Howdy pawtnuhs, Outlaws of Thunder Junction is just over yonder, so why don’t we saddle up and look at some common and uncommon cards and are they any good for Pioneer and Modern, shall we? 

In all seriousness, I’m having a bit of a tough time with Outlaws of Thunder Junction for a variety of reasons. For starters, the feeling that there are 87 different bonus sheets within the same set make it hard to keep track of what’s standard legal and what isn’t (I think I have it straight now finally), but it’s created a bit of a disconnect for me. The reprints are good, but this might be the least player-friendly set experience they’ve done yet. I really like the theme, but some of the characters that are on the plane feel insanely random, and most importantly for the purposes of this list, I don’t think this set feels particularly powerful, especially in the common/uncommon slot. 

For the last several sets, I’ve narrowed down this list from 25-30 cards to get to ten, but for Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I have my list around 15 and I’m honestly struggling to rank them in an order because I don’t feel as though there’s any worth of a number one status. If I merged the lists from Murders at Karlov Manner and Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I think there might only be one or two cards from OTJ on the list. 

With all that being said, I do still think there are cards with the potential to make it in Modern or Pioneer, but more niche role players than key contributors. 

Reprints

I usually reserve this space to talk about notable reprints we don’t have to speculate on. In the past, we’ve seen cards like Sleight of Hand and Lightning Helix in this slot and Outlaws of Thunder Junction doesn’t have any reprints even close to those.

It does, however, have a reprint very near and dear to my heart. Skulduggery is making a triumphant return to standard after a six year hiatus. RB Pirates was the first standard deck I ever built myself, way back in Ixalan and Skulduggery was a key piece of that deck. I used to think this card was really good, and in fairness to rookie me, there are certainly much worse cards than this. I remember casting this at my FNM against my friend and getting the full two for one blow-out with it. Simpler times. Anyway, Skulduggery means a lot to me as a player so while you will never see this card cast against you outside of limited, it’s one I wanted to highlight. 

10. Lively Dirge (Pioneer/Modern)

I want to take a second to talk about Spree, because it’s probably one of my favorite mechanics they’ve done in a while, which makes sense because it is effectively just a retrained kicker.

What I like most about Spree is what it does for card versatility and when I read these cards for the first time, I had to commit to memory that you can cast both modes if you have enough mana, you don’t have to restrict yourself to one or the other.

The card I have at 10 on this list is Lively Dirge, which might honestly be lower than a lot of people have it, as I’ve seen a fair amount of hype around this card for Pioneer. People are addicted to Entomb-effects, and this is pretty much the cheapest one we have in the format. On top of that, it can revive up to two creatures from your graveyard as well.

But where Spree comes in is that you can actually do both of these things for a total of five mana, with the most obvious one being Sheoldred. You add a one mana tax to your Sheoldred, but you can get it straight out of your deck with just this one card.

In Modern, I’ve seen people brewing with this in Coffers decks, as you can generate the five mana needed to hit both modes pretty quickly, which is admittedly pretty intriguing as well.

The reason I’m putting this lower on my list is because I think this is the type of card people fall for during spoiler season that ends up falling flat on its face. It’s pretty expensive for what it does and I don’t even think it does anything really gamebreaking, but I also don’t want to leave it off the list entirely because I do see some potential in it. We’ll see who was right, but if this kind of card is good, it’s usually very good.

9. Magebane Lizard (Pioneer)

Magebane Lizard is a card I like a lot. Being a two mana 1/4, this card can already play a little defense, but it’s also incredibly punishing against decks such as Phoenix or Lotus Field, who both incidentally will just struggle a little bit to kill this card.

Against Lotus Field in particular, this card on T2 will be pretty devastating. It takes that deck a while to find any kind of removal, and in the mainboard sometimes they don’t even really run removal. One of these could just straight up win the game a lot of the time against Lotus, even against more skilled opponents. Granted, if Magebane Lizard becomes commonplace, Lotus is a deck that can adapt to handle it.

Magebane Lizard doesn’t have game against a lot of other decks, but any kind of Storm-style deck, Magebane Lizard will be an absolutely punishing force, and I can see it making its way into some sideboards.

8. Arid Archway (Pioneer)

This is another one I’m putting on here only really for speculation. This is the only bounce land we’ll have in Pioneer and there almost has to be something to do with that… right? It does have the additional line of text that gives you upside for bouncing a desert, but I don’t think that’ll have much play.

There are two ways to break this in Pioneer, and that is with Strict Proctor and Spelunking, both of which could certainly be real.

With Strict Proctor, I’m not as convinced, because if you’re playing that, you should just be doing Lotus Field instead, as people have already learned. If you’re going to lean in, lean in all the way.

Spelunking though is much more interesting as it kind of becomes “Amulet of Vigor at home. Surely there is something broken to do with that down the line but I am concerned that it’s not quite fast enough for this format, as Spelunking takes too long to come down, though maybe there is some kind of Arboreal Grazer build out there people will land on.

This is another one that has a ton of potential but I’m not sure Pioneer is friendly enough to this kind of thing right now, though I am interested to see what people figure out with this card.

7. Lavaspur Boots (Modern)

Lavaspur Boots will see play in Modern, and not Pioneer. However it will not see a lot of play based on the quantity of them in individual decks. Rather, Lavaspur Boots will be a Modern card solely based on the fact that it can be tutored by Urza’s Saga.

And not only can it be tutored by Urza’s Saga, but it’s actively a pretty good target for most decks to have. For starters, Equip 1 is a very strong line of text on this. Provided you don’t make the Construct, Saga can also provide you the mana to equip Lavaspur Boots to a creature the turn you tutor for it. And while +1/+0 isn’t a great stat boost, that extra buff isn’t totally meaningless. On top of that, Lavaspur Boots actually gives a bit of protection for your creature as well, though any removal would likely just be done in response to the equip cost. But still, Ward 1 is certainly an upside.

Considering Urza’s Saga decks often rely on one big creature, giving it haste will certainly be relevant. Hammer and Affinity have previously used Gingerbrute as a way to get haste in general, and while I don’t think Lavaspur Boots will replace Gingerbrute entirely, another option for Haste will be relevant.

Where I’m really interested in Lavaspur Boots, though, is potentially in PrimeTime. While PrimeTime instantly adopted Urza’s Saga, the only targets it has played consistently and stuck with are the four Amulet of VIgors that were in the deck to begin with. Occasionally we’ve seen lists play Expedition Map or something, but cards like that haven’t been stock. Being able to give a Titan haste with Lavaspur Boots is an interesting idea, as it can then give every Titan you play for the rest of the game haste as well, and can even haste the large Construct tokens.

We’ll see if Saga decks pick up Lavaspur Boots as quickly as I suspect they might, and how good it ends up being but I certainly think it has a good amount of potential in this role.

6. Reckless Lackey (Pioneer)

Reckless Lackey is a nice little aggressive card. One-drop red hasters always have some kind of potential, and Lackey has a few things going for it.

For one, it has the extra point of toughness, which is honestly pretty great when combined with its other keyword, First Strike. Not that there are a ton of 3/1s in Pioneer, but the fact that that can just straight up stonewall any X/1 on defense is a pretty nice little trick.

And when you’re done beating down your opponent or the game state no longer allows you to do so, you can cash in Lackey for a card and even a little mana reimbursement. It just kind of does a lot for no real cost, other than wanting to play an aggressive deck.

It’s two creature types also aren’t lost on me, as there are a lot of Goblin and Pirate fans, and on top of that, there is new “Outlaw” support in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Pirates fall under the Outlaw category. There isn’t a ton to do with that yet, but it is something to keep in mind.

5. Scorching Shot (Pioneer)

Back in Wilds of Eldraine, I said that Witchstalker Frenzy was a card with potential because it was a cheaper card for red decks that don’t use Lighting Axe to kill Sheoldred, and while Wtichstalker Frenzy did indeed see some play in Standard and Pioneer, I think Scorching Shot is a potentially more intriguing option.

Even though it’s a sorcery, the idea of dealing 5 damage to a creature for RR is enticing and not something we’ve really seen before. Always costing two mana is an upside over Witchstalker Frenzy for sure, even through a more limited speed of casting.

Like Witchstalker Frenzy, it doesn’t hit Planeswalkers. I said when they stopped printing Planeswalkers en masse that I didn’t want them to stop printing removal for them too, and with cards like this, it definitely makes me feel like they’ve toned back. I think this could have easily hit Planeswalkers and still not have been too good, though we haven’t seen unconditional 5 damage to any creature in Pioneer yet so they might be testing the waters. This is a card that is incredibly likely to be power crept sooner rather than later, but for now, I like it as a sideboard option for red decks.

4. Demonic Ruckus

Demonic Ruckus is one where it only has exactly one home but I think it will be a strong player in that home. And that home is paired with Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice, because holy cow is Demonic Ruckus strong with Light-Paws.

On T1, you can Plot Demonic Ruckus for a single red mana, allowing you to play Light-Paws or Sram even on T2, putting an aura on it immediately. It really goes with Light-Paws because it gets you the second aura right away and even if your Light-Paws gets blown up the following turn, Ruckus replaces itself when it hits the bin.

Demonic Ruckus enables some incredibly potent lines from the Auras deck with pretty much no downside, other than reworking the colors of the deck. And even though Auras has fallen out of popularity, Demonic Ruckus is a card that will very likely get people trying the deck again.

3. Phantom Interference (Pioneer)

Phantom Interference is the card that makes me remember Spree’s versatility the most. I think this is one of the better cards with Spree (though not the best one) because of the versatility. Variants of Quench have proven to be playable depending on what their extra text is, and while a four mana 2/2 flash flier isn’t a great rate, it’s much better when it’s stapled onto Quench as another option.

And if you have five mana, you don’t even have to pick. It just does a Frilled Mystic impression at five mana, giving you the Quench and the body. This is a solid card and while I’m not sure UW Control or even Spirits picks up playing with it, it’s a card with potential for sure. I could even see it sliding into Creativity, as it gives the Creativity player the token to target and early game interaction.

2. Forsaken Miner (Pioneer and Modern?)

While I went on at the beginning talking about how much lower power level Outlaws of Thunder Junction feels in the common and uncommon slot, Forsaken Miner is one of the exceptions. 

This card absolutely rules and I have a suspicion that this may be the best of the one drop recurring creatures. 

Committing a crime is really easy. All you have to do is target your opponent or an opponent’s spell or creature with any spell or ability you control, or you could simply rob a bank instead. Whatever crime you decide to commit, for the low cost of one black mana, this little dude will come back from your bin. I know it can’t block, as a lot of these creatures can’t, but the potential it has as sacrifice fodder specifically is pretty insane. 

Scrolling through Magic twitter during spoiler season, I’ve already seen several ways that Forsaken Miner can be abused. The one that stood out to me is what it does with Priest of Forgotten Gods. If you have two Miners and Priest, you can sacrifice both Miners with Priest, then use the BB that Priest makes to just bring them right back. Neat! And it’s not like playing Forsaken Miner in a deck with Mayhem Devil is a bad thing anyway, as sacrificing a Treasure token gives you the crime to commit and the mana to bring Miner back as well. 

It’s also a potentially intriguing card with Ashnod’s Altar and some kind of mana filtration, which is another idea I’ve seen floating around, though I’m not sure anyone has come up with something concrete yet. 

Miner is also just a pretty good attacker on top of that, as it has the 2/2 stat line, and it works well with a card like Smuggler’s Copter so you can get around Miner being unable to block. 

While my confidence level is low for a lot of the cards in this set, it isn’t for this one. This one looks pretty strong. 

Honorable Mentions

1. Requisition Raid (Pioneer/Modern)

Requisition Raid I’m the most confident in on this list. It has all the makings of a powerful sideboard option.

As I wrote about in the Murders at Karlov Manor list, Pick Your Poison ended up being exactly the power house I thought it would be in Modern and I think Requisition Raid has a chance to do something similar for Pioneer. While I don’t feel like it’s as good as Pick Your Poison is, it shares a lot of that same flexibility that Pick Your Poison does, and almost functions more like a Wear/Tear at Sorcery speed.

But the added bonus of Requisition Raid is the team buff effect that it offers, and I’ve seen a good amount of Boros Convoke players in Pioneer be very excited for this one, as it’s both an option for hate card removal and a way to buff your team. And even beyond Convokers, Mono W, Spirits, and other decks could be interested in this ability as well.

Even in Modern, I think Requisition Raid has a home as well, for the same piece of added flexibility, though I’m not as convinced it’ll be as good there and I am in no way convinced it’ll see the level of play that Pick Your Poison does.

There really isn’t much else to say about it honestly, Requisition Raid looks to me to have the potential of being a sideboard staple, potentially in multiple formats, which is why I’m putting it at the top of this list.

Conclusion

I really struggled with this list, and not for the reason I’ve struggled with it the past few sets. I don’t feel incredibly strongly about most of these cards, and the ones I do feel strongly about are in more niche roles. There isn’t anything wrong with niche roles, but it just feels more lacking than the previous sets.

That being said, I do think a lot of these cards, including a couple I kept in the Honorable Mentions, have some upside and could end up making an impact.

I also think I struggled with this list for the reasons I led off with. This set feels kind of exhausting, and while I still have a lot of enthusiasm to try out these new cards, the impending weight of never ending spoilers is weighing on me heavier than normal.

Cleanup step

I want to take this time to talk briefly about my favorite cards in the set.

My favorite uncommon is a card I didn’t even include in my Honorable Mentions. I really like Prairie Dog, and it’s one of the cards I am going to try first. I’ve been trying to make Mono W or even GW Flash work for a long time and the deck always felt like it was missing an early game payoff, and Prairie Dog has that kind of potential.

But my favorite card in the set is Aven Interruptor. I am an absolute sucker for three mana flash fliers with taxing/hate effects and Aven Interruptor checks all of those boxes. I’m going to try this card out in a lot of things. I’m also going to give a shout out to Final Showdown. I’ve been wanting a Dress Down effect in Pioneer for a while, and while Final Showdown isn’t Dress Down, it is pretty versatile and has a similar line of text. I’ll probably put all three of the cards I talked about here in the same deck. I’m sure it’ll be bad, but I’ll be having fun with it.