On Monday, I went through a bunch of the previews for Outlaws of Thunder Junction, which finished up revealing cards earlier this week.
Today, I’ll go over the cards I haven’t already touched on that caught my eye for Commander fun to help figure out what you might need for your collection. Let’s jump in and see what I’ve rustled up for you.
Another Round
A certain kind of Magic player will be over the moon for Another Round, and that’s the sort who packs a bunch of blink effects in their deck chock-full of creatures with enters triggers. Just imagine targeting a Dockside Extortionist and an Eternal Witness with this, and you can see where it’s going. If someone targets Another Round with a precious counterspell, you can’t be mad about it!
Aven Interrupter
I was a little down on Aven Interrupter initially because it plotted the exiled card, and even with the two-mana tax on casting spells from exile, it seemed like you were only delaying the inevitable. But if you use this on an instant-speed reactive spell, you can potentially just lock it out of the game, which has warmed me up on it. I also really love that it makes it much harder to abuse cascade, discover, and other engines that let opponents cast big spells from exile. The fact that it disrupts Muldrotha, the Gravetide too is gravy!
Double Down
Double Down is a spin on Reflections of Littjara that saves you a mana so long as your deck is playing a bunch of outlaws. There definitely seems to be enough outlaw support here and in the Commander precons to build a deck around outlaws broadly, or one of the specific creature types included in the outlaw group. In particular, I think Assassins, Pirates and Rogues decks will love this.
Fleeting Reflection
Combat tricks aren’t overly played in Commander, but I think Fleeting Reflection is worth running due to its flexibility. At a minimum, you can use it to protect one of your creatures from an unwanted targeted effect, and the ceiling is getting to turn some small critter you’ve got on the battlefield into some amazing creature to attack or block with.
The Key to the Vault
Wow, The Key to the Vault seems awesome! While the equip cost is a bit steep, there are ways to cheat that cost, and if you can attack and deal combat damage with the equipped creature, things can get wild. Note that you can cast any spell from among the library cards you’re looking at, so it’s not restricted to just instant or sorcery spells, which is sweet. I personally love cards like this encouraging a more aggressive stance from blue decks, rather than the reactive pose that it’s traditionally taken.
Step Between Worlds
I really love these sorts of effects that let players choose whether they want to replace their hand with a fresh new seven. I think it makes them much friendlier to play in Commander. Step Between Worlds is a great card to plot, since you can play out your hand over the next couple of turns and then cast it from exile for free and have your mana available to take advantage of the new hand.
Desert’s Due
If you’re going four- or five-color Deserts matter, Desert’s Due is an awesome removal spell that will scale up over time. Is anyone thinking about doing that? Let me know!
Pitiless Carnage
I have no doubt there are powerful combos Pitiless Carnage will enable, and while I’m not combo master enough to figure it out, I can’t wait to see what people cook up. On a smaller scale, there are a ton of creatures and artifacts where you get benefits when they die or get sacrificed that I can see this showing up in some decks as just a value card. An excellent card to plot early to set up your later big turn.
Rakish Crew
I love the call-out to the movie The Usual Suspects! Rakish Crew is a backup copy of Bastion of Remembrance if your deck has a bunch of outlaws in it.
Shoot the Sheriff
Cheap pinpoint creature removal at instant speed is always helpful in Commander decks, and Shoot the Sheriff can target the vast majority of creature types you’ll want to take down.
Hellspur Posse Boss
Hellspur Posse Boss is a great “army in a can” card that’ll see play even outside of outlaw decks. It’s sweet that the 1/1 Mercenary creatures it creates have that haste so that they can tap to boost the power of a creature you want to attack with that same turn.
Betrayal at the Vault
I really like Betrayal at the Vault for mono-green Commander decks that are lower in power. Six mana is obviously a lot of mana to spend to just take down two creatures conditional on having a large enough creature, but I think this will overperform expectations. It combines well with deathtouch or trample, and if your deck is rocking Brash Taunter or Stuffy Doll, there are even more shenanigans in store.
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
Landfall decks and decks that care about +1/+1 counters have a new toy. I doubt Bristly Bill, Spine Sower will be the commander for those sorts of decks, but it will be an excellent cog in the 99.
Drover Grizzly
Oh cool, it’s an Alpine Grizzly that you can saddle up and ride! Obviously goes great in a Bear typal deck that could really use trample to push damage through, but I can even see it Drover Grizzly in decks where power matters with large creatures that need trample.
Giant Beaver
If you’re pushing hard on the Mount synergies, Giant Beaver seems solid. The vigilance and decent size let you attack and still have a blocker, which is a real drawback for the saddle mechanic.
Goldvein Hydra
X-spells and Hydra spells matter decks are going to love Goldvein Hydra! If I crack one of these, I’ll immediately throw it in my Magus Lucea Kane deck!
Vigilance, trample and haste is an excellent combination of abilities, letting you immediately attack and very likely punch through chump blockers, while having a ground blocker on defense too. But that’s not all. It’s a mythic rare, after all, and if it dies, you can get all the mana investment from X back as tapped Treasures. Even better if you can boost its power with equipment or Auras… might I suggest Colossification?
Railway Brawler
Power matters and +1/+1 counters matter decks have a new toy with Railway Brawler. Having the plot ability seems a bit throwaway, but I suppose it can help you get immediate value by casting this for free and then casting something big the same turn. I might give this a whirl in my Grothama, All-Devouring deck. What’s better than a 10/9 commander? A 20/19 seems like a pretty good answer. Also, if you run Cauldron of Souls in your green deck, this seems awesome alongside that card.
Akul the Unrepentant
I recently built a Commander deck around Ilharg, the Raze-Boar, so I definitely appreciate the joys of putting a huge creature card from my hand onto the battlefield and circumventing casting it. Sacrificing three other creatures is a real cost, but Rakdos has plenty of ways to generate creature tokens or creatures that come back from the graveyard to fuel this ability. What huge non-Eldrazi cards do you plan on cheating onto the battlefield with Akul?
Badlands Revival
Even outside of reanimation strategies, I just love the value in Badlands Revival. Bringing a creature back from the graveyard and also replacing this spell with the best permanent in your graveyard is fantastic, especially if it involves Eternal Witness or Timeless Witness.
Cactusfolk Sureshot
Secret reach alert! People are going to forget Cactusfolk Sureshot has reach, which will foil their schemes to send flyers at your life totals. This is just an efficient package of abilities on a 4/4 body for four mana. This haste ability is what I really love, letting your subsequently cast creatures rumble into the red zone at once, and with trample!
Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
Besides being a super-cute card, Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius has a lot of cool abilities wrapped on a 2/3 body for two mana! Even outside of a dedicated plot deck, you can get a lot of value from Doc when casting spells from your graveyard (remember Muldrotha?) or from exile.
Honest Rutstein
Honest Rutstein is an awesome spin on the Gravedigger-type cards, not only letting you return a creature card from the graveyard to your hand, but thereafter discounting your creature spells by one generic mana. If you’re playing one-mana artifact creatures, they’ll be free! And our honest friend here pays one half of one instance of commander tax too.
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Much like the first version of Obeka, Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is a cool build-around commander that sends everyone to the card databases looking for “upkeep” in the text search for cards with cool effects. Normally you’ve got to wait a full turn cycle before you get the benefit, but Obeka lets you gain advantage after Obeka deals damage to an opponent. I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing a Deep Dive or even building a Deck of the Week with Obeka, so stay tuned for more thoughts on this sweet legend.
Roxanne, Starfall Savant
Meteorite is one of those cards that is neat – it’s got a small Shock effect attached to a mana rock – but has never been quite good enough to put in most decks. So how about attaching it to your commander for free, and then letting you get extra mana from artifact tokens that tap for mana?
One subtle thing to note here is that the Meteorite pays half the commander tax if Roxanne, Starfall Savant dies and you’ve got to recast her from the command zone – getting yet another Meteorite token when you do. The trick will be finding other artifacts that generate mana to really push Roxanne’s ability. Icy Manalith from Svella, Ice Shaper seems like a good start. Or how about the Banana tokens from Kibo, Uktabi Prince? And of course, if you’re making a bunch of Treasure tokens, you can make them even better.
Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero
Last up I’d like to call out Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, which has card draw and life gain attached to the creature whenever it becomes tapped. Since it has vigilance, you can’t get that effect by attacking, but you can quite obviously do it with the saddle mechanic from the set. Crewing Vehicles is another way to do it, but you can also do it with convoke; think Chord of Calling, Clever Concealment, or Bennie Bracks, Zoologist.
What cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction are you most excited to play with?
Talk to Me
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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