Jumpstart

There are people out there that like limited Magic and there are people out there that like constructed Magic. That’s how Magic goes and why there are different formats and styles of format, everyone has a prefered way to play.

But how would you bring those two sets of players together? How would a format that panders to both sides of the limited/constructed coin work? It can’t be like draft or sealed because they involve too much skill when you’re picking the cards you want to play. No no, it must be more slapdash than that, it must be more random!

In case you haven’t heard, Wizards has announced the release of yet another new product this year called Jumpstart.
Jumpstart is a set based around themes - pirates, cats, phyrexians, unicorns, goblins and walls are the examples given in their article - and comes in 20 card booster packs. Each booster pertains to a theme with the intention of smashing two boosters together to create a deck instantaneously, without all that pesky deck building skill and creativity that some players put into their decks, the weirdos.

Immediately it's apparent that this is aimed towards the casual market which is fine. The problem there is that the majority of the casual market want to play decks they’ve created around a theme they like not have to randomly buy two boosters and hope they crack their prefered theme.

Most casual players I know have maybe two decks that have been built around either a handful of cards or a theme and get minorly tweaked every time a new set comes out. The same players also don’t tend to play much limited due to time or money restrictions. “Well that’s exactly what Jumpstart is for” I hear you cry, but what casual player wants to roll the dice on what theme they get? Sure, the format may end up being fun but it’s super restricted and offers little to no actual skill or ability. You buy two boosters, shuffle them together and hope that your deck actually does something.
I know Wizards have said that every theme works with every other theme and there’s over 121 iterations of any given 20 card booster per theme or whatever but all that says to me is that the likelihood of every game being functionally the same is that much higher. They also cheekily said that “Jumpstart takes the best parts of limited and constructed Magic and fuses them into a dynamic, innovative play experience.”. I don’t know about you but personally the best part of limited is the drafting/deckbuilding on the fly and the best part about constructed, in addition to the deckbuilding and personality you can include therein, is finding new technology for any given meta. Jumpstart seems to have taken the best parts of both those formats away in my eyes and I don’t know if the promise of new cards and a whole load of reprints will be enticing enough to get players actually playing Jumpstart rather than just using this set to bolster their pioneer or modern pool.

This is almost certainly an experiment but not one that I think will see more iterations. Maybe I’m just a bit jaded by all of these release announcements already this year but Jumpstart feels the most cash grabby by far. Maybe Wizards should spend more time testing cards in their mainstream sets before cobbling together some random supplementary set: having fun will always be a big, core part of Magic, but with all the “strides” over the last few years towards players actually being able to use their Professional Magic Player status effectively, isn’t it better to have a healthy format that gives the best players in the world a chance to show how good they are rather than the meta either being warped due to improperly tested, OP cards or constantly changed due to bannings.

In conclusion, I don’t think Jumpstart is actually a terrible idea. However, it is hard to get past the thought that Wizards are just throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what sticks and playing it off as the community getting all their christmases at once.
I don’t want all of these announcements to dull the feeling and anticipation of awaiting new sets and products and if these releases are bad that puts a sour taste in players mouths and makes them more skeptical about the next release. It’s a vicious cycle.
I am trying to keep the faith in Wizards but I’m not blind to mistakes they have made in the past and I’m by no means naive enough to think they will all be fixed by quadrupling the amount of set releases.
Jumpstart prereleases July 20-21 so you will be able to get your hands on it pretty soon. Why not let me know what your thoughts on Jumpstart are either in the comments or on Twitter @gcgamingtank.

Happy gaming guys!