Last updated on September 14, 2022

Kiora, the Tide's Fury - Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Kiora, the Tide’s Fury | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Hey, you got Jumpstart in my Historic Masters set!

WotC has decided to pull a strange gambit on the Magic community by introducing a massive new set that mixes last summer’s Jumpstart experience with a “Historic Masters” feel to introduce more powerful reprints into Historic. There are also some brand-new cards as well, 31 in total.

This set doesn’t have any paper component to it. Unlike last summer’s Jumpstart, you can’t buy packs of these cards in your local game store. Many of the new cards are designed for a digital-only experience, leading to some eye-turning new cards and mechanics that will only be playable in Historic.

So it’s time to take a look at this new set and what you can expect.

Jumpstart: Historic Horizons Basic Information

Set Details

Set SymbolJumpstart Historic Horizons set icon
Set CodeJ21
Hashtag#MTGJumpstart
Number of cards782
Rarities383 commons, 286 uncommons, 85 rares, 13 mythic rares, 15 basic lands
LanguagesEnglish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean
Cards per pack20
Themes47

Important Dates

EventDate
Previews startJuly 26, 2021
Release on MTG ArenaAugust 26, 2021
Available on Arena TutorAugust 26, 2021 (estimated)

Event Details

The Jumpstart events cost 2,000 gold or 400 gems. After payment, you’ll be given your choice of three different “packets.” These will construct your deck for the event.

Your first two wins in this mode will each award you with a rare or mythic ICR from Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. If you don’t want to get these cards by playing Jumpstart events, all the cards from this set will also be craftable with the appropriate wildcard once the set has been released.

Set Mechanics

Perpetually

“Perpetually” is a new phrase to Magic that appears on 18 cards in the new Jumpstart set. A card that does something perpetually modifies the text of a card to permanently gain or lose attributes. This can be in the form of combat abilities—“creature in hand perpetually gains lifelink”—power and toughness—“target creature perpetually has 0 power”—and more.

These changes follow the card into any zones it goes into. If your Longtusk Stalker dies as a 2/1, it will live in the graveyard as a 2/1. This mechanic wouldn’t be possible (or practical) in paper Magic, but it works just fine in a digital setting.

Conjure

“Conjure” is a new mechanic that appears on eight cards in the set. This is another mechanic that wouldn’t be possible in paper because it involves creating digital game pieces and then adding them to your hand, a feat not possible with conventional tokens!

Each conjure card functions a bit differently. They create specific cards like Kraken Hatchling, Stormfront Pegasus, or even Tropical Island. These cards can then be played just like normal cards and go to your graveyard/exile/deck as the game dictates.

Seek

Seek is the last of the new digital-only mechanics, appearing on just five cards. A card that “seeks” will retrieve a card from your library that meets a certain condition. One major twist with this mechanic is that you won’t be forced to shuffle your library.

The card(s) that you seek are also random cards that meet the condition, not the top cards of your deck. Bounty of the Deep, for example, grabs two random nonland cards from your deck (or one land and one nonland). You won’t shuffle your library, so any scrying you’ve done will remain relevant.

Tome of the Infinite

Tome of the Infinite

Tome of the Infinite conjures the following cards:

Davriel, Soul Broker

Davriel, Soul Broker

Davriel, Soul Broker offers you three choices from the following options:

  • Draw three cards.
  • Conjure a Manor Guardian card into your hand.
  • Return two random creature cards from your graveyard to your hand. They perpetually gain +1/+1 (like a gassed-up version of undying).
  • Return a random creature card with the highest mana value from among cards in your graveyard to the battlefield.
  • You get an emblem with, “Creatures you control get +2/+0.”
  • You get an emblem with, “Spells you cast cost o less to cast.”
  • You get an emblem with, “Davriel planeswalkers you control have +2: Draw a card.”
  • You get an emblem with, “Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life.”

Davriel also requires you choose a condition from among three of the options below:

  • You lose 6 life.
  • Exile two cards from your hand. If fewer than two cards were exiled this way, each opponent draws cards equal to the difference.
  • Sacrifice two permanents.
  • Each creature you don’t control perpetually gains +1/+1.
  • You get an emblem with, “Creatures you control get -1/-0.”
  • You get an emblem with, “Spells you cast cost o more to cast.”
  • You get an emblem with, “Whenever you draw a card, exile the top two cards of your library.”
  • You get an emblem with, “At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each creature you control.”

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Colorless

Faceless Agent
Faceless Agent

Jumpstart: Historic Horizons Packet Lists

These packets work a little bit differently than the first Jumpstart decklists. Each packet has several card slots with a chance of being replaced by alternate cards in the pack’s theme. You’ll see a list of each slot and the odds of the various alternate cards being in your packet instead along with each packet’s regular decklist.

Above the Clouds

Animated

Bears

Cycling

Davriel

Delirium

Enchanted

Energy

Evolving

Flickering

Freyalise

Goblins

Goblin Fodder

Humans

In the Machine

Junkyard

Kiora

Legion

Lost and Found

Madness

Many Faced

Merfolk

Modular

Ninjas

On the Draw

Plague

Pumped Up

Rats

Reanimated

Relentless

Sarkhan

Scaled Up

Scavenger

Scorched Earth

Serra’s Realm

Sliver Assault

Sliver Assault

Sliver Hive

Spellcasting

Squirrels

Storm

Teyo

Tinkerer

Undone

Vampire

Zombie

Zoologist

Wrap Up

Bounty of the Deep - Illustration by Olena Richards

Bounty of the Deep | Illustration by Olena Richards

Even though the Jumpstart: Historic Horizons was delayed, it’ll be out soon. This kind of set can be a lot to take in at first as there’s a massive number (over 300) of new cards being added to the format. My advice: take it slow, enjoy some Jumpstart games (which remain a weird mix between Sealed/Draft/Constructed), and keep a close eye on what’s doing well online. Don’t spend all of your wildcards in a hurry as there are likely too many options for you to make everything at once!

That’s all I have for you today, though. Whether or not you’re planning on jumping into Jumpstart, make sure you’ve got Arena Tutor handy if you play on MTGA at all. It’s a great tracker with our signature Draftsim AI built right in.

Stay healthy, stay safe, and I’ll see you next time!

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