Foundations Jumpstart (J25): The Complete Set Guide
Sometimes the best way to play Magic is to skip the deckbuilding entirely - just crack some packs, shuffle two halves together, and play. That's exactly what Foundations Jumpstart (J25) is built for. Released on November 15, 2024, alongside the main Magic: The Gathering Foundations set, it's the third physical iteration of the Jumpstart product line and carries the unofficial nickname "Jumpstart 2025" - though its set code tells a slightly different story (more on that below).
What is Foundations Jumpstart?
Foundations Jumpstart is a supplemental booster set consisting of 779 cards - a mix of reprints and new cards - designed around the Jumpstart format. It follows in the footsteps of the original Jumpstart (2020) and Jumpstart 2022, bringing the same core premise: mash together themed half-decks from throughout Magic's history and play immediately.
The set is primarily aimed at two-player games, though it supports multiplayer out of the box too. As a supplemental release, it's legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage - and individual cards slot into any other format where they already have a legal printing.
Format check: Cards numbered #1-56 (the new cards unique to J25) are permitted in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage. Cards numbered #57-780 (returning reprints) are legal in any format where a card of the same name is already permitted. The Foundations Jumpstart cards are also legal in Historic and Timeless on MTG Arena.
Themes and mechanics
Rather than introducing a new mechanical theme, Foundations Jumpstart draws from throughout Magic's 30+ year history. The 46 pack themes span colors, strategies, and eras - each one assembled to play coherently out of the box when combined with any other pack.
Those 46 themes aren't all created equal, either. Each theme carries a rarity of its own - common, rare, or mythic rare - which affects how frequently you'll encounter it. In total, there are 121 possible pack configurations across all the themes, since common and rare themes have multiple variations of their contents. Every single booster contains at least one rare or mythic rare card, and roughly one in three boosters includes a bonus rare on top of that.
Pack anatomy
Each 20-card booster is structured consistently:
- 7-8 cards are lands
- The remaining cards are spells
- Every booster includes exactly one card with anime-inspired art
- A face card (the "Pack Summary card" or "Theme insert") tells you what the pack's theme and color are
That anime-art card is worth knowing about before you sit down to draft, since the card numbering tells you a lot about what you're looking at:
- #1-29: New non-legendary cards (unique to J25)
- #30-56: New legendary cards with anime art
- #57-80: Anime reprints
- #81-95: Basic lands
- #96-156: Other reprints with new art
- #157-780: Standard reprints
One small quirk worth noting: there is no card with collector number #350 in the set.
New cards and reprints
The relationship between J25 and the main Foundations set is a little interesting. A handful of new cards from the Foundations main set are categorised as reprints in Foundations Jumpstart - suggesting they were originally intended for separate release windows. The reverse is also true: some cards that are new to Foundations Jumpstart are counted as reprints in the main set. It's a small wrinkle, but one worth knowing if you're tracking card legality closely.
How to play Foundations Jumpstart
The format couldn't be simpler to learn. Each player opens two 20-card Jumpstart boosters, shuffles them together into a single 40-card deck, and plays. No cuts, no swaps, no deckbuilding decisions required.
The design works because each half-deck is built around a coherent theme - something like a color-based strategy or a specific creature type - and any two themes are intentionally balanced to make a functional (if sometimes chaotic) 40-card deck. The fun is in seeing which combinations emerge.
Lore aside: The Jumpstart format has been one of Magic's most consistently successful introductory products since the original 2020 release. It strips away the barrier of deckbuilding knowledge while still delivering the full Magic experience - and Foundations Jumpstart leans into that mission by drawing on themes from across the game's history.
How Foundations Jumpstart is sold
The set is available in two main configurations:
- Booster boxes - 24 Jumpstart Boosters per box
- 2-Booster Packs - the entry-level option for grabbing two packs and playing immediately
the Jumpstart packs found in the Foundations Beginner Box are a different product - the themes and contents there differ from the J25 boosters, so they're not interchangeable if you're trying to match packs from both products.
Foundations Jumpstart on MTG Arena
The set launched on Arena alongside the tabletop release, with all cards available for crafting from November 12, 2024. The Arena versions of the packs aren't identical to their tabletop counterparts - some packs have variable card slots to accommodate the digital format.
A limited-time Jumpstart event ran from November 19 to December 2, 2024, where players could draft the format in digital form. After that window closed, the individual cards remain available for crafting and play in Historic and Timeless. So if you missed the event itself, the cards are still accessible - just not in the dedicated Jumpstart event wrapper.
Set code and naming conventions
Here's a small piece of Magic history hidden in the set code. With Foundations Jumpstart, Wizards changed the naming convention for Jumpstart sets - J25 refers to the year after the product's release (2024), not the release year itself. The intention is to keep the set feeling current and relevant for longer, since a product with "2025" in its identity has a longer psychological shelf life than one labelled with the year it was printed.
It's a small change, but one that'll matter when you're cross-referencing set codes in the future. The pattern going forward will follow the same logic.
Set legacy
Foundations Jumpstart sits at an interesting intersection for Magic. As a companion to Magic: The Gathering Foundations - a set explicitly designed as an entry point for new players - it serves as the "play it immediately" on-ramp to that same ecosystem. You can hand someone a 2-Booster Pack, spend two minutes explaining the rules, and be playing a real game of Magic within five minutes.
At the same time, the inclusion of 56 cards unique to J25 (including new legendary creatures with anime art) gives even experienced collectors and Commander players a reason to dig in. The anime-art legendaries in particular are the kind of thing that tends to find homes in Commander decks long after the booster product itself fades from stores.
In my opinion, Foundations Jumpstart does exactly what a supplemental product should: it opens the door for new players without closing it on returning ones.
