Magic: The Gathering's latest set Outlaws of Thunder Junction has been out for a few weeks now, and you've probably already had a look on the new cards it brings to Commander. In addition to the cards from the set itself, we also got four new Commander precon decks, which not only include interesting reprints, but also exciting new cards.
Before we delve into each deck individually, let's talk about the new mini-game for Commander: Bounty cards!
Playing with the new Bounty cards is quite simple and feels a bit like Planechase. These Bounty cards are included in the precons (3 in every deck), so if you and your friends have at least two different decks, you'll be all set to play.
Before starting the game, you shuffle at least 6 unique Bounty cards into a face-down pile. After the game has started, at the beginning of the third turn cycle, the first Bounty card is revealed. During each player's turn, they can fulfill the condition on the bounty card to claim a reward. At the start of each turn, if there is no revealed bounty card, the next one is revealed, and if the bounty deck runs out of cards, shuffle them again and start over.
What reward can you get in case you claim it? The regular reward is to create a treasure token. However, if nobody claimed the bounty on the previous turn, the reward increases! At level two, you create two treasure tokens. At level three, you have the option to choose between creating the two treasure tokens or drawing a card. And finally, at level four, you do both: create two treasure tokens and draw a card.
Setting aside the new bounty game, let's dive into the decks themselves, starting with the only two-color deck among the four: Quick Draw, the spellslinger deck!
This deck features several strategies, but they all fall under the Spellslinger umbrella, as most of the synergies will revolve around casting multiple spells per turn, especially if they're instants or sorceries.
The deck's primary commander is Stella Lee, Wild Card. This Human Rogue is a 2/4 creature for three mana, and whenever you cast your second spell of the turn, you exile the top card of your library and can play that card until the end of your next turn. This already provides great card advantage for a deck that aims to cast lots of spells. Additionally, Stella allows you to copy target instant or sorcery spell you control, but only if you've already cast three or more spells that turn. Interestingly, Stella Lee is generating a lot of conversation about her potential impact on the cEDH metagame. That would be a surprising jump: from a precon commander to a high-level competitive one.
As second commander option, we have Eris, Roar of the Storm. This elemental wizard is a 4/4 creature for a whopping 10 mana, but it costs two less for each different mana value among instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard. Due to this cost reduction and the composition of the deck, it's not hard to cast Eris for 4 or even 2 mana. Eris also has flying and prowess, but the most important thing is: Once it's on the battlefield, whenever you cast your second spell each turn, it creates a 4/4 red Dragon Elemental token with flying and prowess! And that can snowball quite easiy ...
Apart from the face commanders, there are 8 new cards introduced in the deck. Starting with the creatures, let's talk about Thunderclap Drake, a 2/1 creature with flying for only 2 mana. This creature not only makes your instant and sorcery spells cost one less to cast, but by sacrificing it you can copy the next instant or sorcery spell you cast that turn - and not just once, but for each time you've cast your Commander from the command zone in that game.
The second new creature is Crackling Spellslinger, a 2/2 Human Wizard with flash, but at the steep cost of 5 mana. When it enters, if you cast it, the next instant or sorcery spell you cast that turn gains storm! Meaning it will be copied for each spell cast before it that turn. In decks capable of generating a lot of mana through rituals for example, this sounds very fun and powerful.
Moving on to the deck's sorceries, we have Lock and Load. For 3 mana, you get to draw one card and another one for each other instant and sorcery spell you've cast that turn. This card becomes playable (and strong!) through its Plot ability, which allows you to play it without paying its cost on a later turn when you've already slung some other spells.
The next sorcery is Pyretic Charge, which lets you discard your hand and draw four cards for 5 mana. Additionally, for each card discarded this way, creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. This card also has the new Plot ability, which makes ist even cheaper. To wrap up the sorceries, there's Elemental Eruption. For 6 mana, you get a 4/4 red Dragon Elemental creature token with flying and prowess. But: This card also has storm!
Lastly, let's talk about the artifacts. Forger’s Foundry is a 3 mana rock that lets you exile cheap instant and sorcery spells you cast with it instead of putting them into the graveyard. Further, it allows you to sacrifice it for 5 mana to cast any number of spells from the cards exiled with it without paying their mana costs. This can only be activated at sorcery-speed, still this is a powerful ability.
Smoldering Stagecoach is a 4 mana value vehicle with 5 toughness and power equal to the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard. Whenever it attacks, it gives cascade to both your next instant and sorcery spell of that turn. It's crew cost is only 2, so there's potential for some crazy plays. And there's Leyline Dowser, a 2 cost artifact that let's you mill a card and return the milled card to your hand if it's an instant or sorcery. Even though legendary creatures can untap the Dowser, this seems a bit inefficient.
Quick Draw also has a lot of solid reprints, especially cards like Veyran, Voice of Duality, Bloodthirsty Adversary, Rousing Refrain, Pongify, Winged Boots, and Shark Typhoon.
Considering that Outlaws of Thunder Junction takes place in a Wild West setting, there had to be lots of sand and cacti - and the Desert Bloom deck in Naya colors! This deck is all about land synergies (especially when interacting with the graveyard) and also has a fun plant subtheme.
The alternative commander of the deck is Kirri, Talented Sprout. This Plant Druid gives +2/+0 to your other Plants and Treefolk and returns a Plant, Treefolk, or land card from your graveyard to your hand at the beginning of your postcombat main phase. This seems like a great ability to build a strong board presence and gain card advantage.
From the new creatures, Sand Scout provides a twist on the "classic" white ramp abilty: When it enters, if an opponent controls more lands than you, you get to search your library for a desert and put it onto the battlefield tapped. But this 2 mana 2/2 does more work: Whenever one or more land cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, it creates a 1/1 red, green, and white Sand Warrior token, but only once per turn.
Dune Chanter is another important creature for the deck, as it turns lands you control and lands you own that aren't on the battlefield into deserts in addition to their other types. So Sand Scout for example would let you search for any land (Gaea's Cradle, maybe?), as all lands in your library would be deserts. It also grants your lands the ability to tap for any color of mana, and if you tap Dune Chanter, you mill two cards and gain one life for each land card milled this way.
Angel of Indemnity is a 5/5 Angel Warrior creature with flying and lifelink that lets you return a permanent card with mana value 4 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.The coolest thing about this card: it has Encore for 8! So when encored onto the battlefield, you may get up to three permanents back, including 15 lifelinking, flying power with haste. At least for one turn ...
The last new creature in the deck is Rumbleweed, an 8/8 Plant Elemental for 11 mana that, like the Commander Yuma, costs one less for each land in your graveyard. It has vigilance, reach, and trample. Not enough? Well, when it enters the battlefield, it's like a mini Craterhoof, granting +3/+3 and trample to your other creatures until the end of turn.
Moving on to the sorceries, there's Embrace the Unknown. It's a double impulsive draw for 3 mana at sorcery speed, but it has the - in this deck very useful! - ability Retrace, which allows you to cast it from the graveyard by discarding a land in addition to it's other costs. Cataclysmic Prospecting is a sweeper spell that costs 2 mana plus X, dealing X damage to each creature. But it pays you back, creating a tapped treasure token for each mana from a desert used to cast it. Did we mention that there are a couple of deserts in the deck?
Vengeful Regrowth costs 6 mana and returns up to three land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and creates that same number of 4/2 reach plant warrior tokens. You want more? No problem, just use the additional lands you just gained to pay its Flashback cost!
We conclude the new cards with a land: Cactus Preserve! It's a desert that enter tapped (booo!), taps for any color of mana a land you control could produce, and by paying 3 mana, it becomes an X/X Plant creature with reach until end of turn, where X is the highest mana value among your Commanders. Which is 8, in case you play Yuma. A land as a potential finisher? Not too bad!
Also in Desert Bloom, there are some useful reprints like Ancient Greenwarden, Oracle of Mul Daya, Scute Swarm, Avenger of Zendikar, Ramunap Excavator, and Chromatic Lantern.
The third deck we're going to talk about is Grand Larceny. This Sultai deck wants to steal cards from your opponents' decks to play them yourself. This is going to be achieved by dealing combat damage.
The main commander of the precon is Gonti, Canny Acquisitor, a 5/5 Aetherborn Rogue costing 5 mana. His static ability makes spells you don't own cost one mana less to cast. In addition to that, whenever you deal combat damage to a player with one or more creatures, you get to exile that player's top card face down and cast it while it remains exiled. In a deck filled with lots of small creatures with evasion, that sounds like an insane card advantage engine - getting up to three additional cards each turn!
Felix Five-Boots is the alternative commander and probably the card with the funniest name in all of the four precons. This 5/4 Ooze Rogue is a Panharmonicon for combat damage triggers, which is very intersting in the Sultai colors.
As you can see, both commanders reward dealing combat damage to opponents, and they both share the Rogue creature type - which gives us a clue about where the deck is headed ...
When it comes to the new cards, let's start by talking about those Rogues! Smirking Spelljacker (also a Wizard and a Djinn, by the way) is a 5 mana flier with flash that not only exiles target spell an opponent controls when entering. You also get to cast that card without paying its mana cost when the Spelljacker attacks! Very annoying, very powerful! Also, there's Orochi Soul-Reaver, a 5/4 Snake Ninja Rogue that can be ninjutsued in for 4 instead of its normal 6 mana and provides a very good combat damage trigger for both commanders: Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, you create a treasure token and manifest the top card of that player's library.
Another new creature that is not a Rogue is Thieving Varmint, a 2/1 deathtouch and lifeliknk for 2 mana that is an extremely good mana dork - but only for spells you don't own. Savvy Trader also helps you casting "your" spells faster, though this 3/3 Human Citizen does so by reducing the cost of spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand.
Tower Winder is a very interesting creature that has sparked a lot of debate after being spoiled for the first time. This 1/1 deathtouching (and reaching!) Snake for 2 mana lets you search your library and/or graveyard for your Command Tower when entering and puts it into your hand. A future staple for Gx commander decks?
When it comes to the sorceries, there's a real powerhouse with Arcane Heist. At 4 mana, this not only lets you cast target instant or sorcery card from an opponent's graveyard without paying its mana cost. The card also has Cypher, meaning that in theory you can do this every combat. The other new sorcery is Heartless Conscription. Yes, it does cost 8 mana, but in most cases, it should be a game-ending spell: exiling all creatures and letting you replay the wole board sounds super powerful.
The last new card is Dream-Thief’s Bandana, an equipment costing 2 with equip 1, which is basically a Curiosity off of your opponent's deck in the form of an equipment.
To wrap up the Grand Larceny deck, let's take a look at some reprints, most notably Brainstealer Dragon, Three Visits, Mind’s Dilation, Darkslick Shores, Twilight Mire, and Underground River.
Last but not least: Most Wanted, a Mardu tribal deck that revolves around outlaw creatures, which include Assassins, Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks. There are a lot of politics cards and treasure synergies within the deck.
The second commander option is Vihaan, Goldwaker, and this Dwarf Warlock seems way more interesting: Besides granting your other outlaws vigilance and haste. At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may turn your treasure tokens into 3/3 (!) Construct Assassins. With vigilance and haste. Also this commander has some serious escalation potential.
As you can see, Most Wanted is an aggressive deck that aims to have as many outlaw creatures as possible on the battlefield - and to turn them sideways! One of those is Angelic Sell-Sword. This Angel Mercenary provides a 1/1 red Mercenary creature token anytime it or another nontoken creature comes into play. With this on the board, your outlaw army will grow fast. Ver fast.
Charred Graverobber is a 3/1 skeleton mercenary for 3 mana that lets you return an outlaw card from your graveyard to your hand on ETB. The Escape abilty also makes it really hard to get rid for your opponent's. Speaking of hard to get rid of: Graywater’s Fixer lets your outlaws make a short but impactful comeback, granting each outlaw in your graveyard Encore.
We're staying on theme with Back In Town, a sorcery with a cost of 3 and X, which returns X outlaw creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, while Dead Before Sunrise is a de facto boardwipe at instant speed that gives +1/+0 to your outlaw creatures and the ability to tap to deal damage equal to their power to target creature.
The deck also features two new enchantments. We Ride at Dawn costs 3 mana and grants your legendary creature spells convoke plus gives you the occasional 1/1 red Mercenary token in case your Commander attacks. On the other hand, Discreet Retreat is another very powerful, but very narrow card: For 4 mana, you get ramp, color-fixing, and card draw on a land enchantment - but once again only if you're dealing with outlaws.
The last new card we're going to talk about is Bounty Board, a 3 mana artifact that taps to add one mana of any color. But you can also put bounty counters on other creatures with it and profit from them dying. As also all of your opponents who didn't control said creature get to draw a card a gain 2 life, Bounty Board is a cool political card that incentivizes your opponents to do the dirty work for you!
To wrap up the Most Wanted deck, the most notable reprints are Witch of the Moors, Breena, the Demagogue, Veinwitch Coven, Seize the Spotlight, Rain of Riches, and Command Beacon.
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