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

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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Another Round

Rating: 1.0/5

This has so many things going against it. It’s sorcery speed, potentially mana intensive, and can only hit your own creatures. I believe they have a phrase for this. That’s right, it’s another commander plant.

Will there be a few decks loaded with ETBs that will get a ton of value out of this? Of course, but it’s pretty much unplayable in an average deck.

Archangel of Tithes

Rating: 4.5/5

The main knock on this is the triple white in the casting cost. It’s well above rate at four mana, but it loses some value if you have to wait until turn six of seven to play it.

A chonky flyer that taxes your opponent on attacks or blocks feels amazing especially when it makes them leave up mana or give you free reign to smash in with all your creatures.

Armored Armadillo

Rating: 1.5/5

This looks pretty bad on the surface, but you’ll want it in any deck that wants to stall. That’s for either winning through the air or because your deck can take over in the late game. While very mana intensive, later in the game your wall turns into a very real threat.

Aven Interrupter

Rating: 4.0/5

This feels like one of those cards that will end up causing a lot of complaints. It is such a huge tempo play on turn three and even helps delay them later in the game. That’s not even getting into how bad it wrecks tricks or counterspells.

Paying two to play your previous turns play makes it very hard to be efficient early and this is absurd if they have to wait a couple turns to play it.  It also hard taxes them for all of their future plots they try to pull off.

My only knock is that you need to hold up double white to make it happen.

Bounding Felidar

Rating: 1.5/5

As fun as riding a cat beast mount sounds, this costs a whopping six mana and it is 2024. A card better be taking over the game when you cast something for that price. This does have the potential to do that and certain decks will want this when lacking other good ways to end the game. I suspect that you can usually do better.

Bovine Intervention

Rating: 1.5/5

I am required to grade this while ignoring the excellent dad level pun here. Two mana to kill any creature is a bargain, but giving them a 2/2 matters a lot. These effects giving even a 1/1 have always been a problem and a bear is certainly going to be more annoying. It can still be worth it to kill problem creatures, but not something I’m ever going to be excited about main boarding.

Bridled Bighorn

Rating: 2.0/5

A vigilant 3/4 for four mana isn’t anything to write home about, but this does poop out a token every turn as long as you have something to hop in the saddle. That’ll help it make the cut more often than not, you just can’t stack up too many of them.

Claim Jumper

Rating: 3.0/5

The value of this is going to heavily swing based off of whether you are on the play or the draw. You’re either going to need them to ramp or be kind of mana screwed to repeat it, but just getting one Plains makes this a great deal.

Dust Animus

Rating: 4.0/5

You’ll leave your opponent in the dust with this card as long as you hit your fifth land drop. It’s so much better than a suspend creature because even if you draw it turn four, you can still cast it “on curve”. In the way late game, you don’t even have the delay since you can just cast it with five more lands untapped.

Basically, Exalted Angel is extremely difficult to race and still getting to cast a five drop the turn you play this is busted.

Eriette’s Lullaby

Rating: 1.5/5

This lullaby is putting me to sleep with how boring it is. A cheap destroy target tapped creature is in almost every set and it’s always in that fine, but cuttable range. The incidental life gain is nice though.

Final Showdown

Rating: 4.0/5

When your opponent plays their last card in hand, you can start singing it’s The Final Showdown. They’ll get it if they were alive in the 80s.

Six mana is a little pricy for a wrath effect, but it gets much better if you can save your best creature as well (for a whopping seven mana). The real saving grace is that sometimes you can just use this as a two-mana combat trick. That versatility brings it back into almost bomb range.

Fortune, Loyal Steed

Rating: 3.5/5

Getting a scry two every time it blinks itself can add up over time, but having the right creatures to blink with it is what is going to really determine how high you should be valuing this.

Frontier Seeker

Rating: 3.5/5

A two power for two mana creature that can replace itself is the exact kind of card that I’m going to be seeking for my deck. Five is a decent chunk to be looking at so as long as you have some mounts this is likely to hit something. Just don’t do something silly and splash this which would make it far less likely that you get something off of it.

Getaway Glamer

Rating: 3.0/5

Only requiring a creature to have the highest power instead of above a certain number makes this far more likely to just work as a Murder. Having the option to exile another one of their creatures until the next end step could give you great attacks. It can also be used to save one of your creatures. That’s a lot of options for not a lot of mana.

High Noon

Rating: 1.0/5

The first effect has always been pretty sad in limited. If you really want to spend seven mana in two colors to hit something for five damage, then this is the card for you. I really hope you’re not that hard up for playables.

Holy Cow

Rating: 2.5/5

Wizards may have let a bunch of people go, but they sure did make sure their resident dad joke guy was still there.

While obviously not on the same power level as Inspiring Overseer (which IMO no limited common should ever be) getting a scry and two life is a nice little bonus on a flashy Wind Drake.

Inventive Wingsmith

Rating: 1.5/5

Plot makes not casting a spell from your hand much more feasible early in the game. Once this takes to the skies, its got a big butt to make things difficult for your opponent up there.

Lassoed by the Law

Rating: 3.5/5

Being able to tie up any permanent is nice, but at four mana needs something else tossed in. Getting the 1/1 Mercenary that can pump certainly qualifies as enough to be extremely happy when the ropes come out.

Mystical Tether

Rating: 3.0/5

It wasn’t that long ago that you would have been happy with this card even without the option to flash it in. While removal isn’t what it used to be, this still gets the job done when it comes to dealing with problematic threats.

Nurturing Pixie

Rating: 3.0/5

As long as you have some things that make the bounce worth having then this is a bargain. This being so cheap can let you drop what you just picked up right away while adding this now relevant threat to the board. It can even do a Scryb Sprite impression if you really need it to.  

Omenport Vigilante

Rating: 3.0/5

This can go crazy early on as long as you have some cheap ways to commit some crimes. It is the wild west. There should be plenty of ways to do that.

One Last Job

Rating: 2.5/5

While there aren’t a ton of equipment or auras running around, just getting to bring back a creature and a Mount will be a pretty big swing in the game.

Outlaw Medic

Rating: 2.5/5

This is going to be an extremely annoying blocker that lets you win through the air while your opponent throws things. They usually have to use a real card to deal with it which just lets you replace it. Outside of that it shuts down their bear attacks while gaining you life.

Prairie Dog

Rating: 3.5/5

You shouldn’t have too much trouble growing this because of Plot, but it also has the built-in option of just using its ability to add two counters instead. Outside of that a 2/2 lifelink for two is just a good limited card.

Prosperity Tycoon

Rating: 3.5/5

5/3 worth of stats across two bodies for four mana is a pretty solid way to kick things off. The threat of activation will usually let you freely crack in with this and you’re not going to be too disappointed if they decide to trade a real card for one of your tokens. Obviously, this improves if you have treasure tokens.

Requisition Raid

Rating: 2.5/5

I would love this card if it was instant speed, but the sorcery speed aspect holds it back from being a great trick. Paying two mana to put a +1+1 counter on all of your creatures is fine in any deck looking to go wide and this gives you a way to deal with artifacts/enchantments without it being a dead card.

The reason I have it this high is that it can jump from fine to great to amazing depending on how many modes you get to use.

Rustler Rampage

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a decent trick that gets bumped up a bit because of its versatility. Whether you’re blowing out their attack or sneaking through an unexpected lethal, it’s a rampage worth doing.

Shepherd of the Clouds

Rating: 3.5/5

This is amazing if you put the creature directly into play and merely solid if you don’t. Just make sure you have some other mounts because no one is riding this Pegasus.

Sheriff of Safe Passage

Rating: 1.5/5

It’s weird that the Sheriff of Safe Passage has zero correlation with Safe Passage. Oh well, what are you going to do.

Terrible on an empty board, but can be a beater in a go wide deck. Situational piece of cardboard that I’ll feel safe cutting from a lot of decks.

Stagecoach Security

Rating: 2.0/5

A decent top end payoff for making all of those Mercenary tokens. Plotting it gives them time to prepare, but it’s a nice option for when you don’t have anything else to add to the board that turn.  

Steer Clear

Rating: 1.5/5

Another expert level dad pun that’ll have the kids face palming while muttering soemthing about cringe. This is cheap enough that it can usually make the cut as long as you have some mounts.

Sterling Keykeeper

Rating: 2.0/5

One of the cool things about tappers is how much it messes with vehicles because they can’t crew them without letting you basically tap two creatures. That doesn’t pop up with mounts because this not so Sterling Keykeeper can’t tap them.

Way back in the day, this type of card would have been first pickable. Now it’s just fine.

Sterling Supplier

Rating: 2.5/5

It’s Aeronaut Cavalry without the soldier restriction. That card was an early overperformer in that format and while this is a completely different situation, I suspect it could be here as well.

Take Up the Shield

Rating: 2.5/5

This is a reprint from DMU where it could swing games out of nowhere with the lifelink or protect a key creature while pumping it. There are plenty of relevant creatures in this format that will love to take advantage of the same circumstances.

Don’t forget that it gives indestructible, not hexproof. I saw some pretty hard punts by people that missed that.

Thunder Lasso

Rating: 2.0/5

Thunder! Thunder! Thunder Lasso! Oh man that was bad.

At least they throw the equip in when you play this. Otherwise, I would be all out on it. This turns blocking into a real chore for your opponent by tying up their creatures while you smash in.

Trained Arynx

Rating: 2.0/5

While 3/1 for two is a pretty disappointing stat line these days, the possibility of first strike changes the equation a bit. Needing to saddle two is a bit harsh, but at least you can use creatures that are still summoning sick to do it.

Vengeful Townsfolk

Rating: 2.5/5

Creatures with this type of effect have always been hit or miss depending on the game. The difference here is that you’re starting out with a Centaur Courser so you’re not too far behind the curve when it comes down.

Wanted Griffin

Rating: 2.0/5

When this creature dies effects are so much worse than comes into play effects. A clunky flyer that dies into a 1/1 is still playable, but not that great. I don’t know who it’s wanted by, but it sure isn’t me.

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Wrap Up

Sometimes I feel like I am repeating myself in these summaries, but that’s just how set design is. White has lots of efficient creatures and ways to supplement them. I suspect (what is this? MKM) that early on aggro decks will be running this color a lot in the bo1 queues.

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