By Brian Cooper |
Updated on January 8, 2024
With all of the recent Jumpstart products that haven’t quite done so well (see Jumpstart The Brothers War and Jumpstart Dominaria), I’m happy to see a product that everyone finally likes. And that is MTG JUMPSTART 2022!
Released on December 2, 2022, Jumpstart 2022 is a throwback to the original 2020 version that caught everyone’s attention and I think it has a chance to become the new Jumpstart King!
Let’s dive into the set, talk about how and where to buy it and discuss the financials to see if Jumpstart 2022 is a good investment of your hard earned dollars.
Contents
Jumpstart 2022 – The Set
If you enjoy the old Magic sets, there’s going to be something in Jumpstart 2022 for you. If you’re a fan of Anime, Jumpstart 2022 might be your thing.
There’s something for everyone in this set which is why I think it has a chance to overthrow Jumpstart 2020 as the best Jumpstar product on the market.
The set will total 819 REGULAR cards (it’s HUGE!) and 51 of those are BRAND NEW Magic cards. The rest are all reprints and lands, many with never before seen new artwork.
The set is broken down as follows:
- 668 Common, Uncommon & Land cards
- 119 Rare cards
- 32 Mythic Rare cards
(Note: These are approximate numbers based on what we’re seeing from WotC – we’ll update the numbers if things change of course.)
In a very un-Wizards like move, there are NO foil cards in this entire set. Can you believe it? There’s something to be said about simplicity though and I kind of enjoy it.
The new Jumpstart 2022 is truly a great product and I think it’s a great improvement on the already successful 2020 set.
I think we can all agree that the Jumpstart Dominaria and Jumpstart The Brothers’ War products both tanked and could have been designed way better than they were.
Some would say those other sets “sucked” badly, but that’s water under the bridge at this point. Right now we’re focused on Jumpstart 2022 and it’s truly a superb set.
So as you’ll notice, the Jumpstart 2022 configuration is very similar to the 2020 version, with some subtle differences.
The way this year’s set was designed, there are more themes, a better use of rarity amongst the themes and cards inside that theme, and the amount of cards in the set.
The Jumpstart 2020 set (which again was excellent) had 497 cards as opposed to 819 cards in this year’s set which is a huge difference. Overall they took a good product and made it way better.
Jumpstart 2022 – Anime Cards
The inclusion of anime style artwork into Jumpstart 2022 is a big change and one that many will enjoy.
Personally, I’m a Magic traditionalist and love the old cards so new Anime doesn’t do much for me.
However, the set is such a great mix of old and new that the inclusion of Anime artwork is actually a welcome addition.
There are actually (45) new Anime cards in the Jumpstart 2022 set and a handful of them are quite expensive to say the least.
As you’ll see in the Themes and Singles section below, there are a number of Anime cards that are worth $15-20 and more at the time of release.
The Mythic Rare Anime cards will definitely demand a higher price and we’ll see how they hold up price-wise over time.
That being said, I think we’ll start to see more Anime art cards in future sets if Jumpstart 2022 continues to be popular among players and collectors.
Right now, they’re doing great and I expect values to drop just a bit as more Jumpstart hits the shelves……but not by much.
Here are all 45 Anime cards from Jumpstart 2022:
Jumpstart 2022 – How To Play
The idea behind the Jumpstart boosters is to open two packs, sleeve the cards, shuffle them all together and play a game of Magic versus your friends.
You don’t even need to add lands as the packs come with enough lands already to play a game. It’s a great concept and one that has definitely worked out for Magic over the past few years.
The Jumpstart packs are meant to work together with any other Jumpstart set. So if you want to combine a Jumpstart 2022 pack with a 2020 or Dominaria or The Brothers’ War, you can absolutely do so.
Once you combine those two packs, you’re off to the races and you can play a game of Magic!
It’s meant to be a quick way for both beginners and long time players to put together a cohesive deck and have a lot of fun in the process. And as you’ll see by the themes in this new set, the possibilities when it comes to decks is almost endless!
Jumpstart 2022 – Booster Boxes
The only way to get Jumpstart 2022 is by purchasing a Booster Box or Booster Pack. There are no other special boxes or packs that you can buy at this time.
My guess is they will have a Retail Booster pack offering at some point and those will look like the packs that hang on Target and Walmart shelves (similar to the 2020 set.)
Here are some important things you’ll need to know about Jumpstart 2022 Boosters:
- Every Booster Box contains (24) booster packs.
- Each Booster Pack contains (20) cards.
- All Booster Packs will contain at least (1) Rare card.
- Approximately (1) out of (3) Booster Packs will contain an EXTRA Rare card.
- Every Booster Pack will contain approximately 7-8 land cards with the rest of the pack being spells (i.e. creatures, instants, sorcery, artifacts, etc.)
- Every Booster Pack will contain one Anime inspired card.
- When you open a Jumpstart 2022 booster pack, the top card will be a ‘Pack Summary Card’ that tells you the name of the theme and the color of the cards inside the pack.
Jumpstart 2022 – Themes and Singles
Themes
What makes Jumpstart 2022 so great is the different themes and how WotC team designed the rarity and inclusion of reprints and new cards.
As mentioned before the set is massive at 819 cards so that leads to so many possibilities when it comes to gameplay. So let’s talk about the themes and then we’ll go over some of the singles I think are going to be the ones to get.
There are (46) different THEME booster packs that will have a rarity of COMMON, RARE or MYTHIC RARE. So the pack itself will have a rarity associated with it which is a pretty cool concept in itself.
COMMON and RARE THEME booster packs will have multiple variations when it comes to their contents. In total there are 121 different variations of the Common and Rare packs when it comes to the cards you’ll find inside.
Common theme packs will be found four times (in the different variations) amongst the 121 packs while Rare themes will be found only twice in 121 packs.
The Mythic Rare themes (like RATS or UNLUCKY 13) will be the tough ones to find only popping up once in 121 packs.
Here are the themes for this years set:
Singles
This is where the rubber meets the road. If you don’t have a Magic set that has good singles when it comes to gameplay and also worth a few bucks, the set will not do well.
In the case of Jumpstart 2022, it ticks ALL the boxes and then some.
I have a list below of some of my favorites from the set and I would say the set is loaded.
When it comes to values, there are (151) Rares and Mythics and (31) of them have a value of $4 or more. And just for comparison, the original Jumpstart 2020 had (104) Rare and Mythic cards and at least (40) of them were priced over $4 at release.
So the value is certainly there.
Outside of the Rare and Mythic cards, which tend to hold most of the value in the set, there are a handful of $3-5 Uncommons as well so the set is well balanced with desirable cards.
When combining the Uncommons with the expensive Rare and Mythics, there are over (50) cards in MTG Jumpstart 2022 that are worth $4 or more and just under (100) cards in the entire set worth more than a dollar!
Some important, expensive and really cool cards that I’m excited to see in Jumpstart 2022 are:
ASHCOAT OF THE SHADOW STORM - Value $32.00 (12/22)
RHYSTIC STUDY - Value $34.00 (12/22)
BALAN WANDERING KNIGHT - Value $27.00 (12/22)
LITA MECHANICAL ENGINEER - Value $15-20 (12/22)
ISU THE ABOMINABLE - Value $15-20 (12/22)
KIBO UKTABI PRINCE - Value $15-20 (12/22)
KARN LIBERATED - Value $15-20 (12/22)
TREE OF PERDITION - Value $15-20 (12/22)
PIRATED COPY - Value $15-20 (12/22)
This is only a small fraction of what this set holds for players and collectors. I can’t wait to rip some Jumpstart 2022 as I don’t think there will be a bad pack at all!
Wrap Up
Jumpstart 2022 actually was no surprise to me as I was really looking forward to it based on how well Jumpstart 2020 has done over the last year.
I can say I was a bit nervous a month or two back based on the dumpster fires called “Jumpstart Dominaria” and “Jumpstart The Brothers’ War” but I’m extremely excited for this new version and I think it will be hugely successful.
Jumpstart is just a really fun concept that has great gameplay and so many varieties of themes to make you want to continue buying booster packs and boxes.
Plus, the ability to mix and match all of the Jumpstart products together will over time make each set individually more successful.
I’ll bet one day there will be a Jumpstart 2023 or 2024 theme that when combined with a 2020 or 2022 theme makes an unstoppable and fun deck.
The combinations will be endless and will give deck-makers so much to play with as time goes on.
In my eyes it’s an amazing product for its financial value but more so because it encourages people to play Magic: The Gathering.
That to me is priceless.
WotC has strayed at times from the game itself and I think they get pulled into making sure there’s a collectible aspect to the cards.
They end up getting away from the root of Magic which is GAME PLAY. But I think Jumpstart is the medicine that is needed to draw players back to the fun and excitement that comes from playing the best trading card game ever made.
There you have it! If you have any questions about Jumpstart 2022, please send me a message and I’ll get back to you and maybe even post an update right here. Take care.
