Multiverse Set Review: JumpStart 2022
Jump into a new world
December 01, 2022 - By Nicholas Fair
Introductions are in order…
I’m incredibly excited to get to write about JumpStart 2022, Wizards of the Coast’s second full entry in the JumpStart series (the various set-based ones are their own thing, honestly). The first JumpStart was released back in 2020, in the middle of the Covid pandemic, and as a “social way to get started with Magic” it struggled to get dispersed. That being said, it was a smash-hit, and there was no bigger fan out there than me, as I admittedly have a preoccupation with trying to get Magic as accessible as possible. The first had a few great nods to planes and worlds past, and although I didn’t do a full write-up for that set, I’m doing one now!
This set is really fun because JumpStart and other series like it give WotC the opportunity to let loose with random card designs that aren’t tied to any one world, such as this set’s Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence (which is likely literally a top-down “Devil on your shoulder” design) while acting as a great home for artwork that wasn’t created for Magic explicitly, as WotC often buys the rights to pre-existing portfolio pieces when they hire on new freelance artists (looking at you, Angelic Cub!). It’s also a great place for “slush art” to get used. Slush art is artwork that, for one reason or another, such as a card being cut or a concept changing, didn’t get used in a set it was created for. This art oftentimes is planebound and explicitly depicting known places or characters, so it can’t get re-used easily in a normal, standard-release set. So if you’re a fan of unique, one-of-a-kind stuff, JumpStart is for you! Probably. But even more than that, it makes for a great challenge when it comes to figuring out just where all these darn cards belong in the Multiverse.
For those who are new to the Multiverse Set Reviews, the goal of these are to discuss new cards from the latest supplemental Magic release and assign them to known planes in the Magic Multiverse. You can read more about the methodology employed here. As always, if you have any suggestions on how you’d like to see future Multiverse Set Reviews, however, feel free to send me an email at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com. And as with the other set reviews, I am only one person, and quite often I miss a thing or two (despite my best efforts. I also owe an incredible amount to the community for crowdsourcing card origins and lore, so please feel free to send me your feedback or details on anything you think I may have missed.
Now let’s jump in!
JumpStart 2022
None (hopefully)
Angelic Cub here starts us off strong with some psychedelic vibes in the artwork. Magic has never had an Angel Cat before, and with those proportions and this layout, I’d wager this was a piece from artist Miranda Meeks’ portfolio that found its way here when WotC decided on a “cat” theme. It’s fun, but like nothing we’ve ever seen.
RAVNICA (Boros)
Alright, cool. This is an easy callback, and a clear Boros card. The original “I’m too old for this shit!” hard-boiled detective Agrus Kos was part of the initial Ravnica block and central to the main storyline. He died a heroic death, but came back as a ghost thanks to Ravnica’s now-defunct Ghost Quarter to see the plot through. It’s cool to see him still around, training new recruits.
UNKNOWN
The Amber Prison this is not; but the visuals of this card are very cool indeed. The chains are interestingly geometric, evoking visuals akin to those found on the planeswalker Teyo’s unique shield magic, but the art is otherwise as vague as it is evocative. For now, this is another homeless card.
UNKNOWN
Two homeless cards in a row? That has to be a record; but this is the kind of set where cards don’t need to belong anywhere. This artwork shows a mage casting a unicorn through portals to space and beyond, but sits in an otherwise nondescript field. There’s not much to grab onto here, thematically, though I guess it could go on Dominaria, but so does essentially everything.
RAVNICA (Boros)
Here we go! Confused by the ‘rebel’ typeline for the militaristic and law-abiding Boros? That’s because this card is a reprint from Mercadian Masques, and likely printed due to the unique theme of “becomes the target of an ability” of the pack it’s part of. If you’re new here, everything about this art is Boros. The helmets. The shields. The star insignia. The red-and-yellow-and-white color scheme.
DOMINARIA
Ah, check out this little Leopard-spotted leonin. We’ve seen his kind before, on the card Leonin Vanguard, which was from a core set. I placed the Vanguard on Alara, where the majority of the non-lion Leonin in Magic hail from, though it’s far from a sure bet. As best put by reddit user AniTaneen, this leonin belongs not on Alara, but Dominaria. The reason?
“Ingenious Leonin lacks any mezo-Naya styles and any mediterranean-Bant stylings on him. We know there are leopard warriors on Dominaria, as can be seen in the cards Cat Warriors and Elite Cat Warrior. I get the feeling that he might be a descendant of of those who followed Jedit’s example and found new life after Efrava was destroyed.”
KALADESH
Unlike our Leonin friend, Lita here is a slam-dunk for Kaladesh. As it was the first plane to feature Vehicles, of course it’s going to get the Vehicle-making legendary creature! And although we didn’t explicitly see automata AI in this capacity (true, sentient sci-fi robots are rare in Magic), the technology on Kaladesh doesn’t really disallow it, either. In addition, the skyship Zeppelins she summons look an awful lot like Kaladeshi thopters with their iconic filigree spirals.
UNKNOWN
I love the art on this card. The bemused look on the figure’s face: she judges us, the viewer, but with a levity not often found on those in her position. The setting around her, as well as her clothing, doesn’t leap out as explicitly plane-bound, and although “Magistrate” is a term used most often on Mercadia, she doesn’t really seem like she’d fit in on the upside-down mountain world. Until I can find a connection, she’ll remain planeless.
“The World of the tortoise & the hare”
So the world of the tortoise and the hare doesn’t really exist. Nor does any kind of “Alice in Wonderland” place that we know of. In fact, in Magic, there are incredibly few rabbitfolk that aren’t Sortami; our only other sentient rabbit is Kwain, from the supplemental set Commander Legends. I’m playfully putting Preston (what a name…) in the ‘Unknown Worlds’ section with Kwain, although time will tell where he truly belongs.
SHANDALAR
The drakes in this artwork are iconic. Very few background beasties, especially with the usually lackluster creature type of drake, pop in an illustration. After all: what is a drake but a lame dragon? Kidding. But really, these drakes look amazing, and they’re incredibly memorable. We’ve seen them before on the core-set-but-confirmed-for-Shandalaar merfolk Talrand. Talrand loves to invoke drakes, as does his… daughter(?) here.
ARCAVIOS (STRIXHAVEN)
The name of this card is all I needed to hear before knowing it was a denizen of the plane of Arcavios. The Biblioplex is the famed ‘largest library in the multiverse’, and although it previously had robotic and stonework assistants, it seems they’ve adopted to hiring larger creatures. As fun as it is, I must wonder if the Kraken is paid in currency, what it even does with that currency, and if it’s a danger to the students.
NEW CAPENNA
If it’s got noir vibes, it’s probably on New Capenna! Hold for Questioning here is a pretty emblematic scene that cuts right to the heart of what New Capenna is all about: a mafia crime drama. But you can’t just go off of vibes (okay, yes you can): you have to look at the evidence. Like a good detective knows, the devil’s in the details. The art deco design of the table lamp and the adornments on the back dresser here are a dead giveaway, as is the pretty standout bottle of Halo on the back shelf. Alright, Brokers, book em’.
IXALAN
Whenever Magic introduces something that’s visually or thematically new to a plane, it’s usually something that Wizards leans into as visually definitive about that world. Each world has to feel unique and different, and so when something like Pirates get introduced for the first time (more or less), they stand out and become a signpost. In this case, there’s no surefire way to know if these pirates are on Ixalan specifically, but as Ixalan is home to nearly all of the pirate-looking-pirates in Magic, this is a safe bet. I’m calling it even more than that thanks to the subtle hints of these pirates wearing three belts, a giant coat, and a giant shoulderpad made of rope; some of the big visual cues from the Ixalan style-guide.
ARCAVIOS (STRIXHAVEN)
More Strixhaven re-themes! Given there’s an entire booster themed around “Back to School”, getting more glimpses of the beautiful world of Arcavios and the Strixhaven campus are more than fine by me. This are features Zimone and Rootha, two of the iconic students from the first Strixhaven visit who were the set’s mascots for Quandrix and Prismari, respectively. I wonder which of them is going to pay the ( 1 ).
NEW CAPENNA
Drew Tucker is one of Magic’s most tenured artists, and one who I absolutely adore because of his more abstract style. Similar to fan-favorites like Dominik Mayer, he captures spell effects very effectively though non-literal visuals that eschew photorealistic details. That said, this more abstract art style naturally makes it much harder to pinpoint a literal location for the art. Our flavour text doesn’t help much, though the name ‘Soul Read’ has slight hints of divination and your classic “fortune teller” vibes. Combining that with the sharp, angular forms of the human figure here as reminiscent of art deco designs, and the fact that the woman is wearing a fedora and has really pronounced lapels, it really sells it. In addition, we only know of three planes with Rhox (Rhino-folk), and I can easily say this isn’t Dominaria or Alara, but on New Capenna: just look at his cool jacket!
UNKNOWN
This may get my vote for most difficult-to-parse art in the set. There’s a huge portal opening up with gigantic hands plucking a minotaur out of the ocean, and it looks like the two merfolk with wings are the ones doing it. It took a little while for me to realize that the merfolk are the casters of the spell, but it makes the card’s mechanics sort of make sense, albiet only slightly. Minotaur and fish-tail Merfolk only really overlap on Dominaria, although we’ve never seen flying fish like these before, so for now I’m calling this a homeless card.
Unknown
What an awesome snow commander, and our very first legendary Yeti! Yeti is an interesting creature type in Magic, where we have incredibly few in most of the game’s history. Each is visually unique, but all but a handfull are from Dominaria, with the exceptions being Hungering Yeti and Summit Prowler from Tarkir and Frostpeak Yeti from Kaldheim. Isu has the issue of being our first Yeti that doesn’t look anything like a big, fuzzy beast, and is more akin to a frozen troll than a classic yeti design from Magic’s past that tends to lean on Bigfoot motifs. If you have a Kaldheim or Dominaria cube or deck I think Isu would fit fine in those homes as his snow-matters design really lends itself nicely to either, but for now I have to declare him officially planeless!
THEROS
I do love a Greek-inspired name. Kenessos. Nen-ess-ose. What a wild thing to pronounce. If a Greek name wasn’t enough to tip you off that this Triton is from the Greek-inspired plane of Theros, the fact that he worships the Therosian God of the Ocean, Thassa, might help you out. Knessos here is a pretty standard triton (merfolk on Theros) as far as things go, but it’s always cool to see more heroes and more cards that want to summon Tomato Crates.
KALADESH
Remember the visually distinct Kaladeshi thopters I mentioned earlier on Lita? Well here’s another! Every citizen of Kaladesh seems to have a pet thopter or servo, though sadly it seems like this artificer won’t for long. The long scarf and goggles with tied-back hair is actually dead-on for Kaladesh as well, as are the layered patterned fabrics she’s wearing.
ARCAVIOS (STRIXHAVEN)
Although Merfolk are found on the vast majority of planes in the Multiverse, WotC art direction have done their best to differentiate them from world-to-world. Dominaria has your classic fish-tail mermaid, and Strixhaven has a much more whimsical head-fins that almost look like hair. The fact that this pupil is sitting in a classroom is what makes it a surefire lock.
ARCAVIOS (STRIXHAVEN)
Well, here’s the punchline that the Kraken set up. Cards like this are always fun, because not only do they literally say where they’re from (Biblioplex is the key here), it makes a two-part story with a card in the same set. Best of all, Tragic Lesson is a reprint, so this flavour is a much more whimsical take on the very somber tone of the initial printing in Hour of Devistation.
Arcavios (Strixhaven)
I’m a big fan of this art. A reprint from Urza’s Saga, the comparison of the two cards really showcases the difference in what Magic cards are trying to do in their illustrations in the modern day. If the original was supposed to be “see me after class”, it wasn’t that obvious, and the modern take shows more obvious portal-summoning and mentoring in a cooler, more adjacent aesthetic. Artist Ernanda Souza is somewhat new to Magic, but has a kickass portfolio already. I had initially placed this card on Kamigawa tentatively, but fellow vorthos Teddy set me straight:
“Wizard Mentor looks to me as a Quandrix professor running through a portal with a Strixhaven first-year. His folds of clothes evoke that sort of over-the-top style of folding in Quandrix clothes. The student seems to be wearing the same colors of grey and white of Strixhaven newcomers.”
He’s right, of course: those fractal sleeves are undeniable!
KAMIGAWA
Okay, okay, I love the Nezumi from Kamigawa. And don’t get me wrong; the ones in Neon Dynasty with their cool biker gear were solid. Buuut if I have to be honest, there’s something that I find incredibly cool about anthropmorphic albino rat mages. It’s especially fun that Ashcoat is possibly the new best Rat commander, as it’s otherwise been Marrow-Gnawer forever, and they kept the two-word naming convention from the first Kamigawa in doing so. Ink-Eyes. Marrow-Gnawer. Ash-Coat.
NEW CAPENNA
Blood Artist has had quite a few depictions, possibly more than most cards, and this new one is a welcome twist on the classic tale. The passionate, perfectionist vampire artist here is as dashing as can be and is half-anime, half-romance novel cover. His slick-back hair and open, collar shirt and rolled-up-sleeves with a vest combo have very 1940’s Americana vibes to them, which makes him fit nicely on New Capenna. This is especially true as on New Capenna the vampires are basically just people, because everyone drinks angel juice. Given that the Maestros are the vampire clan of the plane and are the ones who traffic in art, it just makes the fit all the more perfect.
RAVNICA (Rakdos)
This is really interesting. So first, we have one of the only female demons in Magic depicted here, as demons are almost entirely male (in the same way angels are almost entirely female, sans weird places like Amonkhet). The second is that I would never have called this as a Rakdos card explicitly if not for the flavour text. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve seen six whole demons besides Rakdos himself in total from Ravnica, and none of them look like the conductor here, but I like her! She fits the aesthetic, and adds a fun new layer to the Rakdos entertainment schtick as up until now, Ravnica hasn’t really had any music scene. I wonder if we’ll see more of “The Cacophony” in the future.
Innistrad (Ish)
Let’s walk through this. We’ve never seen a vampire like this before. It’s gross, has a giant mouth, and seems to suck blood out of victims from a distance using… super suction, let’s say. And it’s got small, pointed ears and is wearing a giant fur coat. The last detail tells us it’s cold wherever it is, and the flavour text tells us that it’s a place with normal vampires, so it makes me wonder… is this the long-anticipated glimpse at other areas of Innistrad? Could we be going to the arctic circle for more eldritch/deep-sea horror? Where we find more Things in the Ice?! For now, it seems like the best case scenario. I will patiently await arctic expeditions of a lovecraftian nature in a Magic set. Wotc, you know what to do.
UNKNOWN
This card wins for best name, hands-down. It’s a black kill spell that returns a zombie and it’s called deadly plot. Like a grave plot! Outstanding. Superb. 10/10.
Where’s it located? Oh, no clue. But the name is amazing and I’m going to savor it for hours.
INNISTRAD
Unlike the bloodsucker, the well-named Disciple of Perdition here is a keeper of an incredibly small Tree of Perdition. I love cards like this; they play into the 13-trope of Innistrad, they call back to a fan-favorite card from one visit, and then use the visual trappings of the latest visit (all of the woodland witches & warlocks) to tie it up into a great little package. Bravo.
INNISTRAD
So this is included on a technicality, but I’m going to do it because of course Olivia Voldaren’s wedding had a blood wedding cake. Feast of Blood was never printed in an Innistrad set, initially being from Zendikar, where WotC first did vampire tribal. However there is an IDW promo that takes place on Innistrad, so this card is happily already over on the Innistrad Plane Page. Still, this is sweet art and another great look at the wedding of the century, so I’m here for it.
UNKNOWN
As Festering Evil was only ever printed once before, early in Magic’s history, it’s easy to see how its original art from Weatherlight wasn’t going to fly in the modern era. With that said, this is… what? A smokey blob in a field of grain? This could be almost anything, which I suppose is the point about evil: it’s everywhere. You could probably make the case for this being located on one plane or another, but at the end of the day, if its got black mana, and if it’s got wheat (I think that’s wheat?), it could have this card. I’d love to get a better look at the artwork and see if any details tip us off in any one direction, but sadly I’ve yet to be able to find one.
Wherever Varina, Lich queen is From
Oh hey, it’s Varina! We haven’t heard from her in a while. If the flavour text didn’t call out Varina directly, I’d say this piece was evocative of a medieval still life painting, and probably leave it at that. But to think that this is a scene that shares a world with the geiger-esque horror show that is Varina is… confusing. It almost feels like this card was designed to throw me for a loop. But hey, we don’t know Varina’s home world anyway, so it’s left as unknown.
Ravnica (probably)
God this art is good. And combined with that flavour? *Chef’s kiss*. Immaculate. But where are these evil Ratatouille ripoffs from? Magic’s never mentioned an Ossuary before, though undoubtably plenty of places have them. There’s likely hundreds on Innistrad, the Golgari likely keep many on Ravnica, and Dominaria and Ulgrotha probably do, too. It’s hard to say when rats plane-to-plane are basically the same, but hey, that’s the game.
EDIT: Reddit user Myroo400 has pointed out that Magic has referenced ossuaries exactly once: on the Planechase plane of Grand Ossuary, which is located on Ravnica. So it looks like these rats get to go hang with the Golgari.
nEW PHYREXIA
Invoking the name of the mother of machines Elesh Norn is about as good as saying the name of New Phyrexia outright, but this reprint’s new artwork still has me dazzled. Initially from Urza’s Legacy, with art by the timeless RK Post, the new imagining here disregards the fairly dramatic “techno zombie” vibe of the old Phyrexia in favor of something more subtle and sci-fi. If old Phyrexia was a muscle car, New Phyrexia is an electric sports car, and nothing shows it better than the comparison of these two arts.
INNISTRAD
A welcome reprint, it’s about time this fellow got some new art! This one finds out on the horror-filled plane of Innistrad, as the Ghoulcaller Gisa in the flavour text reminds us. She’s writing a letter to her stitcher brother, Geralf, and taunting him as it’s one of the things she does best. Innistrad doesn’t tend to have skeletons in it as WotC likes to focus on Zombie-tribal and a skeleton would take away from that in a set file, but a supplemental product like JumpStart is the perfect place for it!
KALDHEIM (Immersturm)
Kill! Kill! Kill! That’s what passes for boredom and monotony when you’re trapped in a gigantic storm of endless violence, I guess. This demon is a reprint from Innistrad, which is why he’s probably not a Berserker like his demonic brethren from the plane of Kaldheim. Immersturm is the red-black mini-world on Kaldheim’s World Tree, and home to the majority of its demons and other nasty beasties like vampire dragons.
Innistrad
Legendary Creature. Vampire Angel. I’ll let that sink in if this is your first time reading this card. We have never, ever had a vampire angel before. Primarily, this is because angels are mana constructs and not “true” living beings, and that vampirism is usually either (1) a virus, or (2) a curse, either of which tend to turn you undead. In one instance, we have had a zombie vampire, which I’ve mentioned in my M12 review has implications all its own, but this is a new and exciting turn of events! I have no idea where Rodolf is from, though his name sounds like it’s plausibly from Innistrad, I will hold off on assigning him a home until we learn more about how Angels could possibly become vampires on that plane. After all, Innistrad’s angels are not only all female, but they are immortal beings of mana that reform over and over again (sans Avacyn, as she wans’t a naturally-formed angel.)
Edit: There’s been some great points raised on Reddit about Rodolf, primarily related to two things. The first is his name: it’s oddly close to the card Reya Dawnbringer, an iconic angel from the Dominarian invasion. That could just be coincidence, or it could just be that “___-bringer” names are cool, but it’s worth noting. The other insight is from Reddit user EmptyStar12 and it’s convincing enough that I’m going to change Rodolf’s home plane to Innistrad. Here’s what they had to say:
“Rodolf is Innistrad. He's gotta be. The giveaway is in the eyes*-- those black scleras with golden irises are de-facto Innistrad vampire traits. So are those exposed abs; they're big into showing their torsos with those weird cutouts in recent sets. Definitely playing up those seductive romance cover vibes. "Duskbringer" implies a connection to Liesa, who famously consorted with the monsters of Innistrad-- very fitting for an angel/ vampire hybrid.”
UNKNOWN
See that skull? With the antlers? That’s not this little guy’s head. Look underneath it That skull is likely just what he had for lunch last. It’s always pleasant to see a “worm” in Magic as most of the time we get wurms instead, but as far as environments go they don’t do much in the way of being iconic. Worms just sort of tend to sit in a pile of trash and carrion, and none looks like another, so for now he’s another drifter.
INNISTRAD
So there’s no actual reason this zombie belongs on Innistrad; after all, there are zombies everywhere. But think about it. This is literally two zombies in a trench coat standing on top of one another. Who, in all the multiverse, would make such a thing? And why?! The only answer is Ghoulcaller Gisa. She’s the only Necromancer with a sense of humor, and a pretty on-the-nose Harley Quinn vibe to boot.
“Victorian-inspired Magic Plane”
What an interesting reprint! Swarm of Bloodflies is initially from Khans of Tarkir, though this new piece seems to re-imagine them somewhere else. These gross guys don’t have too many definitive features, although I can easily say they’re not Phyrexian, and the locket that the victim has dropped in the art may be our only clue. Perhaps it’s part of the hypothetical Victorian-Inspired Magic world?
NEW CAPENNA
Speaking of New Capenna, the city is overrun with assassins. Like, there’s so many. Everyone is in a crime family in the same way everyone on Ravnica is in a guild, so it stands to reason that murder happens a lot. The outfit of this “Termination Facilitator” is a lock-in for the Maestros, and even his name sounds like the kind of mafia euphemisms that Capenna loves to use.
UNKNOWN
I can’t for the life of me understand how this art shows an aftershock, or how there’s a house in the art (or remains of a house) but I imagine one of you fine readers will let me know. This is another fun reprint, from Tempest.
Dominaria
Isn’t she ardozable? I have to admit, I love this card. Yes, I love the mechanics, and I love the classic Kev Walker art here, but I doubly love the fact that it’s a card with the epithet “Cobbler of War” while literally depicting a goblin that makes rocket shoes. The joke here is that ‘cobbler’ means a clumsy artisan or maker, but it more usually means a shoemaker: Ardoz happens to be both.
All of that said, Ardoz looks like an absolutely classic Dominarian goblin/mogg design. The dark olive skin, the sloped-back forehead, the surrounding area of winding mountains and red stone, the leather armor. Hell, even her boots are reminiscent of Onslaught-block-era-technology. Okay, I take it back, this is way better than using your friend’s face as a sled.
UNKNOWN
Another tiny and cute entry, Auntie Blyte may be my favorite card out of JumpStart 2022. Not only is she a fun concept (“devil on your shoulder”) but her design is incredibly unique: a red Wind Drake that both grows and makes removal out of damaging yourself. Wow: she makes hurting yourself seem like a really good idea. Flavour home run! Even with this, though, I don’t believe we’ve ever seen anyone nearly as contemporary looking as Blyte here: her glasses are especially “modern style” for a classic Magic plane. Devils don’t get used often in Magic as their niche is usually filled by Goblins in set design, so we really only have a few planes with them: namely Innistrad, Ravnica, and New Capenna. But no Devil in the past comes even close to the Auntie here; though I’d love to see more of where she came from.
IXALAN
It’s an in-joke with red Ixalan cards that they’re often “brazen” or part of the “Brazen Coalition.” This is because of a rather fun play on words: brazen can simply mean bold or shameless, but it also means made of brass. Given that the leader of the pirates is Admiral Beckett Brass, and the pirates are known for their bold acts and general uproarious behavior, it’s a fun naming convention to use when visiting the plane. Now, if you wanted some actual reasons this is from Ixalan? (1) Monkey goblins. (2) Pirate ships. (3) Raid mechanic. Boom!
UNKNOWN
This little fella is a strange one. It’s easy to miss the “creature token” in the second line of the ability, but it makes sense when you realize it doesn’t just say “any target.” With that, the art itself is available for viewing in HD, but it, nor the flavour, have any real hints about its origins. If it were a spirit, I’d say it almost looks like it could be from the original Kamigawa block as a “Kami of the coals” but as the artist said themselves: “I was given a lot of creative freedom to design an ember elemental golem type of creature.” So it looks like this one is another planar orphan.
Kaladesh
There are two planes we’ve seen Sky Pirates in Magic. The first is fairly recently, on Kaladesh, and on Dominaria as part of the Talas pirates from back during the set ‘Portal: Second Age’. Seeing red sky pirates with brass armor and large red scarves immediately made me think of Kaladesh, but I actually thought well and hard after we got a nod to the Talas during our latest Dominaria revisit. It may just be that we haven’t really gotten too many options, but the ships in the back, especially the one in the right-center, really don’t look like anything from Kaladesh. But if the ships used by the Talas are salvaged Thran artifacts, they certainly don’t look thran-like, either, or like any of the zeppelins they employ. I think the card Zara, Renegade Recruiter seals it for me. The look of her skyship, with the flag in the back, makes me think this is Kaladeshi afterall. But what do you all think?
IXALAN
Another anime-alt-art card that takes a big swing, Dragon Fodder here may be a little on the cartoony side, but it also is a chance for all of the Ixalan flavour decks and cubes to include this Goblin staple! Initially from Alara’s Jund, and last seen on Tarkir, this new art depicts the very monkey-like Goblins native to Ixalan, and what looks like a very hungry dinosaur.
New Capenna
A reprint from Tempest with some fun new art, the devil horns and shoulder spikes told me ‘Rakdos’ at first glance. But lo and behold, the flavour text here calls out New Capenna’s festivities, so that’s where he lands. It’s interesting, as not much about these visuals, or what we know about New Capenna, make this a good fit, but perhaps WotC decided they couldn’t just keep giving Rakdos all the cool fire shows and wanted to spread the love.
Dominaria
The tale of Slonk here reminds me a lot of the tale of the goblin inventor Toggo. Toggo invented lightning and the rock, and it seems that Slonk here invented fire in some capacity. Visually he’s a bit exaggerated, but fairly close to the modern Domainrian goblins with some mogg features, so I’ve placed him with his fellow inventor.
RAVNICA
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Mizzix, though it is the first time we’ve seen her riding what looks like a robotic Niv-Mizzet replica. That’s fun: I wonder what the new living guildpact is having his old guild do these days that isn’t reminiscent of him in some form or fashion. Utterly unconfirmed, but it would be cool if Mizzix helped work on the Firemind Vessel that captured Niv’s soul after he died in War of the Spark.
UNKNOWN
This is unknown, officially, but I have a vague idea. Here’s the thing: ogres are incredibly uncommon in Magic. Before they got a affable facelift in Khans of Tarkir, they had been only seen in early sets when Magic was more of a "generic fantasy game than one that even had unique planes. Across the multiverse ogres are varying levels of monstrous, from the eyeless beasts native to Mirrodin to the strong-guy aesthetic of New Capenna. The teal-skinned battlecaster here falls somewhere in the middle, and my digging shows she’s likely found on the same plane as two other planeless ogres: Obeka and Ogre Battledriver. I can’t wait to visit wherever they’re from.
UNKNOWN
After seeing this art in beautiful HD, I’m still not sure where to place this Plundering Predator. A unique looking dragon, which is saying something given how many Magic has had in the past, Plundering Predator has a thick fur on its neck and shoulders, and its grey head looks reminiscent of a mammalian skull more than a reptilian one. It’s on the smaller side, and the two small horns look almost alien. It’s unlike anything I can recall in Magic history.
KALADESH
Another ‘included on a technicality’, we’ve never seen Caustic Caterpillar as part of a proper Kaladesh expansion, but the only other printing of it was in Magic Origins, where it very clearly was part of the plane. It’s fun to see the quote in the flavour text attributed to Chandra’s mom, Pia.
UNKNOWN
In my review of Modern Horizons 2, I make mention of how WotC has been very deliberate in making the hydra on each plane look fairly unique. To that end, the rather friendly hydra we see here is really unlike the majority of the hydras we’ve seen before. It has almost gentle faces, and a sheen to its scales and thin necks like that of a small forest snake. The antennae it has are the final unique element in the design, meaning that this art was likely commissioned as a fairly open design, something like “make a nice looking hydra who’s interacting positively with a human.”
UNKNOWN
Magic has had a few giant bugs, though most of them aren’t very good. It seems like every plane has a colossal insect or two thanks to a growth spell run amok or for other, more sinister reasons, and it’s not really clear where the ladybug here may be from. As the most genetic giant insects, being giant cockroach and giant caterpillar, are from Dominaria and Mercadia respectively, I think it’s safe to call this big lady a toss-up.
DOMINARIA
Monkeyyyy Kiiiiingggg. Kibo is the result of a decades-long joke in Magic the Gathering art, and I’m here to share it with you now. In the set Visions, the card Uktabi Orangutan has two other monkeys in the art which are… let’s say “married” as the flavour text describes it. I have no idea why or how this art was done, but artist Una Fricker set off a chain reaction for years to come. In the set Unhinged, a joke card named Uktabi Kong was created, which not only was essentially a gigantic Uktabi Orangutan, but that featured an update on the tale of the two golden monkeys: they had gotten pregnant! Good for them. Well, it looks like Kibo is their child, and you can see the entire family in the new art for Uktabi Orangutan. In placing this little guy in his proper kingdom plane, it probably helps to know that Uktabi is a jungle on Dominaria.
Arcavios (Strixhaven)
A non-transforming Werewolf! That’s fun. WotC has played around with this design style once previously in the D&D Set Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, but I don’t know where this particular librarian takes her tea. She’s not affected by the classic werewolf curse, and instead is being transformed by a spell being read from an ancient tome: that’s a first as far as Magic is concerned.
Edit: As Reddit users EmptyStar12 and Dorfbewohner have keenly pointed out, the art description given for this illustration actually specifically calls out Strixhaven. Mystery solved!
UNKNOWN
I don’t know if this is slush art or not, but I’d really like to know this art’s story. The headdress worn by the elf here is interesting, as it’s almost identical to the one worn by the Beastcaller on the now-cancelled game Magic Legends. There’s not a lot else to go on otherwise, besides the obvious name/mechanic/flavour text references to Primeval Titan, though now that I look at it, maybe the headdress is also a callback to the titan’s horns? Either way, the titan itself is a planeless card, so the herald is as well.
UNKNOWN
Oh hey, more big bugs! It makes sense, given that one of the packs is literally designed to be full of giant insects, so it stands to reason this art was made specifically for JumpStart. Historically, it looks like Vivien Ried has been the one to call when bugs get massive, but as she’s a planeswalker it doesn’t do much to help us place this cute little guy’s home.
ALARA (Naya)
I know, I know, here I am, putting another leonin on Alara. How original. Except Runadi here has some extra layers to his lore that I think make him a great inhabitant for our favorite world of shards. You’ll recall that when Alara was five shards, the leonin lived on Naya (RGW), and when Alara merged, they also joined in with Bant (GWU). Although his clothes are a little more contemporary than our last visit to Alara, Runadi here taps into one of the main designs for the shard of Naya: The Gargantuans/Behemoths and the God-Trackers. The entire shard was designed around creatures with power 5 or greater and how they were worshipped by the elves, leonin, elves, and other smaller races. Seeing that, I don’t think there’s any leonin more deserving of a spot on Alara than Runadi.
Innistrad
The only plane with wolf spirits is Innistrad, though it’s likely because Innistrad wants to have cards that overlap with the Werewolf and Spirit tribes of the sets, and less to do with wolves not having spirits on other planes. Given precedent, this hunt-caller goes to Innistrad as well: even his green ghastly glow matches previous visits.
NEW CAPENNA
Giant. Monke. What fun artwork. The scene here is clearly meant to be reminiscent of King Kong on the Empire State Building, and it should be noted that the Empire State Building is one of the most iconic art deco designs in the world. Seeing the way the scene is lit up, this looks like it’s right out of New Capenna, even if we haven’t seen monkeys on that plane before now. It even has a dripping fountain of Halo in the foreground to seal the deal.
UNKNOWN
When Zask was spoiled, the community was immediately abuzz with theories that it was related in some way to Grist, the Hunger Tide. Grist is a planeswalking insect of unknown origins, and the graveyard synergies on the green-black planeswalker that tie into insect tribal are a match made in heaven with Zask: it’s hard not to see them as related. There’s no real way to know where either is from; but once we know where one calls home, I’d be willing to bet the other does as well.
Dominaria
Tawnos, famed apprentice of Urza, toymaker, inventor of clay robots, and survivor of the Sylex blast, is a Dominarian native. You can see him in the flavour text here; clearly giving advice to someone who he’s made this replicator for. Given that it’s hard at work carving angels, perhaps it’s for a member of the Church of Serra?
new capenna
Ah, Lord Xander, what a fine elder demon vampire. He was taken from us far before his time. Before his untimely death, however, Lord Xander was the demonic head of the crime family The Maestros on New Capenna. As assassins and art collectors, the Maestros acquired all manner of beautiful and deadly artifacts from across the city they called home, and it looks like the courier here fell victim to the curse on one of them. It doesn’t seem like being a middle-man in New Capenna is a very long-lived profession.
unknown
What an interesting card! Literal instruments of war; the tools of a master bard or war musician. There have been many references to the drums of war in Magic, primarily in red and associated with goblin clans, but this art strikes me as much more abstract than the usual war drums. The shadows in the back paint a very primal image in many respects, although the make of the horn especially appears much more ornate. It’s hard to say where this artifact belongs; if anywhere.
NOT-A-Lot-of-Places
Looking at the bubbles of this artwork, we catch a glimpse of a few planes; most notably Zendikar in the largest. Every one we can see tells us where this art is not, but not where it is. What we can say is that very few planes in the multiverse have individuals with knowledge of the multiverse-at-large, and even fewer of those individuals have the ability to chart and track it. The most notable is, of course, Dominaria, but the list also includes Mirrodin, Ravnica, Kaladesh, and Strixhaven. This art here doesn’t really look like much of anything beyond the literal depiction of the artifact in question, and we’ll likely never get an answer to where it’s being depicted, but it’s a fun puzzle to try and solve.
NEW PHYREXIA
If you thought that New Phyrexia was the reason Mirrodin became kind of an awful and gross metal hell, may I introduce the original Spawning Pit? New Phyrexia didn’t even need to change anything when they moved in: Mirrodin was already putting their dead in giant piles of goo and sulphur to melt them down into new materials. Gross. But I’ll tell you what’s even grosser: we don’t have a physical Spawn token yet. Absurd! No, the Warhammer ones don’t count.
The Final Plane Count
Alright, that’s a wrap! There were a good variety of planes visited in JumpStart 2022, but the vast majority of cards were actually plane-agnostic. This isn’t too much of a surprise: art is quicker and easier when you tell the artist to just have fun with it instead of providing a 200-page world guide to follow, and a set like JumpStart doesn’t actually need to be visually coherent. In fact, it sort of benefits from being a little bit more like tabletop Magic and looking like a hodge-podge of different designs and aesthetics. With that said, here’s our final count:
New Capenna: 7
Innistrad: 7
Arcavios: 6
Ravnica: 5
Dominaria: 5
Kaladesh: 4
Ixalan: 3
New Phyrexia: 2
Kamigawa: 1
Alara: 1
Shandalar: 1
Theros: 1
Kaldheim: 1
I’m actually kind of surprised! Fan-favorites like Ravnica and Innistrad top the chart count every time we do one of these, but seeing New Capenna so high makes me wonder if a large amount of the art we got was leftover or slush art, or if Wizards of the Coast just really likes commissioning mafia-style artwork. There were notably a few fun art ‘revisits’ as well that I didn’t touch on that alter the total numbers somewhat, like this absolutely killer update for Nezumi Bone-Reader. Regardless, JumpStart 2022 has been an absolute treat to review, and I hope WotC keeps up products like this in the future.
That’s a Wrap
There we have it, everyone! JumpStart 2022 is in the books and that’s a wrap for my planar review. As always, it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to write this for you fine folks, and I love to hear what you think! Ping me via email or on twitter and I’m always game to chat about fun Vorthos theories and new Magic stuff.
Until next time,
-Nick