Hi Mark. Would you mind passing along the note that it's getting really hard to know what's in the main set (and therefore standard legal) due to the way the cards are being spoiled. Normally, I look at the set codes to tell the difference, but the Jump-start cards have the same code (MOM) as the main set.

I will pass the note along. Please note that the March of the Machine Jumpstart cards are Standard-legal.

Hi Mark! Wanted to share an Un-story with you. I brought a Unsanctioned box and Jump-Start packs on a cruise this past week and so a friend and I jammed one of the Un-packs with a Jump-start pack each and played on a table out on the ship. We got some strange stares especially when I announced my creatures with Emcee and we moved under the table as my friend played Enter the Dungeon. Thanks for all the fun Un-designs!

Thank you for sharing your story.

Why do we keep getting mechanics that are sort of like flashback knockoffs (jump-start, aftermath, escape) instead of just flashback? We haven't seen flashback in a standard legal set in almost 9 years, and it is very low on the storm scale, as an extremely popular mechanic.

We’re willing to use flashback where the OG makes sense, but we do tweaks where they make sense. We try to make sure to dip into that well with regularity as the flashback-style mechanics play well.

What ever happened to the Storm Scale articles on the wizards website? Will they ever return? (The last one was about Kaladesh and Amonkhet) They were very intriguing and insightful. Can we get storm scalings at least for Ixalan and beyond? Namely Explore, Enrage, Ascend, Mentor, Surveil, Jump-start, Undergrowth, Adapt, Addendum, Afterlife, Riot, Spectacle, Amass, Escape, Keyword Counters, Mutate, and Companion.

I’ll do other Storm Scale articles.

how come the jump-start product is boosters and not a 40 card deck to start with? youre not meant to change them anyway right? so i dont see the point of hem being boosters. mby you can enligthen me.

You get to mix and match your themes. It’s very simple deck building.

Do you feel as though some mechanics are underused (sagas, aftermath, jump-start, adventure) appearing in only a single block? Is there a reason that these don't go on to be used for future sets?

Sagas have been reused and most of the others mechanics are pretty new.

Following up on the counterspell with Addendum question, I think it got mixed up with Jump-Start😅 I was thinking something along the lines of "if you cast this spell on your main phase, it costs 1 less", or maybe just cantrip. Addendum felt like choosing between instant/sorcery speed, even though technically you can still cast them at instant speed on your main phase, and I thought a counterspell could be a nice design in that space.

You’re right, I was thinking of Jumo Start. The problem with a counterspell Addendum card is it’s very narrow.

Isn't Jump-Start similar enough to Flashback that granting it would still be in Red's color pie?

It’s something we could think about doing.

I was going through the Jump-start cards while trying to build a standard deck and noticed there's no counterspell. Was it too strong or was it something that wasn't considered?

Repeatable counterspells historically have been scary.

Do you pay the mana cost with Jump-start?

You do.