Well, Jumpstart isn’t out yet – due to Corona and whatever it still is on delay. But the card spoilers are out, the Boosters have already been published online in MTG Arena, so let’s have a look at Jumpstart.

• JUMPSTART is a MTG booster set. It consists mostly from reprints, and 37 new cards. The special is that each booster has 20 cards per pack, and they are prepacked, so the content is rather fixed. However, there are 121 possible prepacks you could draw. Each prepacked Pack has a certain theme – Unicorns, Doctors, Angels, and so on. Some theme just appear once, buit several themes have different prepacked versions, e.g. there are 2 Angel packs, which contain each 20 cards, from which 17 are equal, but 3 do differ. (Linvala, Angelic Arbiter and Take Heart vs.  Baneslayer Angel, Voice of the Provinces and Feat of Resistance.)

Though there are boosters which should boost mechanics and tribes, we don’t think it contributes much to Commander, sadly.

There are Angels – but will there be new Angel tribals because of Jumpstart now ? Nope.

So, which new cards do contribute to Commander – and which don’t ?

— white —

Release the Dogs
4 Tokens for four mana – that’s good. You could play it in a dog deck… or you can include it in a Winota, Joiner of Forces Deck ! We think this is a good include in some decks.

Emiel the Blessed
Advertised as unicorn theme – the card iself is quite cool,the body of 4/4 for four mana is good, but the card offers nothing new other cards couldn’t do similarly: Brago or Roon anyone ? There are 24 unicorns atm, and most of them …suck….er … underperform. So the chance for a unicorn-tribal wasn’t used.

— blue —

Bruvac the Grandiloquent
Mill deck anyone ? Phenax loves Bruvac! The main problem with mill was, that mostly in Teamcommander, the Mill player is alone – he has to follow through with his gameplan and mechanic alone – it is not very probably that your partner will mill a single card. (See our article HERE). The second reason is, that cards like consuming aberration will simply kill your opponent by damage – if you milled like 30 cards, the damage such creatures will inflict is much more than the ability to mill like 70 remaing cards. With Bruvac this changes. Bruvac (and Persistent Petitioners) will have such a potential to mill cards, that these decks are not only viable but wil really shine out!

Inniaz, the Gale Force
The ability to switch permanents with the player to your right is not that impressive in Teamcommander. Sure, it is playable, but the political aspect this is directed towards doesn’t work out in a team format. The ability to temporarily buff creatures is also okay, but not a big game changer. Djinn tribal is also not pushed forward with this creature or cards in this set.

Ormos, Archive Keeper
Could be used as a Commander – but we don’t expect him to see much play. The option to put some +1/+1 counters on him while you have no cards in your lib is … not very impressive. Other cards like Jace, Wielder of Secrets or Lab Maniac lets you win the game instead. And, if you really try to mill youself that much, you will face other problems as well: no more cards to draw, and if the commander gets handled, you simply lose. Okay, there is a second ability to draw cards, which is not that bad, but again, there are other commanders which could do this, too, like Arcanis the Omnipotent. All in all, this Commander isn’t simply bad, but doesn’t stand out as well. And about Sphinxes: nope, no promising tribal going on with this card.

Scholar of the Lost Trove – Archaeomender – Corsair Captain
Not legendary, and therefore no commanders, but all in all good cards. They can be included in decks easily, and might improve certain decks. Not staple cards, not overpowered at all, but playable at least.

— black —

Kels, Fight Fixer
Carddraw, Legendary, Sacrifice ability included. Sounds cool. He might not be as effective as Yawgmoth, but he is playable. Maybe he won’t be used as a commander that often but he is playable. Let’s find out if he sees much play.

Immolating Gyre
A good inclusion in any spellslinger Deck. 6 mana is a lot, though, and other colors offer mass-creature-removal at fewer costs and more effective (Wrath of God, Damnation, Toxiy Deluge,…). So, you might even get to 6 mana, but lack one or two sorceries and instants to wipe the board. It might be an inclusion in Commander Decks, but not a replacement for Blasphemous Act or Chain Reaction. While „kill all other creatures“ sounds cool in first place, a spellslinger Deck based on Instants and Sorceries doesn’t normally conatin many creatures. So, not that powercard as it might look like on first sight.

Neyith of the Dire Hunt
Not sure about him. His ability resembles Xanagos, but costs mana and just boosts power and doesn’t offer haste. But there is also a carddraw ability. As an addition to some decks it is a nice card. Maybe you surpise us and build decks around him ?

Allosaurus Shepherd
MKM is the biggest card market in Europe – and the pricetags rise up to 95€ for him. Any more questions ? Elves are a mighty tribe, but Allosaurus Shepherd’s ability is strong for about any green Deck.

„Enters the battlefield tapped“.-lands, and a Golem. Not impressive. THere are so many cool, mana fixing lands available to choose from in Commander, that these lands aren’t that much of an addition. So, overall, the Jumpjet expansion doesn’t offer many cards for Commander, but the ones that are cool will have an impact in the future.

We are aware that Jumpstart is aimed at another kind of players: maybe new players who just mix two boosters. Maby you can use this to introduce friends not familiar to magic to the game. But we expected something else, to be honest. More tribal, more mechanics, more boost for Commander. Well – maybe next time there will be an expension, which boosts old mechanics and tribes? A set that would make unicorns or Kicker in Commander really playworthy – it still remains a dream.