Best MTG Outlaws of All Time

The official release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction is right around the corner. This set has a lot of really cool themes and mechanics for players to get the hang of. Whether you are building your deck around committing Crimes or focusing on the Outlaw theme, this set has a lot to offer. There are also plenty of payoffs for maximizing these mechanics. For instance, Double Down Double Down Whenever you cast an outlaw spell, copy that spell. (Assassins, Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks are outlaws. Copies of permanent spells become tokens.) can provide a ton of value in a deck devoted to Outlaws.

With this in mind, we thought it would be cool to go over the absolute best Outlaws printed throughout MTG’s history. This subset covers Mercenaries, Warlocks, Assassins, Pirates, and Rogues. Between these five Creature types, there are a lot of powerhouses to choose from. As such, narrowing down this list is going to be quite difficult, and there are a lot of strong Creatures that will ultimately fall short. Each of the cards on this list has had significant impact in the world of MTG, so without further ado, here are the best MTG Outlaws of all time!

Honorable Mention: Vein Ripper

Just barely missing out on our top five, we have a card that we still felt deserved some discussion given how new it is. Vein Ripper is an extremely frustrating card to deal with once it hits the board. Thanks to its Ward ability, your opponent has to have a Creature on board to sacrifice otherwise they can’t use targeted removal on Vein Ripper in the first place. Even if they can kill Vein Ripper and have a Creature to sacrifice, they still lose board presence, and you get a decent life swing out of the deal.

Interestingly, while Vein Ripper is an Assassin, making it an Outlaw as well, this isn’t the most important Creature type associated with the card. See, Vein Ripper is also a Vampire. This means that it pairs exceptionally well with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord +1: Target creature you control gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. If it's a Vampire, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
+1: You may sacrifice a Vampire. When you do, Sorin deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life.
−3: You may put a Vampire creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. . Sorin can cheat Vein Ripper into play, then give it Lifelink and Deathtouch on future turns. This combination of cards has taken over Pioneer and is starting to work its way into Modern, too.

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#5 Broadside Bombardiers

Coming in at number five, we have Broadside Bombardiers. This powerful Pirate is an amazing card in Legacy, Commander, and even pops up in Vintage. As a Hasty threat with Menace, it’s often easy to play Broadside Bombardiers and attack with it right away without fear of it dying in combat. Once you attack with it, you have free reign to throw away any of your expendable Creatures or Artifacts to deal a bunch of damage to the opponent or a problematic Creature they control.

In Legacy, this card is an excellent addition to mono-red prison as well as Goblins shells. Cards like Chrome Mox Chrome Mox Imprint — When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand.
{T}: Add one mana of any of the exiled card's colors. and Ancient Tomb Ancient Tomb {T}: Add {C}{C}. This land deals 2 damage to you. help you power out this card ahead of schedule and reap the rewards. If your opponent can’t kill this card right away, they are in a lot of trouble. Either you start mowing down their blockers for big swings or you start chucking cards at your opponent’s face, threatening to end the game in short order. This card is a house and is one of the best red Creatures printed in recent years.

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#4 Shardless Agent

Shardless Agent is a strange card. On the surface, the card seems perfectly fair. After all, Cascade lets you get some value, but you can only cast cards with mana value two or less. How scary can that be? The answer is quite frightening when you take into account various zero-mana Suspend cards like 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. and 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. .

Cascade decks built around Shardless Agent dominated Modern and made their presences felt in Legacy for a long time. Violent Outburst Violent Outburst Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. ultimately got banned in Modern given its role in Cascading at Instant speed. This doesn’t even take into account the broken Modern deck that would Cascade into Valki, God of Lies Valki, God of Lies When Valki enters, each opponent reveals their hand. For each opponent, exile a creature card they revealed this way until Valki leaves the battlefield.
{X}: Choose a creature card exiled with Valki with mana value X. Valki becomes a copy of that card. .

Before a rules change, players could choose to cast the seven-mana Tibalt Planeswalker backside of Valki instead! This was one of the most broken Modern decks of all time. Given how well Shardless Agent has stood the test of time, we felt it deserved a spot on this list even if it isn’t the most synergistic card in an Outlaws deck.

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#3 Dauthi Voidwalker

Dauthi Voidwalker is an amazing Outlaw with a surprising amount of versatility. First of all, it completely shuts down graveyard-based decks while in play. As such, it sees a ton of play in Legacy sideboards. Secondly, it is a cheap, three-power Creature that is essentially unblockable. If that weren’t enough, once you get to untap with it, you can cash it in at any point to cast an opponent’s card exiled with Dauthi Voidwalker.

In Legacy, if your opponent goes to cast a huge spell and you counter it with Force of Will Force of Will You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell. , you can cast that spell yourself! Similarly, in Modern, if you cast Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. and nab a large haymaker from the opponent’s hand, that game-breaking threat can be yours. This elite Rogue does a lot of heavy lifting for the decks that play it, and should be a great inclusion for an Outlaws-centric EDH deck.

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#2 Hullbreacher

Coming in at number two, we have Hullbreacher. Hullbreacher is a messed-up card that interacts with your opponent’s ability to draw cards. Casting this card in response to a Brainstorm Brainstorm Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order. may be too much for your opponent to overcome. Not only do they not draw their cards, but they also still have to put cards from their hand back on top of their library and you create Treasure tokens as a bonus.

What really sets Hullbreacher over the top, though, is when you pair it with Wheel of Fortune Wheel of Fortune Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards. effects. Hullbreacher is banned in Commander largely for this reason. Casting a Wheel with Hullbreacher in play means that your opponents don’t get to draw seven, while you do, and you get an absurd number of Treasures in a multiplayer game. Hullbreacher is super powerful and easily abusable, but it doesn’t quite beat out our next card for the top spot.

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#1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

At the top of this list, we have an insanely efficient Pirate that can take over the game if left unchecked. If you play Ragavan turn one, your opponent needs to kill it quickly. Otherwise, you will get a mana advantage and potentially get to cast some extra cards from your opponent’s deck. In Modern, Ragavan is extremely strong in Izzet Murktide and Rakdos Scam decks. It was weakened a little by the presence of Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. , but still wreaks havoc on anyone unprepared for it.

In Legacy, Ragavan was banned because of its ability to take over the game in conjunction with cards like Force of Will Force of Will You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell. and Daze Daze You may return an Island you control to its owner's hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}. to help protect it. Following up a turn one Ragavan by Dazing an opposing removal spell and then playing Wasteland Wasteland {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target nonbasic land. turn two would often be enough to win the game by itself. Ragavan truly is one of the best one-drops ever printed, and rightfully earns the role of best Outlaw of all time.

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