Our Top 10 Cards from Outlaws at Thunder Junction
Outlaws at Thunder Junction (OTJ) is here and we’ve been given a lot of new cards to look at between the main set, four Commander decks (OTC), and The Big Score (BIG)—not to mention the reprint sheets for Breaking News (OTP) and Special Guests (SPG). It’s hard to stay informed with the hectic release schedule for Magic these days, so I’m here to help you round up 10 of the best new cards for Commander. Let’s ride!
High Noon
I’ve been hoping to see a card with this effect that can sacrifice itself for years now, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to cost only two mana when it finally showed up! While effects like this can be incredibly powerful when it comes to stopping combos or keeping players from getting too far ahead of the table, it’s important to make sure that they don’t also detract from your own gameplan and harm you in the process.
While I haven’t seen Winota, Joiner of Forces at cEDH tables as much recently as in her heyday, there’s no question that she can benefit from a card like High Noon. For decks that are playing multiple similar effects including both white and red, I suspect that we’ll begin to see this card push out the classic Rule of Law and other less efficient options. The function and flavor of this card are both absolutely on point.
Double Down
The first card on my list is a blue enchantment that copies outlaw spells. It’s not exactly a new concept, but this is the first time that we’re seeing one that works on multiple creature types at once without any other restrictions. The outlaw mechanic is a batching mechanic similar to party and modified that is used to represent vocational creature types that typically draw the ire of local law enforcement.
It turns out that there are plenty of great outlaws that see play in Commander. It’s almost obligatory to point out that Double Down is another way to double your Dockside Extortionist, but my personal favorite interaction is how it can be used to get a second copy of Sakashima of a Thousand Faces since he is an outlaw spell on the stack regardless of what you wind up copying once he resolves.
Annie Joins Up
It certainly seems like we’ve been seeing a lot of cards that double triggered abilities lately. In an era where so many cards are designed with Commander in mind, it was inevitable that we’d see one for legendary creatures sooner than later. I’m actually thankful that this enchantment is in Naya colors, because it means that you won’t be seeing it in almost every Commander deck.
This is the type of complaint that I’ve heard with regards to Roaming Throne. Even if your Commander deck isn’t focused on a specific creature type, this card often does enough to warrant inclusion if your commander has a good triggered ability. You can even play both of these cards simultaneously with Voja, Jaws of the Conclave to get three times as many triggers! Remember that ward is a triggered ability as well.
Tinybones, the Pickpocket
Being able to cast permanent spells from opponents’ graveyards is pretty strong, even if you have to deal combat damage to them first. He may be just a little guy, but he does have deathtouch. This means that your opponents might hesitate to block him. There are so many graveyard decks nowadays that your opponents are often practically advertising their wares and daring this Skeleton Rogue to steal them.
I’ve seen this card compared to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. While I definitely don’t think that he’s quite as good as everyone’s favorite Monkey Pirate, I still think that he has a ton of potential. I also like that he slots in favorably in the 99 of Commander decks built around Tinybones, Trinket Thief and his discard synergy. You’ll always have plenty of targets to choose from if you’re playing a discard strategy.
Satoru, the Infiltrator
This commander is interesting because I don’t believe that we’ve ever had a card that could draw you cards based on flickering creatures or cheating them in. An obvious application is relying on his fellow Ninjas, but there are plenty of other ways to enable Satoru’s card draw ability in Dimir colors and I think that he makes for a pretty interesting value engine that I’m looking forward to building around in Commander.
Running this card in the 99 of your Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow deck feels like a no-brainer if you have a high enough density of Ninjas to keep drawing cards with ninjutsu. While I’m not entirely sure of how powerful he can be in the command zone, I’m also looking forward to seeing the work that he can put in with Displacer Kitten—one of my favorite cards of the last several years—to keep drawing cards and untapping mana rocks.
Return the Favor
The incredible artwork was the first thing that I noticed about this card. Then I realized that this card could straight up copy someone else’s instant or sorcery spell or activated or triggered ability. That’s insane! The addition of interaction in the form of changing the target of a spell or ability is also always a welcome effect in red. This versatility makes it a perfect spell to try out in Commander.
If one of your opponents casts a Time Stretch, you can redirect it to yourself and make a copy of it to take four turns. That’s awesome! While I’m not sure if it truly makes the cut in cEDH, you could also cast Return the Favor to make your own copy of the enters-the-battlefield ability of Thassa’s Oracle to win on top of their ability on the stack. I think that this card will enable a lot of cool and memorable hijinks.
Final Showdown
Have you ever seen the final shooting scene in Once Upon a Time in the West? That’s all that I can think about when I look at this card. There aren’t that many instant speed board wipes in white, so this card seems immediately extremely powerful for casual Commander. Having the ability to remove abilities and/or give one of your creatures indestructible on top of a great sweeper feels very powerful.
It’s not quite Cyclonic Rift and it’s not quite Dress Down, but Final Showdown will sometimes feel better than either of these spells. I have no doubt that this card will become an immediate Commander staple that will see tons of play. I just hope that we can see some reliable reprints without too much delay in order to keep the price from becoming completely ridiculous.
Molten Duplication
This card is another example of a familiar genre of spell for mono-red. We’ve seen temporary copies of creatures before, but this time we also get the ability to copy an artifact instead. This opens up some serious possibilities, especially because of the artifact shenanigans that you can pull off. Talk about combo potential. I’m definitely excited to see what people do with this card.
The obvious way to win with Molten Duplication is using it to create a massive amount of copies of Dualcaster Mage that all have haste. This isn’t exactly new, but I’ll never complain about redundancy for classic combos. Magda, Brazen Outlaw will also certainly appreciate this card because it easily provides you with an artifact Dwarf to help enable combos easier in addition to having a lot of other utility.
Aven Interrupter
Here’s your white hatebear with set mechanic. Unlike some of the other examples of this well-known archetype that specifically single out narrow mechanics and hose them, this Bird Rogue uses plot as a way to hinder your opponents when they cast any spell that you don’t want to resolve right now. Hating on spells cast from graveyards or exile in a relevant way is also a huge breath of fresh air.
This card reminds me of Drannith Magistrate in some ways, but it’s certainly a much less oppressive version of that card. As a trade-off, you get the ability to interact with a spell on the stack and delay it by at least one turn. The static ability also hurts a surprisingly large number of common cards, including the very popular Etali, Primal Conqueror. I think that this card is a serious contender even for some cEDH decks.
Stella Lee, Wild Card
Not only is Stella Lee one of the strongest Commander precon face cards that we’ve seen in years, but she makes a strong case to be considered the strongest Izzet commander that’s been printed to date! Decks in these colors will have absolutely no problem casting three spells in the same turn in order to enable her activated ability, which allows you to efficiently combo off in a variety of ways.
If you can manage to cast two spells beforehand, Twisted Fealty becomes a one-card win condition with Stella Lee that allows her to keep copying the spell in order to untap herself and drain your opponents with the Wicked Role tokens. Copying powerful spells such as Intuition will allow you to evade counterspells or double up on value while putting together a fiery combo win. She really is a wild card.
Bonus: Reprints
With the existence of so many bonus sets that include reprints, there’s always a chance to feel let down when these sets don’t live up to expectations. That definitely doesn’t feel like the case this time around. They finally reprinted Mindbreak Trap and delivered another reprint for Prismatic Vista and Grand Abolisher to hopefully drive the prices down again. Morbid Opportunist was a preview card for PlayEDH during Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, so I love seeing this card again even though it’s on the cheaper side.
My top 10 cards from Outlaws at Thunder Junction will hopefully serve as a good starting point when you’re looking to brew a new Commander deck or update an existing one, but I hope that you also find many more great cards to enjoy in this set. As always, thank you for sticking with me until the end. I’m looking forward to seeing all these great new cards in action and I’ll be adding many of them to my own decks as well.
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