Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) Limited Set Review: Artifacts and Lands

Hey everyone! Are you ready to get crazy with cowboys? All of Magic’s villains (At least the currently available ones. Sorry, no Elesh Norn in a cowboy hat) are up to some shenanigans on Magic’s newest plane. They are setting up a massive heist so we are getting all kinds of bonus sheet stuff going on here that will surely shake up limited formats. While it won’t happen often, you will assuredly remember that time you got destroyed by Mana Drain.

Per usual, I’ll be grading the entire set for limited purposes. Maybe one day I’ll get to see sunlight again, but today is not that day.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion's Messenger)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)

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Artifacts

Bandit’s Haul

Rating: 1.5/5

Playing a Manalith is not where you want to be in 2024 (I typed 2023 for the rhyme and then realized that it was not the correct year). Maybe you draw a card or two off of this later, but still not worth it unless you have a bunch of splashes.  

Boom Box

Rating: 1.0/5

I don’t ever really want to be running this because it is so expensive. There are decks that are going to need it and it will be a card to occasionally consider out of the sideboard.

Gold Pan

Rating: 1.5/5

Not a big fan of this. If your deck somehow both needs an early treasure and wants a Short Sword, then feel free to run this.

Lavaspur Boots

Rating: 2.0/5

These are cheap enough that they have a place in the right deck. They can help all the four or greater power things get that last little oomph such as equipping it on a Bristlepack Sentry to trigger themselves.

Luxurious Locomotive

Rating: 1.5/5

Expensive and fairly underwhelming unless you need a late game way to make a lot of treasures.

Mobile Homestead

Rating: 2.5/5

When you have an early mount and hit on this, it is amazing. When it lacks haste and misses, it’s less than stellar. I’m viewing it somewhere in between those two outcomes.  

Oasis Gardener

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m more likely to play this in sealed when I don’t have many other options. In draft, you should be able to pick up better fixing.

Redrock Sentinel

Rating: 2.0/5

If your plan is to setup for a long game then this is a great blocker that can turn your extra lands into new cards later.

Silver Deputy

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m really only looking to play this if I’m splashing and have some other cards that really want to take advantage of the ability.

Sterling Hound

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m not saying that this pooch is a bad boi or anything like that, but it is your classic card twenty-three.

Tomb Trawler

Rating: 1.0/5

There isn’t enough self-mill to easily get to the bottom of your deck. You can consider sideboarding it in a long control mirror, but even then there are probably better things to be doing.

Lands

Arid Archway

Rating: 3.0/5

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of playing with Bouncelands, they are basically card advantage. You bounce that other land without going down on the quantity of mana you produce while still having it to replay. The only caveat on this one is that you need to be able to take advantage of the double colorless it produces.

Bucolic Ranch

Rating: 2.0/5

If your deck looks like the local chocobo ranch, then you probably want this card. If you only have one or two mounts, you should pass on this.

Conduit Pylons

Rating: 2.0/5

I always like the variants of this land and this one is even a desert on top of the normal stuff. While I’ve had plenty of 8/8/Crystal Grotto mana bases in my time, I don’t see that happening here with the abundance of duals running around. I’ll still happily run this in anything playing three colors though.

Mirage Mesa

Rating: 2.5/5

A good comparison to this is Shimmerdrift Vale because it’s a tapped land of the color you choose with the land type of the set’s mechanic. This isn’t quite as good because there were way better payoffs for being heavy snow than there are for having a desert. Good card, not in the same range as the ping deserts.

Sandstorm Verge

Rating: 1.5/5

The ability is one that aggressive decks would like, but the cost of a colorless land is probably too high for them.

Fast Lands

Rating: 2.5/5

I’m always playing these if they are in my colors, but I would slam one of the ping deserts over them almost every time.

Ping Deserts

Rating: 3.0/5

Tapped duals are almost always solid picks when they are in your colors. These are good enough that you might even play one or two that you only have one color of. Pinging your opponent makes everyone recalculate how much damage they can take over the course of the game because they don’t want to die to a land drop. On top of that they commit a crime when they come into play which is just great in this set. You should probably be taking them higher than you were planning to.

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Wrap Up

The artifacts are your normal mix of colorless filler for when your deck doesn’t quite get there on playables. The lands are mostly great with the ping deserts being particularly amazing.  

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my limited review of the of the Multicolor cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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