Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) Limited Set Review: Blue

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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Archmage’s Newt

Rating: 3.0/5

A bear with some considerable upside, but that is unlikely to ever payoff without the right support. Unless you drop this on turn two with some cheap ways to clear the way, then it is unlikely to be getting through if you have anything relevant to flashback.

The free part sounds great, but how often are you going to be in the scenario where this can freely attack, you have an expensive spell to flashback, and you have three power to saddle with. This is going to wreck dreams sometimes, but it’s also going to spend a lot of time being just another dude.

Canyon Crab

Rating: 2.5/5

Is this the Canyon Crab? No, this is Patrick.

Well at least I’ll be calling this crustacean Patrick every time I draft them.

A big old early blocker with a solid threat of activation that can still outright win combats. It even lets you loot away excess lands if you’re willing to spend your turn plotting instead of casting something from your hand.  

Daring Thunder-Thief

Rating: 1.5/5

Thunder thief? Sounds like someone wanted to be called the lightning thief and ran into copyright issues. Everyone at this dude’s school 100% still called him Percy Jackson. “What up Percy, steal any thunder today?”

A 4/4 for four used to be the gold standard among common chonkers, but these days everything has so much other stuff going on that it doesn’t stand out at all. I would argue that this is significantly worse than if it was just vanilla. Getting to play it at instant speed doesn’t make up for coming into play tapped when you really need a blocker.

Deepmuck Desperado

Rating: 1.5/5

You would need multiples of this and plenty of ways to commit crimes to go all in on the mill plan. Still the floor of a decent blocker isn’t atrocious so you could just run it with the fallback plan of situational milling coming up.

Djinn of Fool’s Fall

Rating: 1.5/5

How far the four power flyers have fallen. It’s not that they can’t situationally win some games, it’s that it doesn’t do anything else when you need it to.

Double Down

Rating: 4.0/5

I’m grading this as a pack one pick one so that you know you should be prioritizing outlaws. If it’s pack three and you don’t have any, go ahead and pass it along.

There are a lot of outlaws running around so it should be pretty easy to take advantage of this. Some people will say that this is a four mana do nothing, but it will let your board explode to take over the game.

Duelist of the Mind

Rating: 3.5/5

I’m sure this can do some real work in constructed. In limited, its going to be harder to get to go off with it. A vigilant, flyer with varying power that lets you loot when you commit a crime is still a bargain for two mana.

Emergent Haunting

Rating: 3.5/5

It won’t be too difficult to turn this into a 3/3 flyer as long as you plot or just want to hold up something at instant speed. The Surveil even gives you an option to still do something relevant while chilling.

Failed Fording

Rating: 2.0/5

This is what happens to me every time on the Oregon Trail. Well, either that or I die of dysentery.

 Two mana bounce with slight upside is pretty par for the course. You usually pick the first one right around here, but the value rapidly declines as you get more.

Fblthp, Lost on the Range

Rating: 3.5/5

My boy Fblthp may still be lost, but at least he’s stylin with that sweet cowboy hat.

This is pretty slow for a Future Sight type card and it doesn’t hit lands. The price makes up for it even if he is vulnerable to removal.

Fleeting Reflection

Rating: 2.0/5

This does just enough different things to make me want to play a copy of it. The hexproof and untap is nice if a little overcosted, but the surprise turning into the best creature on the field can pull some surprise victories.

Geralf, the Fleshwright

Rating: 4.0/5

At least ten people have told me what they read this as and suggested that wotc contact them for a crossover. Maybe some of you need to find Jesus or the equivalent.

While you can go off with plot, you probably want to have some cheap spells to play anyway so you can blow up in one turn with a whole army of zombies.

Geyser Drake

Rating: 2.5/5

The stats are at least better than a Wind Drake and you can cast cheaper instants during their turn. Solid bread and butter card.

Harrier Strix

Rating: 2.0/5

Not on the same level as Network Disruptor despite being almost a straight upgrade because this format doesn’t have ninjutsu. Still a fine addition to a deck trying to win through the air that gives you some card selection.

Jace Reawakened

Rating: 4.0/5

Jailbreak Scheme

Rating: 3.0/5

While sorcery speed, three mana to put a creature on top or bottom of their library is a huge step up from the four mana ones. Having the option to make one of your creatures unblockable (while adding a +1+1 counter) or even getting both options is huge.

The Key to the Vault

Rating: 2.5/5

This one is a little rough to rate because the ability is undeniably powerful, but it is expensive and usually requires some evasion. It also does very little if you are behind without a way to sneak through damage. I’m sure there will be games where it just takes over, but we have to account for all the scenarios that it does nothing.

Loan Shark

Rating: 3.0/5

My biggest disappointment in this set is that this shark doesn’t have a fedora on.

You are clearly meant to plot this on turn four, play a spell on turn five and then cast this. The other option is to already have something plotted and play that first, followed by this. As long as you get a card, this is great. Sometimes it’s just a 3/4 though.

Marauding Sphinx

Rating: 3.5/5

The riddle that this Sphinx presents is how your opponent is going to get through it. The ward two makes it rough to get out of the way and a vigilant flyer with five toughness is a real problem. The surveil two whenever you commit a crime is just the icing on the cake.

Metamorphic Blast

Rating: 2.5/5

Another great example of why Spree is a fantastic limited mechanic. The two mana turn something into one toughness has been a solid limited card for a while. You can either use it as a combat trick or wait until after damage is dealt to kill the creature off once it is guaranteed to have damage on it. While no one is looking to play Inspiration these days, there are certainly times you would be happy to draw it. This gives you the ability to get both out of one card. You’ll be the only one having a blast when you do it.

Nimble Brigand

Rating: 2.5/5

The real crime is the cards you drew along the way. Oh, maybe I should have went with “in this case, crime does pay”. Whatever, being able to grip an extra card every turn that you commit a crime is pretty solid.

Outlaw Stitcher

Rating: 3.5/5

You’re probably better off plotting something else first then playing this on turn four than plotting this on turn five to play on six after playing other cards. Even if you don’t play anything it is 3/6 worth of stats across two bodies, but with even one spell it is suddenly up to 5/8 which is a freaking bargain. I might be underrating this, but it does have potential to be a bit clunky sometimes.

Peerless Ropemaster

Rating: 1.5/5

I don’t know about the whole peerless thing; they may be overstating their abilities. Only hitting tapped creatures makes this much better as a defensive card. It’ll occasionally be a one of, but I don’t see it doing much more than that.

Phantom Interference

Rating: 3.0/5

Anytime we’re talking about Quench cards, it really depends what you get thrown in. The fallback of an overcosted Wind Drake is better than nothing, but getting both for a total of five mana feels great off of a common.

Plan the Heist

Rating: 2.5/5

Back in the original OTJ (Odysey, Torment, Judgement), Concentrate was a great first pick. This is a straight upgrade in multiple ways and it will be just fine. I don’t really want to plot this just to wait until I run out of cards unless it helps with other plot centric cards.   

Razzle-Dazzler

Rating: 1.5/5

I do like double spelling, but I feel like the downside of drawing this late matters more than the possibility of slowly growing it.

Seize the Secrets

Rating: 2.5/5

Another strict upgrade on Divination, but I feel like I will be trying to use my card draw spots on Phantom Interference when possible. This will work great in any deck focusing on casting multiple spells a turn though.

Shackle Slinger

Rating: 3.0/5

A card that pays you off for slinging spells. I was planning on double spelling anyway, might as well get something extra out of it.

Shifting Grift

Rating: 1.5/5

Do you have ways to make crappy creatures you don’t care about? Then this might make the cut. Sometimes you’ll come off as a genius and a grifter, but there’s a chance you’re the one who gets grifted.

Slickshot Lockpicker

Rating: 3.5/5

Snapcaster Mage that we have at home is still pretty good. The extra mana and lack of flash are definitely real hits, but the plot makes it really easy to cast a relevant spell as well as get a double spell trigger.

Slickshot Vault-Buster

Rating: 2.0/5

For clarity, this isn’t a trigger every time you commit a crime, it is just an effect if you have committed a crime. It will still be difficult to block or attack through because they have to consider that it is pretty easy to commit a crime.

Spring Splasher

Rating: 1.5/5

This really only goes into an aggro blue deck and one toughness can get punished pretty hard in a format that makes 1/1 tokens. It does commit plenty of crimes though.

Step Between Worlds

Rating: 2.0/5

It’s sort of a Timetwister except that it’s more expensive and they can choose whether or not they do it. Potentially powerful, but I’m going to be very selective about which decks I play this in.

Stoic Sphinx

Rating: 4.0/5

Five power flyer for four mana on their end step seems good. The hexproof is great because you can usually attack with it before they have a chance to do anything about it. It also makes it very difficult to ever hit with sorcery speed removal unless you cast something before their end step.

Stop Cold

Rating: 3.0/5

While it doesn’t exile the creature, it does take away all of its abilities so it is close.  The flash makes me think that this will be a valuable removal spell.

Take the Fall

Rating: 3.0/5

I might seem like I am massively overvaluing this card, but it does so many things that you want to be doing in this set. A one mana instant speed way to commit a crime that replaces itself would just be a good card in this format. This does that with the potential to win a combat. Trust me, you should take this higher than you were planning to.

This Town Ain’t Big Enough

Rating: 3.5/5

Run Away Together always created some awkward situations for your opponent. This is the same thing with the option to bounce two of your own for the same cost or two of your opponent’s permanents for a little more.

Three Steps Ahead

Rating: 4.0/5

While not quite Sublime Epiphany, this does a solid impersonation while also having the option to just have a straight up Cancel when you need it. Versatility with huge power potential.

Visage Bandit

Rating: 2.5/5

Clone that can only hit your creatures is very situational, but getting to plot it for three and bring it in at a better time bumps it up a bit.

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Wrap Up

Blue seems very powerful, but that might just be because of the overall power level of the set being up there. There are lots of ways to play at instant speed and take advantage all the “if you didn’t play a spell this turn” cards. Outside of that, it’s got a lot of the usual blue stuff including card draw, counter spells, and tricksy creatures.  

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my limited review of the black 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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