Hello Awesome Folks! I hope that you are having an amazingly awesome day today! I want to pause and look at the new cards from the recently released Jumpstart (2022) and give you my favorite ten, plus three honorable mentions. To make my list a card must be good in general kitchen table play like multiplayer, Commander, Five Color, Type Four, Highlander, and more. Ready?

Honorable Mention #1 - (#13 Overall) - Zask, Skittering Swarmlord

This five-drop legendary dork has a nice 5/5 body with a few abilities. The first is to play lands and Insects from your graveyard. That's good for land decks that use sacrifice abilities like fetchlands. It's also good leading an Insect brew.

Then when another Insect you control dies you mill two and put it onto the bottom of your library, so that's fodder for the lands/Insects getting played and stops Insect reuse and abuse. That last one is very strong on the typically small bodies you have in this tribe. There are 138 Green and Black Insects, which gives you enough for a Commander deck but not that many options. There are a lot of landfall style cards here like Scute Swarm as well. There are a bunch of Commander Classics like Hornet Queen, Nantuko Vigilante, Caustic Caterpillar, future strong cards like Haywire Mite, multiplayer classics like flying regenerator Fog of Gnats and the card drawing and recurring Grave-Shell Scarab, token making Ant Queen, game winning rampers like Moldgraf Monstrosity, Giant Adephage and Living Hive. I have called this for a future Commander Brew.

Honorable Mention #2 - (#12 Overall) - Benevolent Hydra

Unlike most Hydra, this has a base size of 1/1, which matters for things like a foe casting Living Death, so it'll stay. That means for three mana total you get a 2/2. Then you have two abilities, one activated and one triggered. If one or more +1/+1 counters would be placed on another dork you control, instead give it one more! Then you can tap to swap a +1/+1 counter from this to another dork, which will be two with it's first ability. It's a win con for X-Matters decks, a synergy for counter decks, a ramping option for that color, and loads more. It's just good in a bunch of places, and with its triggered ability it has a lot of homes.

Honorable Mention #3 (#11 Overall) - Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence

This three-drop mono-Red legendary 2/2 introduces a new archetype to Commander. It flies, is 2/2 and has two other abilities. When you take damage from your things, put a +1/+1 counter on this equal to the damage. The thing I am thinking about is Earthquake. This is flying, so it's safe, and if you put 5 into X, you'll now have a 7/7 that'll kill in three Commander Damage hits. Then you can tap this with two mana and pull off any number of counters and shoot any target for that many damage. This is very strong with your Pyrohemia effects that will pump this for each mana spent. It leads a unique archetype for red.

#10. Skullslither Worm

This uncommon Hill Giant has one key ability, but it's strong. When it ETBs, each opponent discards a card, a common Commander trigger. But if someone is out of cards or you draw it late? Rather than being a dead card, this will swell in size by a pair of +1/+1 counters for each opponent who cannot discard. So, it's card advantage early, and a beater later, pretty flexible. I love it in any multiplayer format from Commander to Five Color or redundant formats where you cannot run more than one of each card. It's pretty strong card advantage on a beater.

I also like this in shells like Discard-Matters combining this with Megrim effects, Reanimation, Midrange that wants card advantage ETB triggers, Blink that wants to have ETB stuff to blink over and over again and +1/+1 Counters-Matter where this is a nice way to add counters onto an ETB body. See why this simple card hits my list at number 10? I hope so!

#9. Deadly Plot

Back-to-back Black uncommons! Deadly Plot has two options. The first is to destroy any creature or planeswalker, making it a Hero's Downfall for one more mana. The second is to Zombify a Zombie from your graveyard to the battlefield but tapped. An Instant speed Zombify is very strong, even with the tapped and Zombie tribe limitations. Zombies are a deep and beloved tribe in casual play going all the way back to Zombie Master in the first set. In Commander, Zombies have 28,072 decks registered, making it the second most commonly played tribe after Dragons over at EDHREC.com.

Plus in a format like Commander where everything is Highlander, you should just randomly have a few Zombies or changelings to bring back in many Black decks that are commonly played, so you can add this to your removal section,and then if you happen to have something to bring back, you can do that instead. For example, commonly played Zombies in Commander include the Zombie God cycle like God-Eternal Oketra; Gray Merchant of Asphodel; Fleshbag Marauder; Carrion Feeder; Sidisi, Undead Vizier; Mikaeus, the Unhallowed; and loads more. You can kill opposing players by recurring a Gray Merchant. There are 557 Zombies printed according to Gatherer. That's a very deep tribe. Get your plot on!

#8. Alandra, Sky Dreamer

Check out this Merfolk Wizard hitting our eighth spot overall. Four mana for a smaller 2/4 with no keywords. They're legendary for Command Zone purposes but have just 72 decks registered over at EDHREC.com, so not a major hit yet, but I love what Alandra brings to the table. When you draw your second card on any turn, make a 2/2 flying Drake. In a four-player multiplayer game, that's four potential 2/2s, although you have to do work for the opposing turns. Just an Opt on your turn will net you a free Drake. Brainstorm draws three, so do it on a foe's turn for another 2/2. You can make them out of nowhere to chump block flyers or to trade with X/2 or smaller attacking butts.

Note that some cards that we think of as "Card draw" put the cards into your hand from your library and don't count as card draw, like Fact or Fiction. Then if you drew five cards this turn, all your Drakes and Alandra get a power and toughness boost equal to your hand size. That's a game winner. You'll want to combine it with effects that skip discarding like Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel as well as X draw spells like Stroke of Genius to get to 5. It also suggests fellow Drake maker Talrand, Sky Summoner which should be easy to build a round since your card drawing effects can easily be instants and sorceries to trigger Talrand. Have you seen Loyal Drake that will draw you a card when you control your Commander for one free trigger each turn that counts as a Drake? Life is very strong with this card draw into Drake making powerhouse.

#7. Pirated Copy

Hitting at roughly halfway through today's countdown is this fun Shapeshifter Pirate. This can copy any dork on arrival to the battlefield, and keeps the Pirate type. Then it can help you to draw a card. One more mana than a Clone, but with a card draw attached which is probably worth it.

I love this in a few places. First of all, Pirate tribal, which is in Blue. Since it keeps the Pirate type, you'll have many synergies to play with. Secondly, Clone Tribal. There are dedicated Clone decks in Commander that run Clone effects, copy their Commander, and then run things like Mirror Gallery that suspend the Legendary rule. There you can copy your Commander and then both it and your copy are drawing the cards, as well as other copies of Commander that you made with things like Clone. I also like this in Mono-Blue Aggro and Tempo where you can copy an early drop with evasion like Spiketail Hatchling and draw two cards when swinging over the fences. It's also a strong copy effect in control brews that love to get card flow into the creature base with this since you can copy your own Consecrated Sphinx to draw tons of cards, Thassa's Oracle to win or your foe's Karmic Guide to bring back something key and then draw when it swings. Nice, right? I think so as well!

#6. Lita, Mechanial Engineer

Our final card before the Top Five proper is this three-drop 3/3 legendary artifact creature. She rocks vigilance, which is nice to swing at open people without risking counter attacks. Your other artifact dorks untap in your end step so they can swing and then untap for blocking or for tapping for effects like mana with Gold Myr. Then you spend four and tap her and make a 5/5 flying crew three Vehicle token. Then you can tap your artifact dorks for crewing, and then untap for blocking and your Vees will untap too.

That suggests a Vee build to me, and that's the 19th most popular build over at EDHREc.com with 14,507 brews, or a mono-White artifact dork brew. We just got Sanwell, Avenger Ace with mono-White Vees to fight against. Since Urza just gave us an artifact creature matters build in The Brothers' War, with more colors and better abilities, that may not get as much play, but she is also ideal in the 99 of that brew as well. Love her power loads! But that poorly received push against Urza has her hitting outside of the Top Five.

Top Five? How about all five being legendary for Commander? And we have one in each color.

#5. Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

Let's knock out the Black card first. This 3/3 Rat Warlock costs a fine four. Then when it attacks or blocks, your other Rats get power and toughness boosts equal to your Rat count. At the beginning of your end step you can (it's a may effect) mill four, and if you do, you can Raise Dead up to two Rats from your graveyard to your hand. That means this is the rare Rat Commander. Ever since Plague Rats in the first set, Rat brews have been something at the kitchen table. Relentless Rats was the first card that let you play more than four in a deck, and that became another icon at the kitchen table. See also Rat Colony.

Up until now we've had one legendary Rat matters Commander: Marrow-Gnawer. Now we have another! Marrow-Gnawer is no joke, there are 5,210 Commander decks with her at the head on EDHREC.com. Ashcoat can pump a team and wants to go wide with Rats. Then you can mill and Raise Dead two Rats on your turn, so she is card advantage. In a Rat Colony deck, that's a pair of two-mana 2/1 Rats you can grab and drop on the next turn without using what you drew to increase her attack pump boost number by two. She a game winner and a card advantage engine in one, and she is great after a mass removal spell, bringing back dead ones two at a time. This also has great synergy with the Ossuary Rats that are printed in this set since they are both graveyard-centric. Get your Rat on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(!)

#4. Isu the Abominable

This 5/5 Yeti for an on-curve 5 mana has three strong abilities. First you can look at the top card of your library all day long. Then you can play Snow land and cast Snow stuff from it all day long. Nice card flow over time and it suggests a Snow-matters theme. When a Snow card enters the battlefield under your control you can put a counter of the +1/+1 persuasion onto our Commander.

So he suggests a Bant Snow deck. Our own Jason Alt built a Bant Snow Landfall deck around this guy here. Snow is a middling theme on EDHREC.com it has an okay 7,161 decks registered, which is more than the previous scoring Rats, but only around 37th overall, so hitting a nice new option that offers card advantage, in the popular Bant colors, will hopefully help out loads. This has counters and card flow of blue, the removal of white, the ramp of green, and the Snow matters of all three. According to Gatherer there are just 85 Snow cards in this color theme or colorless, not exactly a thrilling deep delve, so getting a new option is nice. My favorite card for this is Diamond Faerie.

#3. Kibo, Uktabi Prince

This Monkey has three abilities. The first is tap and give everyone a Banana which can be sacrificed for no mana to make Gruul mana and gain a pair of life. That's strong leading a Group Hug deck since you just lean on him giving everyone stuff and then cards in your color that everyone would benefit from like Mana Flare. That's nice. Then when an opposing artifact dies, every Ape and Monkey you control, including Kibo, gets a +1/+1 counter on it. That suggests a Tribal theme that has not existed before in a Commander. Finally, when he swings you can force the defender to sacrifice an artifact that triggers his second ability.

That means he is ramp, life gain, removal, and a tribal leader in one body. This is the first legendary I called from this set, and it was published this past Tuesday and you can check it out here. I added many ways to give away artifacts to opposing dorks to attack into like Bazaar Trader and Marching Duodrone as well as a bunch of tribal things to pump up. It's a lot of fun, and it already has 453 decks in a short period of time, and growing. It's good for the winning synergy fun times.

#2. Mizzix, Replica Rider

Our penultimate card is this 4/5 flyer for five mana. When you cast any spell of any type from anywhere other than your hand, you can spend two mana and make a copy. If it's a permanent, it's hasted and dies at the end of the turn, so this is really more for instants and sorceries with creatures being nice adjunct. This is Izzet, so that means all of the card draw and countering and bounce of it pairs with the removal of Red to really have some fun tonight.

This is obviously good in Izzet Spellslinger where you are getting triggers like Guttersnipe to kill and casting all of the cards. Just run flashback, jump-start, and other graveyard casts to copy, like Deep Analysis and Think Twice. It also works well when you cast something from suspend since you won't be casting the spell with mana, you'll have the mana for copying all day long. I also love this with foretell to cast from your exile zone like Alrund's Epiphany. I also love this with The Stick (Isochron Scepter), or casting everything from your library with Future Sight. There are tons of ways to abuse this moving forward, and it's very strong.

Ready for my top card?

#1. Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier

Our final card on today's countdown is this Boros Spirit Solider from Ravnica. Four to cast, 3/4 in size, then vigilance to attack and block. When he becomes the target of an ability that just targets him you can spend two mana to copy it and then target each other critter you control it could target. Note that this is not spells, but abilities, so no to things like Shelter. For example, if you tap Scroll of the Masters to pump it equal to its lore counters, then you can pump your team by that amount. Where I think this is very strong is with planeswalkers that target your leader, like Basri Ket's +1 to put a +1/+1 counter on it, now your team for two more mana.

This is a brand-new archetype that never existed before, so that's pretty cool. There are so many abilities that self-target. I also really like this leading a Pinger deck where you tap a Prodigal Pyromancer to shoot your team for a damage, and make sure you are running things that will take the damage into good stuff like Stuffy Doll, Brash Taunter, and the enraging Dinosaurs Bellowing Aegisaur and Sun-Crowned Hunters. Then you can Ping your foe's stuff to kill too like normal.

And...there we go! So, what did you think of my Top Thirteen? What would be yours? Just let me know in the comments below.