JumpStart comments after playing

There seems to be some confusion about how the packs work. At the start of the event: You choose a planeswalker, who comes with five cards - one of which will be a Mythic Vanguard of that Planeswalker, and the rest will be specific cards that are always the same for that planeswalker. And then you choose a "theme" pack (from three random possibilities), which is five more cards tailored around a specific theme (like "Pirates"), which will include some Jumpstart cards and some non-jumpstart cards (these cards are not random; anyone who picks that "theme" will always get the same five cards). Between the five cards that came with the PW you chose and the five cards in the theme pack you picked, you have yourself a ten-card deck to use for the event.

At the end of the event: YOU GET THOSE TEN CARDS. It's literally as simple as that. Exactly those cards. The reward packs are "non-dupe" packs but they only contain those ten cards as possible drops. There's no random chance involved, except at the point where you get offered three different "themes" to choose from. (This is one of the spots where they need to balance the event: some "themes" have more Rares and Mythics than others and are therefore objectively better choices.) If you already owned all the non-Jumpstart cards in your deck, at the end of the event you'll get a bunch of dupes of those cards. This is not any different than any other "non-dupe" pack that only contains cards you already have (for instance: I have all the Legacy rares, and always get a dupe from the Legacy Rare pack from Battle of the Ages).

In other words: it's a sealed event, it works exactly like a sealed event would in the real world: you open some packs at the start of the event, use those packs for the event, and then take them home with you at the end of the event.

Could this be explained better in-game? Yes, probably, especially for folks who aren't familiar with the concept of sealed events. But for me, I got exactly what I expected to get from it and don't feel too bad about the cost. Guaranteed Mythic Vanguard for one thing, at an 80-crystal discount off what it would cost to get it from Fblthp. Is it less attractive if you already have all the Vanguards in question? Sure, but I don't see how they'd get around that.

There are so many things that can be improved about this event in the future.

The first one is, please don't lie to us in our faces @Oktagon_Support, we are not dumb. On July 29th you said that "the packs you chose at the the event will be non-dupe".



That is a lie and false advertisement. The packs contain 5 predetermined cards. If by chance you don't own one or more of those 5 cards well of course that that specific card or cards are non-dupe. But not because the pack itself is non dupe, only because you didn't already owned that card that you were going to obtain by selecting the pack.

Most of the cards are from M21, so players that have been playing since 2020 when M21 was introduced probably already own most or all of the cards that come with the PW pack they select. The only new card that they will get is a common land. If they didn't already owned the mythic vanguard they will get that one as well. A vanguard that is nearly useless in Legacy. Some of the themed packs only have one single new Jumpstart card. So there are a lot of players that payed 320 crystals for 2 cards. That is absurd.

I think that the event should cost between 100 and 150 crystals MAX to enter. A single regular booster pack of the new set costs 80 crystals and you will most of the times get 5 duplicate cards. If I'm going to play an event that gives me an average of 2 or 3 new cards I think that 100 to 150 crystals is a fair price

Heartstone said

Well, there are some things to know:

1. Never pick the same pack to avoid dupes, although they said that you would get cards from another pack if you have them all. We'll only know next time if that's correct or not.

It's correct.  I selected Spirits, a pack for which I have all the cards. At the event's end, I was given Walls, which contained cards I did not own. 

So I didn't play the first time around but thought to give it a go and ended up with 2 common cards and a severe deduction of crystals due to the entry few. Minor gain in jewels. A total loss of in game resources imho. 320 for little to almost no return on investment for a possibility of one of the mythics makes this a never play again event. Other events have better gains for involvement. Even battle from the ages for 100 crystals is a great investment for the risk.  Sorry @Oktagon_Support but this event needs a severe rework 

I played it again. Last time with Teferi because I thought the booster was color-dependend and I wanted milling. This time with Garruk, because I don't own the 3 rare+ cards from its deck. And 320 for this 3 cards is cheap.

But if you already own most of the cards, yeah, it's kind of expansive.

I agree with everything you said except the part were you mentioned you only got one common from the Sheoldred booster.

Sheoldred can only be obtained from the Phyrexians pack. From all the 20 available packs only "Phyrexians" have Sheoldred. The contents of each one of the 20 packs doesn't change and Phyrexians have 4 new Jumpstart cards including Sheoldred plus Malefic Scythe which is from M21. You probably selected a different pack that wasn't Phyrexians.

I'm attaching a screenshot with all the 5 cards from that pack.

BongoTheGrey said:

I agree with everything you said except the part were you mentioned you only got one common from the Sheoldred booster.

Sheoldred can only be obtained from the Phyrexians pack. From all the 20 available packs only "Phyrexians" have Sheoldred. The contents of each one of the 20 packs doesn't change and Phyrexians have 4 new Jumpstart cards including Sheoldred plus Malefic Scythe which is from M21. You probably selected a different pack that wasn't Phyrexians.

I'm attaching a screenshot with all the 5 cards from that pack.

I understand. Thanks.
So they have an issue with the booster card preview, since there were 6 cards I didn't have from that booster in the card preview. I checked the booster preview before opening it.

After doing ok on the previous few rounds I've been profoundly slaughtered this time. Everybody seemed to have Rattlechains (would love!) and with minimal removal all of which targeted it becomes a race. Lilliana loses. Also Baneslayer and Garrick are warded, so she loses again. and again. and again. Not fun.