Outlaws of Thunder Junction is here, Magic: The Gathering‘s newest offering. Some of MTG‘s most notable villains are gathering for a Wild West-style heist, traveling to a new plane called Thunder Junction to break into a vault below the surface. The story features the return of some fan favorites, such as Oko, Rakdos, and Vraska as main characters.
But you aren’t here for the story. This set features a good number of Legendary Creatures in many colors, perfect for use in your next commander deck. Whether you’re putting together a diabolical deck to destroy your friends, or you’re looking for a Commander to just break the rules and make things weird, this set will have a choice for everyone.
Here are the top 10 possible commanders, judged and listed in order of strength plus fun, in MTG‘s Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Tinybones, the Pickpocket
We’ll start with something simple for newer deck builders. Tinybones is a fun little card with a tiny cost, self-setup, and a useful ability. Play him as a chump blocker to kill some creatures with deathtouch. Attack with him later to play the card he blocked and killed as your own. He can also target nonland permanents, meaning more cards in your opponent’s graveyard are fair play than just creatures. He only gives you access to black mana, but that color should have no problem killing things or forcing your opponents to discard to give Tinybones fodder for stealing. Simple, easy, fun.
Rakdos, the Muscle
Rakdos is the much more aggressive, angry version of Tinybones. He requires you to have extra creatures to use as sacrifices, but the pros well outweigh the cons. A 6/5 flyer with trample for 5 mana is a pretty good body, and the ability to make him indestructible in exchange for a sac makes him safe to play in many situations. His other ability is also incredibly potent. The number of cards you can take from enemies is high, and the important wording is ‘until your next end step.’ If you have creatures to spare, you can sacrifice a creature on your opponent’s turns as well as your coming turn, opening a ton of possibilities as you give yourself more of your opponent’s cards to play as your turn starts. Stack the deck with reanimating cards like Forsaken Miner, and other cards that seek to sacrifice creatures, like Ashnod’s Altar.
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Is this card clunky? Yes. Slow? Yes. Weak on entering the field? Yes. Does it have the ability to make the game weird and funny? Hell yes. A 4 cost 2/5 isn’t much to write about, and menace isn’t the most powerful keyword. Her ability isn’t even great in a vacuum, doing nothing if you don’t have cards that trigger on the upkeep. But the cards that do? As Foretold. Bitterblossom. Court of Ambition. Court of Ire. Twilight Prophet. Dragonmaster Outcast. (Thanks to TappedOut user SirHipHopHippo for many of these ideas) Some of these cards are incredibly powerful, and having them trigger even an extra two times on a turn is crazy. With Grixis colors you should have no problem clearing the way for Obeka to get hits in with menace, maybe even pumping her up with some red cards, so that your upkeep triggers can go off, and go off hard.
Eriette, the Beguiler
Another card that requires a bit of work and time, but that has a huge upside if played right. Eriette is all about stealing cards, and even more interesting, cards that are more than just creatures. Sure, you can stack the deck with cards like Eldrazi Conscription, Celestial Mantle, and Infinite Reflection to steal most creatures and make them an even bigger threat. However, having the option to run cards like One with the Stars, Teferi’s Talent, Elspeth’s Talent, or Tezzeret’s Touch to target other types of cards can be very helpful. Eriette isn’t a powerful card on its own, and will require a lot of protection and setup. Still, Esper colors are perfect for that, and the opportunity to do more damage with your opponent’s creatures than they do is too good to pass up.
Yuma, Proud Protector
Yuma, Proud Protector is Thunder Junction’s take on a landfall commander, but with a desert twist. He has a high cost at 8 mana, but don’t worry. It will be rare that you ever cast him at full value. The goal of any good landfall deck is a constant cycle of playing and destroying lands, getting them into your graveyard and back again. Yuma handle the sacrificing part himself, meaning you’ll need to worry more about cards that let you play your lands from your graveyard. Conduit of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator work very well for this. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods is the best option, returning all lands from your graveyard to the battlefield at once, but she won’t be available until August. Once you have the landfall aspect settled, you’ll want to fill the rest of the deck with cards that also benefit from this cycle. Titania, Protector of Argoth is a classic, as well as Omnath, Locus of Rage. The only other point to mention is that the deck will require a good number of desert lands to keep his token generation going. Yuma isn’t the most interesting commander, filling a landfall archetype we’ve seen for a while, but he’s still a solid choice for a new version of a mainstay deck.
Stella Lee, Wild Card
Who cares if you have good cards? What matters is playing as many cards as possible at any given time. Stella Lee will be about have something, or somethings to play constantly, overwhelming enemies with numerous midrange spells. To start with, decks will want to include cards that reduce the cost of instants and sorceries to make it easier to activate her tap ability, such as Goblin Electromancer and Thunderclap Drake. Then, you’ll want to make sure you have a ton of easy, cheap draw, such as Opt and Ponder, or creatures you can set up for it like Archmage Emiritus. Stella Lee isn’t a win condition on her own, so you’ll need something for these spells to go towards. Niv-Mizzet, Parun is always a solid choice for draw. For those who want a little bit of a creature focus, Bria, Riptide Rogue, who comes out in August, and other prowess creatures can be the way to go. Finally, for those who love spells, storm spells like will be your best bet. Stella Lee can’t win on her own, but she’s flexible. However you want to use your spells, she’ll have a way to win with them.
Vihaan, Goldwaker
Vihaan, Goldwaker is an incredibly effective commander for fast, aggressive treasure decks. Many cards from older sets classify as outlaws, as that includes Assassin, Mercenary, Pirate, Rogue, and Warlock creatures. There are a number of treasure generators under those creature types as well, such as Grim Hireling and Mari, the Killing Quill. However, cards that also generate treasure as your creatures die like Pitiless Plunderer will be the highest priority. Since your treasures are creatures at the same time, you can still sacrifice them for mana, then get the benefit of effects of cards that feed off creature death like Pitiless Plunderer. You can use a bomb like Ancient Copper Dragon to end the game, or chip your opponents down with Mayhem Devil. For players that just want to go fast and win or lose quickly, this will be the commander to pick.
Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds
Simple, fast, and powerful, Ghired is a fantastic commander for token-based Naya. He’s a low-cost commander at 3 mana, and haste means he can make an impact as soon as he enters the field. Even better, his ability says ‘non-token creatures’ rather than ‘other non-token creatures,’ meaning you can tap him to trigger his own ability as soon as he hits the field. Naya provides solid tokens all across the spectrum, with elves, angels, and the whole host of Selesnya’s history. Scute Swarm, Godsire, Phyrexian Rebirth, Dragon Broodmother. The number of good tokens to produce is endless. It is worth nothing that Ghired’s ability requires non-token creatures to work, so using creatures that create tokens rather than instants, sorceries, or enchantments is a good call. Ghired is reusable, fast, and easy to build around, making him an easy choice as a commander.
Kellan, the Kid
Kellan might be the most difficult commander to build around, but is far and away the most effective. A low-cost commander that does nothing but apply insane value, allowing for a constant flood of creatures that most decks won’t be able to keep up with. Early mana dorks moving into fast midgame cards with foretell like Battle Mammoth, Green Slime, or efficient cards that continue the theme like Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and Kellen, Inquisitive Prodigy. Then finish them off with bombs such as Apex Devastator and Tlincalli Hunter. You’ll have to also include cards that provide draw, like Beast Whisperer, so that your hand is full of free cards to play. All in all, decks with him will require some tweaking to get right, but once the balance of cards is found, Kellan will be the true menace of this set.
Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot
This card seems broken, but in the best way possible. Casting a multicolored instant or sorcery plots it after it resolves, meaning it gets exiled and you can cast it again on another one of your turns as a sorcery. That means all multicolor instants and sorceries basically get cast twice, with the only caveat being that the second cast has to be on a different turn at sorcery speed. Lilah dies? Who cares, the spells were already plotted. Have cards that feast on multiple spells per turn like Slick Sequence, Galvanic Iteration, and Storm-Kiln Artist, or maybe storm cards like Grapeshot and Ignite Memories? Just save all your plotted spells for one big, stupid explosion of damage. The chains of spells you can pull of with this card are ridiculous, and the fact that killing her doesn’t stop the chain is bonkers. She’s even low cost, so playing her again after she dies isn’t very difficult, letting you add to your stack of plotted cards. The pop-off potential of this card is phenomenal, and it really is a kill on sight commander. Let her live for a turn too many, and your opponents are sure to get a whole heap of spells thrown at their face in the near future.
