Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoiler season is here! Players now have tons of new cards to consider and speculate with. One thing we know for sure, though, is that this set is going to be a big one. There are a ton of powerful cards being spoiled left and right.
We’ve already seen a new two-mana Planeswalker capable of cheating in Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter for cheap. The new Plot mechanic appears to be truly problematic, creating ridiculous opportunities and even counterspell-esque capabilities.
This is, crazily enough, only scratching the surface of the new Outlaws of Thunder Junction set. A bunch of cards with massive potential have been spoiled in a rapid fire manner. Honestly, each of these cards could get their own individual discussion, but the rate that they’re hitting the internet is simply too fast to keep up with. Let’s take a look!
Another Tibalt Cheating Machine
Kellan Joins Up is part of a series of enchantments coming out in Thunder Junction. Reflecting when each of Oko’s heist members join the gang, these ‘Joins Up’ enchantments offer an enter the battlefield, or ETB, effect and a payoff related to legendary creatures.
Since Kellan Joins Up was spoiled in a different language, we have provided a translation of the card from Scryfall:
“When “Kellan Joins Up” enters the battlefield, you may exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less from your hand. If you do, it becomes plotted. (You may cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost.)
Whenever a legendary creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.”
Does that ETB effect look… familiar to you? Jace Reawakened’s second ability is the exact same as this. This also happens to be the ability that allows you to cheat in Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter for free. You can read more about that here.
If cheating in Tibalt is the only thing you really want to do with Jace Reawakened, Kellan Joins Up is actually a better alternative. With an accelerant like
Llanowar Elves
Llanowar Elves
{T}: Add {G}.
, this could cheat in a free Tibalt by turn three. Sadly, because Plotted cards do need to wait a turn to be cast, this is likely the earliest you could get it out outside of eternal formats.
Jace, on the other hand, is held back by his static ability, only allowing the player to cast him after their third turn. There are some ways to get around the static drawback, but even with those in place, Kellan Joins Up is just easier.
The second ability is worth its weight as well! This can scale up your board quickly in a legends matter deck. I could easily see this being an immediate include in themed Commander decks just for the second ability.
Up the Beanstalk Returns?
Next, we have Satoru, the Infiltrator. This looks disturbingly similar to a recent problematic enchantment from Wilds of Eldraine.
Up the Beanstalk
Up the Beanstalk
When this enchantment enters and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card.
had a very different effect that is likely even better than Satoru’s, but the result was more or less the same: free card draw from free spells. Satoru cares about creatures, while Up the Beanstalk cared about the card having a mana value of five or greater.
Satoru, the Infiltrator is obviously meant to support Ninjutsu first and foremost. No mana is spent to cast creatures that enter the battlefield via Ninjutsu, so Satoru can provide a massive stream of card draw with that mechanic.
Satoru is also capable of drawing off creatures entering the battlefield that were cast for free. Putting aside all the
Ornithopter
Ornithopter
Flying
s of the MTG world for a second, this has some obvious synergy with the Evoke Elementals released in Modern Horizons 2.
Evoking a
Grief
Grief
Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand.
will now immediately draw you a card on its entry. Go ahead and rip a card out of your opponent’s hand.
Now, depending on whether you’re playing Legacy or Modern, you can either use Reanimate or
Not Dead After All
Not Dead After All
Until end of turn, target creature you control gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control, then create a Wicked Role token attached to it." (Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When this token is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.)
to ‘scam’ your free Grief back into play. Satoru also draws you a card from this interaction. Suddenly, your free Grief only costs you one card from your hand, which inevitably ends up being a creature.
Satoru slots right into the incredibly popular Dimir Reanimate/Scam archetype in Legacy. Even if you don’t have the Scam opening, Satoru will draw cards off of any creature you reanimate. That archetype, in the words of some, was already in need of another two-drop, and Satoru fits that bill.
While Dimir Scam doesn’t currently exist in the Modern format, Satoru could certainly make that happen. The biggest downside to the Grief Scam combo is the amount of cards it takes out of your hand. This opens up the Scam player to getting blown out by good top decks, like something that Cascades into
Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls
Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample.
. Satoru fixes that problem.
All in all, Satoru is definitely powerful enough to warrant some experimentation.
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A Terrifying Swiss Army Knife
Final Showdown, while not having any directly scary synergies, is very interesting for Commander players in particular. All three abilities on this Spree card are incredibly interesting.
The first is, essentially, a worse version of Dress Down. This brings that powerful effect to Pioneer and Standard, but it remains to be seen if that effect is relevant in those formats. This ability is likely most exciting for Commander players who could utilize some redundancy.
The second effect works best with the third one most of the time. Of course, this also turns Final Showdown into an emergency protection effect that could save your Commander.
The third ability is quite literally an instant speed board wipe. If
Cyclonic Rift
Cyclonic Rift
Return target nonland permanent you don't control to its owner's hand.
Overload {6}{U} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change "target" in its text to "each.")
has taught us anything, its that this effect can be particularly deadly. Wiping the board before untapping for your turn, especially after making one of your creatures Indestructible, is incredibly scary. Combining all three of these effects can get past opposing Indestructible creatures.
Not even Close to Finished
All of these new Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers boast immense potential, and they aren’t even massive outliers as far as this set goes. Brisly Bill, for example, looks like a fantastic new tool for
Hardened Scales
Hardened Scales
If one or more +1/+1 counters would be put on a creature you control, that many plus one +1/+1 counters are put on it instead.
and Landfall decks everywhere. There’s even some powerful $50 reprints already promised with Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Frankly, this set looks like one that MTG players cannot afford to miss. If you do, you may get left behind the times.
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