Hello and welcome back! What even is this set? Outlaws of Thunder Junction seems to have good cards all over the place, so trying to pick the best ones to put on my list today took a lot of thinking. I tried my best to find the overall shiniest, vault-storing worthy cards from the main set and the Big Score (BIG).

Standard rules apply, especially here when we play Super Sma…. I mean, Thunder Junction. I’m not picking any legendary creature that can be a commander because I feel that’s a more personal choice and I’m not here to yuck a yum. I’m also selecting cards for general, across the board use, so something that is too specific isn’t making the list.

Let’s hit that trail!

HONORABLE MENTION(S): SPREES

To shorten this list to something reasonable, I’m going to give the honorable spot to the Spree cards. One of my favorite kinds of cards in Magic are the flexible, multi-opportunity kinds of cards, and the Spree cards definitely ring every bell. Already Getaway Glamer has made waves when I used it to great effect against Eldrazi in my own Feather deck, and it’s only uncommon!

The Sprees are cards I would definitely at least consider when you build a deck. They are largely useful almost anywhere and generically good, which is something I always look for in these lists. Unfortunately if I listed them individually, I’d probably take up half of the list with these alone!

ANOTHER ROUND

There are so, so many powerful or value enter effects on creatures these days where this card can abuse it’s not even funny. In fact, I’m rather scared of a deck that can make good use of this card, and not only because of the amount of time the triggers would take to resolve.

First, you can blink a whole board of your own creatures X times. At 5 total mana, that’s twice, and even having a Sun Titan and Loran of the Third Path in play could swing a game in your favor. Beyond this is the card’s ability to get through your own Shroud or Protection effects since it doesn’t target the creatures you want to blink.

My Feather blink/burn deck is sad about that.

AVEN INTERRUPTER

Looking at this card through the lens of a useful hatebear effect, the potential for this card to seriously hamper cast-from-exile and or flashback decks ala how Aura of Silence hampers enchantment and artifact decks already has me wanting a copy or three.

This isn’t all it does though. It’s REMOVAL on the STACK, IN WHITE. I mentioned this in an earlier article about another White card, but this seems to be where White’s gets its “counter” magic, and I’m here for it.

Even more, I think what gets overlooked a lot is the ability to save your own spell since the tax effect doesn’t apply to you. Outside of spells with X in the cost, this saves a spell you cast from counter magic or other bad things, and then you can cast it next turn for FREE because it was plotted.

This card is amazing. My opinion of course.

JACE REAWAKENED

The fact you have to wait to cast this is probably for the best balance wise. The looting ability, or the ability to bypass a spell’s cost and set up for later even if small, are decent and good abilities respectively on their own. The second ability even makes some spells with extra costs, like Sprees, spells with kicker, or other additional costs more interesting to play, giving you a bit of a discount.

The ultimate is what had this card make the list though. It simply doubles your spells, any kind of spell, you cast until end of turn. The ability to reset Jace and possibly even do this again to get triple spells, while not easy, is doable. There is a bunch of combo potential here.

THE KEY TO THE VAULT

Bundle pack promo (it’s in the main set as well), this card promises a free spell off the top cards of your deck if you can connect with an opponent’s face. Pairs well with tutors that put cards on top, but also can potentially cast a massive spell because there is no restriction on the mana value it can find in those top cards. In some decks, especially ones that can manipulate the top cards or put something there, this is going to be a problem for opponents and good times for the user.

PITILESS CARNAGE

I had a long thought about this one. It’s something we’ve seen before on cards like God-Eternal Bontu and others. Sacrifice your stuff, get cards. What gets it on the list, besides the fact that these kinds of draw effects can be very good where they’re used, is Plot. To keep this largely safe for later in exile as some insurance is going to be great, and having to cast it at sorcery speed isn’t going to hamper a lot of decks since the card itself is a sorcery anyway.

Lynde players rejoice.

TREASURE DREDGER

An uncommon makes the list with Treasure Dredger. Having the kinds of mana you need when you need it is really important. This card filters it for you into a treasure token that just sits around instead, which is already fairly abusable alone to count toward things like the Bargain mechanic or Marionette Master triggers.

If you’re able to untap this creature, you can continue to create whatever color you need if you have the life and mana. Probably some combo potential here as well. Maybe Verrak, Warped Sengir would like this (it’s not a mana ability on Treasure Dredger).

HELL TO PAY

X spells that burn usually need some extra oomph since the return isn’t usually the best. Among X burn spells that give something extra, this one you might want to cast on your own creature, or in a deck led by Wayta Trainer Prodigy or Maarika Brutal Gladiator / Zangief the Red Cyclone.

There are of course the treasures to consider since they stick around and are great for a number of effects. While this isn’t the best X burn spell, it is still plenty good and can give a bit of mana scorching a mana dork off the table. Ironic.

TERROR OF THE PEAKS

A reprint that was needed, this will terrorize your opponents with damage, whether attacking or triggering for it.

A thing to note about the card itself is that it does not have Ward. Its ability only cares about spells. Something to keep in mind when facing off or using this dragon.

GOLDVEIN HYDRA

This thing is crazy on paper, and I think that is going to translate to actual play. It’s a creature that can be played at almost any time in the game and be an immediate threat, especially with its abilities of Vigilance, Trample and Haste.

Then, when it dies, you get the mana investment back equal to its power. If you have anything else pumping it up, you get more than your investment back. It might be a small or big dumb beater, but it pays for itself.

RAILWAY BRAWLER

This is a simple straightforward card. Green make bigger. It does have a good body and abilities, with Reach being the main reason I put it on the list. There has been a LOT of Reach in Thunder Junction, especially in Green and some in Red. Besides this making your creatures double in size easily (and triggering game knows what), it can block flyers which is something I’ve always appreciated in mono-Green decks.

“NAME” JOINS UP

Each of the legendary enchantments from the Joins Up posse are unique enough to invoke the flavor of those they represent, but some are better than others. While that’s true, I’m going to cheat and lump them together here since as Magic and Commander go along I’ve found myself and many others putting more and more legends into their deck simply due to mechanics. These enchantments will for the most part continue to get better as time goes forward.

ASSIMILATION AEGIS

Easy to abuse removal with a cloning effect. This has a decent floor and a decently high ceiling depending on what you can get exiled with it. Noticeably it doesn’t have a cost restriction, so exile the largest or most useful thing you need and have fun making your 1/1 Saproling the most useful creature on the table.

CACTUSFOLK SURESHOT

Another card with Reach. This set is full of them.

Other than some good flying defense for Red Green decks, this also provides some excellent beatdown potential by giving your larger creatures Trample and Haste. Trample is good but Haste is never to be underestimated, allowing you to attack now with your big critters instead of giving your opponents breathing room.

Oh, and our plant friend here has Ward 2, making it a hard weed to get rid of.

MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK

This card might take a while to warm up to, but it “draws” you two cards and plots a third. That third card could be anything, including something costly you couldn’t cast for a few turns. The downside is that you can’t cast it the turn you’re playing this card, but I don’t think that’s going to bother too many players. You can always cast some of the cards you choose to put in your hand instead.

Just to clarify, this doesn’t actually draw you cards, so it won’t trigger effects that care about that.

LAVASPUR BOOTS

Boots. Greaves. The Shoes. Whichever you use, these boots are a fine addition to the roster of magically inclined footwear. It’s cheap to cast and equip, and provides its own kind of protection that isn’t strictly better than either Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots.

TOP FIVE FROM THE BIG SCORE

There are a lot of good cards in the BIG part of the set, especially interesting ones under specific or unique circumstances, but I’m going to choose five all-rounders.

GRAND ABOLISHER

The second reprint in the article, this card simply stops interacting from your opponents during your turn. We’ve gotten a few more of these over the years, centering in White and Green White, but it’s always nice to have another print and new art to appreciate.

Notably, this card stops mana rocks, treasure, clue, and food tokens among other things. This means you can also stop someone from drawing cards on your turn or gaining life on your turn. Sometimes it’s the small things that can go a long way towards victory.

SIMULACRUM SYNTHESIZER

This nifty artifact provides you with more artifacts if you have another enter the battlefield with a mana value 3 or higher. Notably the tokens it creates and others like Food or Clues won’t trigger this, or it would be a self infinite combo with itself. Still, this gives you free, probably large creatures and since it creates the tokens from a trigger requiring an enter effect and not cast, this should be easily repeatable.

Another note I’ll make here is that most of the time when you create a token that is a copy of something that isn’t a token, or cast a copied spell that would become a permanent, or copy a permanent with a “cloning” effect, it retains its mana value of the thing it is copying when it enters. When that happens, if its mana value is 3 or more and an artifact, it will trigger the Synthesizer.

VAULTBORN TYRANT

In the same league as Goldvein Hydra, this card replaces itself and is a beater. Where it surpasses the hydra is in the card draw and life gain it also provides for the mana cost, which is trivial in a deck that has Green most of the time.

It also has a relevant type in Dinosaur, so expect to see these roaring around wherever those decks exist.

LOTUS RING

This card has a lot of potential up and down the power spectrum, and that’s what I love about it. It can be a combo piece or just a buff with upside. The art is also gorgeous to me and I’d be lying if that wasn’t a little part of my consideration because I remember it so well.

NEXUS OF BECOMING

While the cost can be high, I think of this card as a risky but high reward Quicksilver Amulet. It does us the favor of replacing the card discarded before we make our choice, and is a may trigger if we don’t want to lose a card forever. If we exile something, we get a free copy of it.

The upside is a creature that can attack and block, is a Golem which we are slowly seeing more support for, and can be multiplied by Populate and other effects that copy either creatures or artifacts. Having an army of whatever threatening thing you exiled isn’t too bad of a ceiling.

TUMBLIN’ ON OUT

That does it for my picks. This set has a lot of good stuff for Commander, but also a lot of good specific stuff for certain strategies. It’s a good mix of things you can use almost anywhere and whether you want to run Archmage’s Newt in an on-hit build.

You can let me know what you think about my picks or the set overall in the comments below.

Until next time, play positively with your posse, pardners.