Unique Thunder Junction Crime Payoffs Add New Twist to Valakut Strategy!

One of the more interesting MTG mechanics to come out of Outlaws of Thunder Junction was Crime commitment. While committing Crimes may feel a bit weird from a flavor standpoint sometimes, it’s a rather simple concept to grasp. Just target any of your opponent’s stuff, and you’re golden.

Up to this point, we’ve seen multiple Crime payoffs see play in Standard and Pioneer. In Standard, Duelist of the Mind Duelist of the Mind Flying, vigilance
Duelist of the Mind's power is equal to the number of cards you've drawn this turn.
Whenever you commit a crime, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card. This ability triggers only once each turn. is an efficient, evasive beater that lets you sculpt your hand as you engage in criminal activity. Meanwhile, in Pioneer, Kaervek, the Punisher Kaervek, the Punisher Whenever you commit a crime, exile up to one target black card from your graveyard and copy it. You may cast the copy. If you do, you lose 2 life. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime. Copies of permanent spells become tokens.) has appeared in various Waste Not Waste Not Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, add {B}{B}.
Whenever an opponent discards a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card. shells. Kaervek’s synergy with Fatal Push Fatal Push Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. and Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. is certainly impressive.

Once we get down to Modern, though, Crime payoffs haven’t exactly manifested in any top-tier archetypes. However, well-known content creator Aspiringspike took it upon himself to construct a unique deck built on maximizing the power of two Thunder Junction cards. He went 7-2 and made top 16 of the Magic Online Modern Showcase Challenge, which featured 220 players. Clearly, these cards are strong, but let’s just say they are criminally underrated (yes, pun intended).

The base of the deck looks very similar to a typical Scapeshift Scapeshift Sacrifice any number of lands. Search your library for up to that many land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. strategy, but there are actually zero copies of Scapeshift to be found in the maindeck. Let’s take a look at exactly what this deck is trying to accomplish and how the new cards fit in.

Valakut, the Primary Win Condition

Like most Scapeshift decks, the way this deck typically closes games is with the all-powerful Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle This land enters tapped.
Whenever a Mountain you control enters, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have this land deal 3 damage to any target.
{T}: Add {R}. . Valakut is an awesome card that offers you clear inevitability, but does require some work to maximize.

First, you ideally want to be ramping in some fashion. Second, you need the vast majority of your mana sources to be Mountains. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove Dryad of the Ilysian Grove You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types. in particular is awesome at facilitating both of these gameplans. It lets you play additional Lands every turn cycle. On top of that, it makes sure all of your Lands count towards Valakut’s six-Mountain threshold. Importantly, this counts Valakut itself.

From there, Wrenn and Six Wrenn and Six +1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.) and The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. help ensure that you have a continuous flood of Land drops to make during your turn. As long as you can find and stick Valakut, you’re golden.

Still, not seeing cards like Scapeshift or Primeval Titan Primeval Titan Trample
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, you may search your library for up to two land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. in the maindeck may seem a bit strange. After all, these cards speed up your ability to win the game considerably. This deck does feature a couple copies of Wish Wish You may play a card you own from outside the game this turn. and a copy of Scapeshift in the sideboard to tutor for, but it is not reliant on the potent Sorcery. Instead, a full-on Crime package centered around two Thunder Junction Creatures takes center stage.

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Crime Enablers and Payoffs

As strong as Scapeshift and Primeval Titan are individually, they are a bit clunky. As such, most Gruul Scapeshift shells in Modern are heavily focused on using ramp elements such as Search for Tomorrow Search for Tomorrow Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Suspend 2—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay {G} and exile it with two 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.) and Farseek Farseek Search your library for a Plains, Island, Swamp, or Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. . Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave much room for interaction.

Sometimes a few copies of Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target. or Anger of the Gods Anger of the Gods Anger of the Gods deals 3 damage to each creature. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead. will sneak into a decklist. However, Scapeshift decks typically require a high level of redundancy to keep the main gameplan as consistent as possible. This is because winning the game with Scapeshift requires a lot of resources. Every card that doesn’t search for Lands, doesn’t provide a significant resource advantage like The One Ring and isn’t a Land itself comes at huge cost to play.

This is where the Crime package comes in handy. The two Thunder Junction cards featured in this decklist are Magda, the Hoardmaster and Freestrider Lookout Freestrider Lookout Reach
Whenever you commit a crime, look at the top five cards of your library. You may put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.) , both of which are awesome ramp elements that actually work well with pieces of disruption. The goal is to immediately get value off of these cards. That way, even if the opponent kills them, you generated value, nonetheless. Cheap ways to trigger these cards include casting Lightning Bolt or using the -1 ability on Wrenn and Six. The fun doesn’t stop there, though.

This deck kicks Crime committing up a notch with the presence of both Relic of Progenitus Relic of Progenitus {T}: Target player exiles a card from their graveyard.
{1}, Exile this artifact: Exile all graveyards. Draw a card. and Mishra’s Bauble Mishra’s Bauble {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Look at the top card of target player's library. Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep. . Relic and Bauble are efficient ways to commit Crimes that can simply sit in play until you cast Magda or Lookout. Relic has the benefit of sticking around, letting you commit Crimes by tapping it and targeting the opponent once every turn cycle. Magda and Lookout may be limited to triggering once each turn, but Relic and Bauble provide ways to commit Crimes on the opponent’s turn without investing any mana!

With this in mind, if the opponent doesn’t kill these cards right away, they are in a world of trouble. Magda can start converting Treasures into Hasty 4/4 Fliers, while Lookout will keep digging for Valakuts and Mountains. Getting to essentially free-roll graveyard hate and removal in a ramp deck is a huge bonus that this deck takes great advantage of.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

These innovations to a typical Valakut ramp archetype, beyond being super cool, also shore up some notable weaknesses that Scapeshift decks have had in the past. One thing we mentioned is the uptick in interaction. Dedicated Valakut decks don’t always win super quickly, so getting run over by Prowess decks or outclassed by a turn one Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash {1}{R} (You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.) is a bit of a concern. Luckily, Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash Flame Slash Flame Slash deals 4 damage to target creature. out of the sideboard help this cause.

In a similar sense, the four maindeck Relics go a long way in helping you beat Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. combo. That deck can generate a huge board presence as early as turn three. Add in 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. and Force of Negation Force of Negation If it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. as free pieces of disruption, and it makes sense why the matchup can be a bit of a problem.

Additionally, by not relying entirely on Scapeshift, this deck has a much better time against Blood Moon effects. Magda can singlehandedly win a game through a Blood Moon by making Dragons. Otherwise, the Treasures give you access to green mana to cast your spells. In some cases, beating down with Lookout, Dragons, and Jegantha, the Wellspring can get the job done.

The one weakness this deck opens itself up to when compared to traditional Scapeshift decklists is the fact that opposing removal spells are decent against you. Copies of Fatal Push Fatal Push Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. might simply rot in the opponent’s hand, but now become useful at killing Magda and Lookout. In grindy matchups, you’d rather have your ramp cards not be in Creature form. Against decks like Indomitable Creativity Indomitable Creativity Destroy X target artifacts and/or creatures. For each permanent destroyed this way, its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until an artifact or creature card is revealed and exiles that card. Those players put the exiled cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle. combo, having access to more copies of Scapeshift as an “I win” button out of nowhere would certainly help.

The emergence of Magda and Lookout in this Valakut shell is yet another example of the massive impact Thunder Junction cards have had on Constructed formats as a whole. Players are still figuring out unique ways to use the new cards. With Modern Horizons 3 coming in short order, Modern will surely be in for an even bigger shakeup. Will this Valakut shell stand the test of time? We’ll just have to wait and find out.

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