Howdy, friend! Magic the Gathering is visiting the Wild West for the very first time. We can expect all kinds of fascinating mechanics, cards, and products. Today we’re going to explore one of them, namely the four Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks.
We know everything about these precons, including full decklist and all of the new cards. So, let’s wait no further, and jump right in.
Quick Draw
- Theme: Casting multiple spells in a turn
- Colors: Blue, Red
- Main Commander: Stella, Wild Card (new character)
- Quick Draw Decklist
- Quick Draw Upgrade Guide
- Packaging description:
The thrill-seeking, knife-throwing Atiin nomad Stella is an undisputed champ of dueling. Here comes a showdown throwdown. — Become the quickest draw in Thunder Junction, casting multiple spells per turn, and duel your friends with a Blue-Red deck that’s ready-to-play right out of the box.”
So, the red-blue color combination is known for playing with sorceries and instants. Such a strategy is often referred to as spell-slinging. Thus, it makes a lot of sense for it to appear in the Wild West set, as it’s a nice nod to gun-slinging. The deck’s name and the artwork of the character further solidify this reference.
Speaking of the artwork, you’ve probably noticed the weapon which looks like a hybrid between a gun and a crossbow. What’s especially interesting is the surrounding lightning. Perhaps that could be a hint about the mechanic of this deck. Is storm really coming back?
It very well might be. The description on the box mentions “slinging multiple spells” and “unleashing big turns”. Both fit the storm mechanic perfectly. You’re trying to set up a turn where you cast multiple spells, so you can get more copies of your storm cards, such as Empty the Warrens.
The return of this mechanic would really make for an exciting deck, and make lots of players very happy. The main commander doesn’t mention storm specifically, but does play with that same feel, by encouraging you to cast multiple spells in a turn. Take a look and see for yourself.
Stella Lee, Wild Card Review
Three mana 2/4 are good stats, but who are we kidding? It’s what’s in the text box that matters most. Stella comes with two abilities.
The first one triggers whenever you cast a second spell in a turn. It allows you to exile the top card of your library and play it that turn. That’s can certainly be useful, and especially so once you consider the second ability.
This one allows you to tap Stella in order to copy one of your instants or sorceries. That’s without paying any other costs, which can be insanely powerful, particularly, with various Time Warp effects. Of course, there is a restriction to keep a card relatively balanced. You need to cast at least three spells before you can activate this ability.
Here’s a neat thing, though. Once your third spell is on the stack, you can already copy it. You’ve cast three spells, they don’t even need to resolve or anything.
Once you put that into consideration, you can see that Stella Lee is not just a wild card, but an extremely powerful one. All you need to do is to cast two cheap spells, such as Opt, and follow it with a big one. Then you copy it, and get it for free. That can be some insane value, and even opens up some combo potential. (Untap effects maybe?)
Quick Draw Decklist
The hover images for the new cards might not be working until the cards get uploaded to Gatherer. In the meantime, you can find them on the Quick Draw Decklist & Spoilers page.
Desert Bloom
- Theme: Lands in graveyard, Deserts
- Colors: White, Red, Green
- Main Commander: Yuma, Proud Protector (new character)
- Desert Bloom Decklist & Spoilers
- Packaging description:
After fleeing his old life, Yuma finds new purpose caring for an infant cactusfolk. Bring life to the desert. — Discard Land cards, then rejuvenate them for a lively victory with this Red-Green-White deck that’s ready-to-play right out of the box.”
Our next deck, called Desert Bloom is doing some land-based shenanigans. You’re going to put your lands in your graveyard in various way, then either reap some benefits, or perhaps return them to the battlefield. So, if you enjoy playing with cards like The Mending of Dominaria and Aftermath Analyst, you’re probably going to love this precon.
It’s cool to see how all the colors are interwoven for this theme. Everything land based is green, discarding comes from red, and white also offers some effects to bring lands back.
Furthermore, the deck’s name was an early clue about the subtheme of this deck. There are some synergies with the land subtype called Deserts. This makes a lot of sense for a Wild West world after all. While a Desert commander already exists with Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, there was no precon built around this theme so far.
Oh and then there’s that whole Mandalorian vibe, with the whole caring for a small green creature shtick. Thus, it’s quite interesting that Yuma doesn’t make a small token but a 4/2 Plant instead.
Yuma, Proud Protector Review
Eight mana is a ton, even if you do get a 6/6. The text box better be good if this card is to be playable.
Thankfully, the first line already helps with that immensely. Yuma’s cost is reduced by one for each land card in your graveyard. In the right scenario, this could reduce the cost down to three mana, and even help with the Commander tax. Even if there are just a couple lands in your yard, the cost becomes much more manageable.
On top of that, once you get Yuma into play, you’ll have an easier time getting lands into the graveyard. It has both an enter-the-battlefield and attack trigger, allowing you to sacrifice a land to draw a card. Certainly a useful effect.
Finally, whenever a Desert is put into your graveyard you create a 4/2 green Plant Warrior creature token. Now that could get out of hand really quickly if you build your deck correctly.
All in all, Yuma seems like a really strong commander, but still somewhat fair. It supports a popular strategy, that didn’t have that much support in the Command zone so far, so that’s a big plus.
Desert Bloom Decklist
While the new cards might not be showing, you can find them on the Desert Bloom Decklist & Spoilers page.
Grand Larceny
- Theme: Stealing cards, making mana
- Colors: Blue, Black, Green
- Main Commander: Gonti, Canny Acquisitor (returning character)
- Grand Larceny Decklist
- Packaging description:
Once a thief, always a thief. Team up with Gonti to gain a wealth of stolen goods and outshine your opponents. What’s theirs is yours. — Steal cards from your friends, then defeat them with all the shiny spells you’ve stolen with this Black-Green-Blue deck that’s ready-to-play right out of the box.
Would you look at that? It looks like Gonti is back. Of course, its getting a brand-new card with blue and green added to the mix. Nevertheless, the theme of stealing cards from your opponents is here to stay. If you liked playing with old Gonti, Lord of Luxury, this precon will certainly fit your play style.
What’s a bit unusual here is that the packaging also mentions “generating mana”. Every deck generates mana, so that line is certainly weird. Perhaps that means there will be some ways to skip ahead on mana, even if just for a turn. Maybe there are some Dark Ritual types of effects included in the deck.
However, it could just be a reference to the Gonti’s first ability. Speaking of which, here’s its new card.
Gonti, Canny Acquisitor Review
Hey, it’s another cost reduction card. It doesn’t affect Gonti itself, but it will affect all the card you steal from your opponents. One of the problems with steal strategies is that the cards you get are sometimes not that useful. With Gonti in play, at least they’re one mana cheaper. In a long game, that does add up.
How will you get cards from your opponents? Well, with a help from the second ability. Whenever one or more of your creature deal combat damage to an opponent, you exile the top card of their library. You can use that card for as long as it remains exiled.
If you deal damage with multiple creatures to a single opponent you only receive one card. Thus, you’ll want to damage multiple opponents in a single turn to get more cards. This makes Gonti into an interesting build around commander.
It’s not too strong, but if you enjoy this kind of strategy, you’re surely going to enjoy playing with Gonti.
Grand Larceny Decklist
For the images of the new cards, check our Grand Larceny spoiler article.
Most Wanted
- Theme: Treasures, Outlaws
- Colors: White, Black, Red
- Main Commander: Olivia, Opulent Outlaw (returning character)
- Most Wanted Decklist
- Packaging description:
Vampire queen Olivia Voldaren failed to dominate Innistrad, but her new alliances on Thunder Junction may yet prove worthwhile. Crime always pays. — Amass treasure and hire fierce outlaws to overpower your foes with this Red-White-Black deck that’s ready-to-play right out of the box.
This final decks cares about two things. First, there are outlaws. What might those be? That’s just a new word that Magic is using for a grouping of the following creature types: Assassins, Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks. If a creature has any of these types, it’s an outlaw. So, you can expect plenty of these creatures in this precon.
Furthermore, a theme with Treasure tokens is also present. There’s quite a lot of design space with these tokens. Maybe there’s a way to turn those Treasures into creatures. You know, to fit with the whole buying mercenaries theme. And who knows, perhaps Dockside Extortionist is the biggest outlaw of them all. It is a Pirate, after all.
Olivia, Opulent Outlaw Review
Even though we joke that Commander players, don’t really care about the card’s stats, a 3/3 flyer with lifelink is quite potent and useful for four mana.
Flying does help with dealing damage to opponents, which triggers the first ability. It works in the same way, as Gonti’s. So, you wan’t to use outlaws and damage as many opponents as you can. This will get you one Treasure token per damaged opponent.
These tokens are quite strong on their own, as they can ramp you. Furthermore, Olivia gives you another use for them. You can pay three mana and sacrifice two Treasures in order to put two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. Now that can create a big swing in a game.
At first sight, Olivia might not seems like to strong of a commander. Her power level will really depend on the rest of the cards you put in the deck. If you can reliably get 2-3 Treasures on the turn you cast it, then it’s obviously powerful. If not, it’s somewhat mediocre.
Even so, that’s not that horrible. Not every commander needs to be insanely strong. Olivia does something unique by caring about outlaws. If you like that theme, you’ll certainly be happy that there is an option for you to play with. Plus, when your opponents don’t consider you a big threat, that allows you to fly under the radar, and develop your game plan in piece. That’s not a horrible place to be at.
Most Wanted Decklist
As before, for the card images, check Most Wanted Precon Spoiler page.
Additional Details
So, now you know what each of the four decks is trying to do. In these next sections, you’ll learn even more details about Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks.
Thunder Junction Commander Decks Contents
If you’re a newer player, you might be unsure what exactly to expect in these precons. Well, each Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander deck contains the following stuff:
- 100-card ready-to-play Commander deck (with 2 foil commanders and 98 non-foil cards)
- 2-card Collector booster sample pack
- cardboard deck box
- life counter
- strategy insert and reference card
That brings us to the next big question, which is…
Are Thunder Junction Commander Decks Worth It?
That can be quite hard to say currently, as we haven’t seen the decklists yet. However, Commander precons are constantly among the most popular of MTG releases, and there’s a good reason for that.
First, you’re getting a predefined set of cards. It’s not like buying a booster, where the contents are random. If you and your friend both buy a Desert Bloom precon, you’re both getting exact same cards. (Apart from the two in the Sample Collector booster.) Thus, there’s no need to worry that you’ll only open some crap rares.
Secondly, these decks almost always include a great mix of strong, useful reprints, as well as exciting and powerful new cards. So, you’re getting valuable cards in practically every precon.
Finally, these are really fun to play against other precons, and can quickly become even better with some minimal upgrades.
All in all, it’s no wonder why players really like the 100-card precons so much. While, it’s to early to be sure, we expect Thunder Junction precons to also be worth buying.
FAQ
Last but not least, here are the answers to some questions players often have about these precons.
There will be four decks.
Quick Draw is the only 2-color deck, and it’s blue-red.
The other decks contain three colors:
Desert Bloom (white-red-green);
Grand Larceny (blue-black-green);
Most Wanted (white-black-red).
Yes, they do.
There are two cards, one rare or mythic and another an uncommon. Both will use an alternate art, and at least one of the two will be foil.
Spoilers started on March 26th, where the main commanders will likely be revealed. For the decks contents, we’ll need to wait until April 4th.
Outlaws Commander decks will be released on April 19th, 2024.
Conclusion
That’s all about Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks for now. Once we get more information about these precons, we’ll add it to the article. If you want to make sure you won’t miss it, you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram. There we post not just exciting MTG news, but also MTG memes.
Are those decks not to your liking? You can check our article with all Commander precons. Did you know that there are already over 110 of them? Without a doubt you’ll be able to find a perfect one for you.
Finally, if you’re looking for more information about this set, go check Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers.
Until next time, have fun, and see you at the Wild West!