Magic Foundations: Jumpstart Legends Review

Hello and welcome back. A lot of news has come out of the Vegas Magic Con, and a few feelings along with it. I’m going to narrow it down today however and talk about the spoilers that started there for the set Foundations Jump Start. Even with that narrower scope, I’m going to narrow it further and focus on the new legendary creatures because there is just so much to cover outside of those and reprints. As it stands, this article will be longer than most I write.

As a note at time of writing, the set is still being spoiled so there may be legends I miss, and obligatory spoiler warning.

THURID, MARE OF DESTINY

We start off with a batch typal legend in Thurid, who cares about Horse, Pegasus and Unicorn type cards. Specifically, it makes copies of each card you cast of those types. As we know, doubling anything can get you ahead fairly quickly. On top of that, the creature has evasion and lifelink to keep itself and you in the game and buffs your herd to threaten to take victory.

All in all, a very good card for those type decks, though I wish it had one more color to it’s identity. Still, a welcome and simply powerful addition.

BRIGONE, SOLDIER OF MELETIS

Another fairly simple legend here, which I will point out seems to be a staple of Jumpstart set legends. A 2/2 creature for 2 is standard these days, and it gets counter whenever you cast a spell that targets Brigone. I can see this being okay in a spell slinger deck like ANax and Cymede or something like my Feather deck, but I think it might be strong in an Aura centric deck. Often, those decks will have something to use counters with anyway.

Speaking of, you can tap the creature to remove a counter and draw a card. Add some untapping and you card draw should be decent. With an aura build, doing this might be both easy to do and keep the majority of Brigone strength through those auras.

PSEMILLA, MELETIAN POET

Alright, Aminatou and various enchantment decks will be happy here. I also want to point out this is an uncommon legend which is going to make a lot of PDH players happy.

So, you get an enchantment creature token that is a Nymph and 2/2 whenever you cast your first enchantment spell each turn, possibly also triggering some constellation. This is partly the reason I mention Aminatou because Miracle gets around timing restrictions, but if your enchantment matters deck has flash cards this works just as well to net you a token possibly every turn.

Beyond that Psemilla buffs themselves if you control five enchantments, giving itself +4/+4 and lifelink at the beginning of each combat if you do. Pretty nifty that it can go wide and tall.

QALA, AJANI’S PRIDEMATE

Ajani’s probable literal pridemate, it gets a counter whenever you gain life and buffs your creatures power whenever they attack equal to the counters on it. It also has some built in life gain from their third ability, but usually you’re going to have other sources. Still, a backup source is nice. Another simple but effective legend.

URDAN, DROMOKA WARRIOR

A legend that gives a keyword to a creature on attack that has +1/+1 counters on them. Luckily Urdan does give a counter when it comes into play.

That’s about it though. I see this creature largely being in the 99 of things rather than at the head, but being an uncommon legend maybe someone in PDH will pick it up.

POL JAMAAR, ILLUSIONIST

This legend could draw you a lot of cards in typal decks and has some evasion, but that’s about it by itself. However, abusing the enter ability again and again is another story.

Also of note the creature itself is an illusion which could have other typal implications now and later.

TAEKO, THE PATIENT AVALANCHE

Ninja Turtle, but legendary. It also enters the battlefield tapped, but is flavorful but a bit weird as it doesn’t seem to serve a purpose here.Granted, if you can Ninjutsu it in being tapped wont matter.

Regardless, it’s an interesting kindred ninja enabler, making itself or another creature unblockable and giving a bonus for ninjutsu with Scry and getting larger itself. This lends it to having a few options when on the battlefield, whether you want to go more towards commander damage or on-hit ninjutsu effects. I like the card overall and it doesn’t even need ninjas to do anything, which keeps your options open to include Taeko in other decks.

NEERDIV, DEVIOUS DIVER

Merfolk Rogue that cares about the graveyard. It has an interesting design that immediately makes me think of trying to abuse flashback, aftermath and other graveyard centric abilities. The creature helps fill the graveyard to do this and gets larger and draws you a card when you manage to cast or active from the graveyard.

I think this will be an inclusion in decks like Leir Disciple of the Drowned and other such enablers. Even with a deck not focused on graveyard shenanigans as such but with a subtheme, Neerdiv might find a home. I doubt it is worth the include at the moment, but I’m going to review my The Ancient One deck and see if the Devious Diver fits in.

PLAGON, LORD OF THE BEACH

No idea what’s going on with this starfish wizard but they are having the best time.

This is an expansion on the toughness combat commanders we get every so often, this one being a White and Blue one (obligatory Wall of Denial mention). It draws you cards when it enters based on how many creatures you have with a higher toughness. It also screws with combat slightly, having an activated ability that allows a creature to deals damage equal to their toughness rather than it’s power for just White OR Blue.

That’s the fun part. While you may be flapping with Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, you could also hamper a creature attacking you by making it deal damage equal to its toughness.

CYNETTE, JELLY DROVER

A Flying matters commander that creates a flying jellyfish token when it enters or dies. The buff is nice, but this is probably another 99 in-deck legend to me.

Between this and Plagon, I’m seeing some inferences for a certain secret lair.

APHELIA, VIPER WHISPERER

EH! Gorgon and snake typal! I also want to point out that all previous Naga typed cards are now snakes, so I hope that helps make people more excited for this card!

Anyway, I am excited. Here we have the Quietus Spike type assassin card that lets your other creatures do that same thing, while providing those creatures to boot. This will be a card that needs to be well supported with the deck I think. No one wants to take that ability to the face, but the card is exciting for a build archetype that needed some more options in my opinion, though looking over the suggestions for Virtus and Gorm commander deck list might give some good tech, like Access Tunnel.

EVERETH, VICEROY OF PLUNDER

Add Pitiless Plunder and some combo fodder. You’re welcome.

In seriousness, this has strong Juri Master of the Revue vibes, and may take his place or go in the 99, depending on the flavor of the deck. Honestly, I think this is stronger.

First, she flies, which is great for doing extra damage against life gain centric decks because commander damage is amazing. Second, while you do have a more narrow sacrificed permanent type, creature or artifact instead of anything, she gets a counter just like Juri but gets an extra bonus if the sacrifice permanent was a treasure token (Curse of Opulence anyone?). Another downside here is that you can only do it as a sorcery.

When she dies, you can then pay 1 and Black OR Red, and deal damage equal to her power to each opponent, hitting more than Juri can AND you can just equip or enchant her for more damage. Like I said, I think she’s better than Juri, BUT I don’t think she’s strictly better. This card is more involved and has more hoops for that extra damage and bonus.

FUMULUS, THE INFESTATION

Fumulus just wants some simple things. Dead creatures to make more insects and to bleed opponents’ life totals dry. Fairly easy to do in Mono Black and the token creation isn’t limited to once a turn either.

Fumulus also cares about a batch of creatures, similar to Thurid. Insects, Leeches, Slugs and Worms (with an “O” not a “U”) all trigger the life drain ability, so you could build this as a kindred typal deck, giving it some flexibility.

Lastly, Fumulus is also a vampire. Not sure that matters much for a typal deck, but is worth mentioning for the extra possible synergies.

REV, TITHE EXTRACTOR

Rev is another take of the on-hit stealing cards that Black gets every so often. However, Rev doesn’t have to risk itself in combat to do it and actively helps by giving deathtouch to an attacking creature you control. She’ll probably sit well in a Gonti deck of either persuasion, but Gonti Canny Aquistor will appreciate it more.

Beyond stealing a card, the on-hit trigger also provides a treasure, helping you cast the cards you stole away. A decent card that I think will find homes in the 99 of many decks. As a commander it could lead a deck easily but they may be flashier commanders for the strategy. It is worth mentioning Rev’s rogue typing since there can be some synergies there.

NAZAR, THE VELVET FANG

Another vampire to join the roster, Nazar gives a decent upside for needing to attack and can easily get there. All you have to do is gain life three times to give him the three feeding counters he needs. Easy to do in Black. The payoff of drawing three cards is worth it, even if he gets blocked which is made harder with Menace built in.

Of course, attacking is a downside since you have to commit, but in Black recursion is a main strategy. I could see this giving 3 cards to the player every one of the owner’s turns with the right setup.

OZOX, THE CLATTERING KING

Grinding bones into paste just to do it again, Ozox and the token it creates just want to keep revolving undeath into undeath. This could be a decent part of a combo, but not returning to the battlefield hampers some of that effectiveness. Likewise, it usually would have to attack to die and trigger its ability or be sacrificed to an ability to get the token and start a loop.

I see this more in the 99. As for what deck it could lead, it would probably just be an available piece for a combo, but I don’t think I’ll see poor Ozox in the front of anything.

GORNOG, THE RED REAPER

COWARDS! STAND AND FACE GORNOG!

Since Future Sight, there have been nods to this kind of mechanic rarely printed, so I’m glad it finally gets on a card that can support the whole of its glory.

Gornog can make any creature you want a coward typed creature, which ties into his other ability the cowards can’t block warrior typed creatures. You get to do this right away too because he has haste. He also spreads the ability to other warriors for yet another typal matters commander, so on each swing you could potentially make three opposing creature cower in fear.

This can make the number of coward rack up pretty quickly, and you get an additional bonus for doing so. Warriors you control get a power boost if based on how many cowards the defending player controls so running through their defenses also enables you to hit harder.

I think this will make a splash for a while but is hampered but its mono-colored identity in Commander. Still, this creature feels like it could be centric in warrior typal decks besides Najeela.

ANEP, VIZIER OF HAZORET

Impulsive draw go! Unfortunately that’s all Anep brings to the table and has to attack and exert himself to boot. I doubt I’ll see this legend at the head of any Commander decks. That said, I’m not sure it goes in the 99 of a Commander deck since we often have better options.

Still, the card is a 4/2 with trample and does give two cards on impulse. Maybe it will do something in Pauper EDH?

CLEON, MERRY CHAMPION

Doublestrike static on a card is something I like to see, and you can have your spells that target Cleon essentially get a weak cantrip. You only get to play those cards til the end of turn, which kind stinks, but it’s not a bad ability at all. Definitely a build around legend, but I think spellslinger, auras or storm type deck might like the include.

As far as being at the front of a deck, there may be better choice but I think there might be a few of these out in the wild for a number of years. Again, this might be a Pauper EDH aimed card, which seems to be a subtheme at least in my opinion.

GENERAL KREAT, THE BOLTBRINGER

As an owner of a deck that likes to burn things from spells cast and creatures entering, yes please. Granted, this is probably going to be considered a staple for goblin decks and obviously included in those lists. Other lists might like Kreat since it’s a creature based from of Impact Tremors which is easier for deck with Black in them to recur for instance.

I don’t know if Kreat will be at the front of many decks, but the potential to not have a Purphoros God of the Forge lead your deck and scare off the table is there.

IVORA, INSATIABLE HEIR

Playing up the Red vampire trope, we have another aggressive creature that creates some on theme blood tokens when you hit a player. Luckily, the creature has Trample to help with that and can buff itself with counters. Unfortunately the creature’s starts as a 1/1. While the blood tokens help feed her other abilities, it’s just as good to give her auras and equipment.

HURSKA SWEET-TOOTH

Life gain bear that boosts your creatures depending on how much life you gained that turn. I’ve played against some Green White lifegain decks before and this is a solid add to those strategies. Hurska even comes with a food token to help you gain some life if you’ve got nothing better going on, and between sacrificing the token and activating Hurska you should have to mana because this legend is a three drop.

SHROOFUS SPROUTSIRE

At first I thought this was a funny meme Commander, but I’ve come around to thinking this is just a combat dependant Scute Swarm. As long as you make saprolings, buff Shroofus or both, you’re probably going to be rolling people over with a swarm of them. Besides, who wants to block a few 1/1s? They aren’t dangerous…

SLINZA, THE SPIKED STAMPEDE

Beast kindred players finally get a beast centric legend! I’ve seen this requested on and off for a long time, and not Questing Beast doesn’t count.

Now I’m not sure of the synergies that a beast typal deck would have, but I think giving those spells a discount is going to be universally loved. Slinza also gives the beasts entering a +1/+1 counter, attempting to bring some older Beast creatures up to par and engage with +1/+1 counter shenanigans.

When any typed creature enters, if its power is 4 or greater, you can pay mana to have Slinza fight another creature you don’t control, acting as a form of removal.

BRAULIOS OF PHERES BAND

A creature that gets bigger the more lands you have and can grab you some card draw. Fairly basic Green stuff here. It does allows a potential second land drop per turn, and that’s not something to overlook in a landfall centric deck. Still, better commanders are to be had at the front of a deck, but this could be included in any numbers of those decks that use landfall or care about lands.

DIONUS, ELVISH ARCHDRUID

Like General Kreat does for Golbins, this card boosts Elf Typal decks but does only care about elves Another difference here is that the mana producing creatures (mana dorks) that are already a part of such a deck will get even more use, snowballing harder than before. This could easily lead a deck to ramp out large threats, or be used behind other commanders. Specifically, Tyvar the Bellicose would love this in the 99.

SUTINA, SPEAKER OF THE TAJURU

Helps you grab land from your deck and replay them. It’s interesting since a lot of land matters deck just want to grab a bunch of lands and vomit them onto the battlefield. While this legend doesn’t specifically care about lands like those dedicated decks, it can definitely help them hit those extra triggers when the lands run dry or their ramp doesn’t come up.

Returning the land also nets you a +1/+1 counter to one of your creatures, perhaps even Sutina since she has to attack to bounce the land in the first place.

JUMPING FORWARD

That’s all the new legends from Foundations Jumpstart. Seems like a good batch of new legends, and it really runs the spectrum. In my opinion, there are some really good ones, build-arounds, good support for the 99, and then some I honestly don’t expect to ever see.

Between this and the base Foundations set revealed so far, I’m pretty hyped for it. Already have a few cards I’m going to keep an eye on and pick up for decks I have. Maybe even build a new one.

How do you feel about this Jumpstart set? I think it’s definitely an improvement over the prior interactions excluding the two that were actually good in my opinion. Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, turn cards sideways.