[Slyvester12]

Well, this certainly works in combination with a bunch of existing things. The fact it's an advisor, too.

Sweet Baby Jesus.

[WWolfe]

I wish it was when a player milled and not just your opponent. Oh well, guess that would have been too good with some of the other self-mill there's been lately.

edit- spelling is not my friend today

[HowlingLotus]

It probably works best in a Dimir deck, even though it wants to be the commander. Mono Blue has some great mill itself, but adding in black opens up some nice doors like Mind Grind and Secret Salvage (if Petitioner route).

It wasn't like we didn't have combos to increase mill before, but this is a much more direct route and not as card hunger (to copy spells, put curses on people, etc.).


The bigger question is how it will interact with some older cards until we see errata (because revealing cards like Mind Grind might not change). I've seen some people asking it the change to a keyword affects other mechanics like Dredge, etc. I imagine no, but who knows.

[WWolfe]

So now that the full previews are out, what do we think?

I think some of the new legendaries look interesting to possibly build around, I'll have to really look at them and my current decks to decide which ones I want to build around but it's the first time in a minute that I've felt the urge to build a new deck around some new legendaries.

There's a card or two that will slide into my Varina deck, and I want to try Branching Evolution in my Skullbriar deck (though I fear it may be too slow and not do enough). There is also a fair number of really good reprints that I can see people buying a few packs to see if they can get lucky.

Overall, for a set that I really didn't expect much from I think it's a decent set for both newer and older players.

[HowlingLotus]

I think the combination of new cards and quality of reprints shows they're maybe finally listening? I guess this set would have been mainly planned for awhile, so I have to wonder how far back?

The cynical take, however, is the reprint quality reflects in their desire for this type of set to succeed and push it to do similar in future.