When Jumpstart came out in 2020, it was an astounding success. That's even with the hurdles of coming out during the pandemic, limiting access to play with the concept, and printing issues delaying shipments. To come out on top as one of the shining examples of recent Magic: The Gathering releases in such a tumultuous time truly proved just how brilliant of an idea Jumpstart was. Naturally, it was inevitable that a sequel would follow.

While we saw several Jumpstart releases paired with Standard sets starting with Dominaria United, they were a mixed bag and fairly unpopular. They lacked the originality of a true Jumpstart release and were unexciting to play with. Many players wanted a real sequel to Jumpstart and thankfully they wouldn't need to wait very long. Jumpstart 2022 released at the end of 2022 and brought with it the same quality of new card designs, curated boosters, and even offered the unique addition of manga art cards. With a whopping 32 mythics in this set, there's a solid amount to discuss as we go about ranking them all.

Before we jump in, though, I do want to emphasize for this list in particular that context matters quite heavily. If you've been playing competitive Pioneer at all, Tree of Perdition probably seems surprisingly low. However, that's because of where the card sat at the time of Jumpstart 2022's release. Agatha's Soul Cauldron had yet to be released with Wilds of Eldraine and thus it was little more than a cute oddity this time around. I wanted to shout this out specifically since it was deep enough in the list that it won't get a proper discussion and would leave people confused.

Now with that out of the way, let's get to ranking!

• 32. Shadowborn Demon
• 31. Gideon, Champion of Justice
• 30. Chandra, Flame's Fury
• 29. Jace, Arcane Strategist
• 28. The Circle of Loyalty
• 27. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 26. Reaper from the Abyss
• 25. Svyelun of Sea and Sky
• 24. Tezzeret, Artifice Master
• 23. Vendilion Clique
• 22. Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 21. Massacre Wurm
• 20. Rhonas the Indomitable
• 19. Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence
• 18. Tree of Perdition
• 17. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 16. World Breaker
• 15. Avenger of Zendikar
• 14. Master of the Wild Hunt
• 13. Lyra Dawnbringer
• 12. Mechanized Production
• 11. Emiel the Blessed

10. Ajani, Strength of the Pride

Every single planeswalker in this set was a reprint, though in many cases they were quite weak options. No one cares about Gideon, Champion of Justice and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker has long since past his peak. Ajani, Strength of the Pride represents a notable exception, as players everywhere love their life gain cards in casual formats everywhere. This made Ajani a modestly expensive card for a bit prior to this reprint, which gave players the perfect opportunity to make their friends hate their guts.

I'll also note that while I'm not doing a full write-up on her here, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage was also a pretty strong consideration. However, since she had pretty recently gotten a reprint at the time, I elected to put her a bit lower for comparison.

9. Primordial Hydra

Players absolutely love hydras and Primordial Hydra is no exception. Despite being a bit on the underwhelming side when it first came out in Magic 2012, the years have been kind and its desirability keeps climbing. This led to the card hitting around $20 for a period before it was reprinted here. This made it far more accessible and thus between this printing and its cool Secret Lair release, allowing many more players the opportunity to play this in their Commander decks.

8. Pirated Copy

Pirated Copy is such an inspired name, poking fun at media piracy that we often see in today's digital age. The card itself, however, was more of a powered up Clone for one more mana that could also act as a pirate and it would let you draw tons of cards. Best of all? You can choose an opponent's creature and when that opponent damages another player, you're the one who draws the card. That makes it a fun and unique twist on such a beloved classic of Magic.

7. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

If you've been following my mythic ranking articles, you're probably used to Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker getting numerous reprints. Additionally, you likely will have noticed that it places lower every time. So why does he crack the top ten of a set so heavily packed with mythics?

The answer is simple! To date, those other sets have primarily been Masters releases where the average quality of mythics is extremely high. By comparison, the average mythic in Jumpstart 2022 is pretty weak or undesirable to your average player. Copies of Kiki-Jiki are always in demand, though, and this particular version boasting brand new manga-style artwork absolutely boosts its desirability for players who enjoy the little goblin everywhere.

6. Karn Liberated

Speaking of cards getting fancy new manga artwork, Modern classic Karn Liberated made for a truly surprising inclusion in this set. Fittingly helming the Tron themed booster, Karn was an excellent reprint for players looking to pick up Modern Tron. I should know - I was one of them at the time! Karn Liberated may have fallen off heavily thanks to his later incarnation of Karn, the Great Creator, but he still shows up plenty as well as making continual showings in Commander and Cube. This version gave players a sweet new version to collect and show up to events with a somewhat more stylish deck in the process.

5. Goldspan Dragon

As Jumpstart 2022 was coming out, Goldspan Dragon had already been shown the door thanks to rotating out of Standard. That mattered little to the many, many casual players everywhere who loved playing it and kept its price going strong following the rotation. Commander players love this powerful dragon and it's just the right mana cost to be a popular Cube inclusion as well. The card has become much more available in the years since, but at the time getting a reprint like this with such close proximity was a huge deal for players everywhere.

4. Isu the Abominable

Now we come to a set of four mythic legendary creatures. As with the first Jumpstart set, the big appeal with a set like this - beyond the Limited gameplay, of course - is the uniqueness of the new designs the set brings with it. The first time around, they were fairly generic, but this time Wizards opted to add in a variety of legendary creatures. Some show up as mythic rares, some show up as regular rares. But when some of the most exciting cards are ones that have already been reprinted multiple times, cards like these tend to shine a bit more.

Case in point, Isu the Abominable. Up until now, there haven't really been much by way of legends that focus this heavily on snow as a mechanic. Heidar, Rimewind Master; Narfi, Betrayer King; and Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff all cared about snow to some degree and there were two other legends that had the snow supertype. However, basically none of them really played into the theme too heavily. This gives Isu a place to shine, rewarding you for making use of as many snow cards as possible beyond acting simply as an anthem or a Seedborn Muse for snow permanents. That made for a very cool and very desirable legend to build around.

3. Kibo, Uktabi Prince

I genuinely can't believe they made this card. Uktabi Orangutan - also in this set to go along with Kibo - boasts some particularly infamous artwork. Without getting too into it, let's just say that Kibo is meant to act as the continuation of the story being told by that card. It was the kind of thing that seemed like the sort of element Wizards would be keen to leave in the 90s, but here we are.

As it happens, Kibo is a really fun build-around. He continues the tradition of what Uktabi Orangutan did by blowing up artifacts. When he does, all of your apes and monkeys get buffed - and with counters at that! Oh, and Kibo also just so happens to hand out artifacts to your opponents so that you have something to blow up in the process. Not a bad way to build the first ever ape and monkey lord!

2. Lita, Mechanical Engineer

Getting a Seedborn Muse for artifact creatures is huge. So many artifact creatures offer tremendous amounts of utility, be it mana ramp or a powerful ability (Steel Overseer, anyone?) that getting to utilize them over and over again makes this an absolute house. What's more, every turn you get the opportunity to make a big vehicle token to beat your opponents to death with. This makes for an extremely fun legend in the command zone or in the 99 and turned it into an instant success for Magic's premiere casual format.

1. Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

Players everywhere absolutely love rat decks. Marrow-Gnawer has long been a favorite for a reason even when there weren't many good rat cards to make use of. Even long before that, Plague Rats was one of the most popular creatures in Magic's early days and went on to influence a ludicrous amount of designs. It's just something ingrained in the game's DNA ever since Alpha first released.

It should hardly be a surprise, then that Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm's printing here made it an instant smash hit. Marrow-Gnawer lets you go nuts swarming the board, but Ashcoat makes them all monstrous. He even pulls two back out of your graveyard each turn, meaning no matter how many of your critters die, you'll always have more fuel - so long as you can restock your library, of course. This has made Ashcoat a slam dunk smash hit straight out of the gate, making it the chase card of the set immediately upon release.

Paige Smith

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