Magic: The Gathering’s 100th expansion released in 2024, and immediately made everyone feel like a criminal. That’s becauseOutlaws of Thunder Junctionintroduced the concept of ‘committing a crime’ to the game. As it turns out, the actions that count as crimes in Magic are things that every player does constantly. Who knew?
You don’t have to report yourself to the authorities though. Instead, put your crime-committing ways to good use. The act of committing crime is the easy part though, it’s the payoffs that make things complicated. Thankfully, Thunder Junction came prepared with all the incentives you need to reward your felonious ways.
10Servant Of The Stinger
Tutor, Or Annoying Creature? You Decide!
Rarely do you see an unconditionaltutor effectstapled to a non-rare card, but Servant makes you work for it at least. It’s what’s called a saboteur effect, one that triggers when the creature hits an opponent. That means you have to connect in combat before you search up a card.
Committing a crime is the easy part, the question becomes how to get Servant through your opponent’s defenses.Deathtouchgoes a long way towards making that happen. Attacking with this poses an interesting dilemma: Lose a valuable creature in combat, or let you search for your best card?
9At Knifepoint
A Malicious Merc-Maker
At Knifepoint falls more into the Limited build-around category than something you’d expect to see in Standard or Commander. It’ll slot intothe Most Wanted outlaws preconjust fine, but it’s on the tame end of crime payoffs.
Still, in formats where this is viable, it does represent up to one additional Mercenary token per turn and a buff that makes it very difficult for your opponents to block. There’s quite a bit of overlap betweenoutlawsand crimes, so this enchantment can slot in with one strategy or the other, potentially even both in the same deck.
8Duelist Of The Mind
A Simple Looter With Massive Upside
Illustrated in the likeness of World Champion Nathan Steuer, Duelist of the Mind should get the wheels in your head spinning. If not the ones upstairs, perhaps actual wheel cards can do the trick. The plentiful draw-seven effects in Magic will turn Duelist into a formidable attacker, and an evasive one at that.
With no additional help, it’s a 1/3flieron your turn and a pretty poor blocker on your opponents' turns. You can proactively commit crimes during your turn to pump out extra damage, or threaten instant-speed interaction andcountermagicto potentially grow its power on defense.
7Freestrider Lookout
Wordy Ramp Is Still Good Ramp
Freestrider Lookout takes eight lines of rules text and reminder text for an ability that essentially says you get a land when you commit a crime. Oh, and there’s reach. Semantics aside, that’sa great ramp abilitytied to a respectable 3/3 body that plays offense and defense well.
Notably,green is the worst color at committing crimes. Not that itcan’tcommit crimes, just thatgreen tends to have less targeted interactionthan other colors. Greendoestarget cards in graveyards a decent amount though, making this a great paring with cards like Armored Scrapgorger or Scavenging Ooze.
6Forsaken Miner
The Secret Criminal All-Star
For all of Thunder Junction’s glitz and glamor, the innocuous Forsaken Miner might just be the most inherently broken card in the set. It’s an aggressive little creature, but it’ll absolutely pop up in Commander as a central combo piece, if nowhere else.
Phyrexian Altar is the signature combo card here, allowing you to sacrifice the Miner while also producing the black mana needed to bring it back. From there, it’s just a matter of finding a repeatable way to commit crimes, perhaps with a Blood Artist or Mayhem Devil.
5Marchesa, Dealer Of Death
The Queen Of Crime
Marchesa has stepped away from being the queen of Fiora to tussle with all the other baddies on Thunder Junction, this time going back to her roots as a black-blue-red legendary creature. She’s also fairly simple too: Commit a crime, pay a mana and draw a card.
Beyond just committing crimes, Marchesa leaves the player open to how they want to build their deck. You can be proactive with removal as your crime-dealing spells of choice, or you can lean more controlling with counterspells and disruption, using Marchesa as a means to keep your hand stocked with interaction.
4Oko, The Ringleader
Not Quite As Broko
Simply saying Oko’s name should be a crime. Ever since Oko debuted inThrone of Eldraineas the strongest planeswalker ever printed, players have wondered if he’d ever get a second card. Sure enough, he’s front and center as the posterboy for Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Oko, the Ringleader won’t be breaking games, but it’s still a formidable card, creating tokens, copying other creatures, and threatening a powerful ultimate. The criminal aspects of the card are light, though, simply determining how many cards you get to keep with his +1 ability.
3Magda, The Hoardmaster
A Hoard Of Dragons, That Is
Magda’s original card was literally named ‘Magda, Brazen Outlaw,’ yet being a Dwarf Berserker doesn’t qualify her as an outlaw. Magda, the Hordemaster does nothing to rectify that, though maybe a powerfulTreasure-makingand Dragon-making ability can compensate for that.
Magda 2.0 pumps out Treasure pretty easily. Granted, it’s tapped Treasure, and it’s gated to once per turn, but that’s only fair given you can convert your stash of Treasure tokens into 4/4 fliers withhaste. Notably, the Treasure you use for this ability can come from anywhere; it doesn’t all have to be produced by Magda herself.
2Kaervek, The Punisher
Crime After Crime After Crime
Wizards dug up quite the cast of legendary creatures for Thunder Junction, somehow squeezing Kaervek into the mix, a character who hadn’t been seen in quite some time. He’s back with a vengeance, allowing you to go on a literal crime spree.
Kaervek, the Punisher asks you to heavily favor black removal spells. Committing a crime lets you cast a black spell from your graveyard, whether that be another removal spell or just a creature. You still have to pay the full amount of mana for those spells plus some life, but it’s all inherent card advantage.
Kaervek can target multicolored cards in your graveyard, so long as they’reat leastblack in addition to their other colors.
1Gisa, The Hellraiser
Raise Hell, Avoid Jail
Fan-favorite Gisa also made a cameo on Thunder Junction, digging up trouble in her usualZombie-centricway. Gisa’s a phenomenal midrange creature, demonstrating just how powerful five-mana threats have become in modern Magic. Compared to the classic Grave Titan, Gisa’s almost certainly stronger, and at a lower mana cost to boot.
The trick, of course, is making sure you have a steady stream of ways to commit crimes. That’s the smallest of hurdles to overcome, after which Gisa becomes a hard-to-answer army-in-a-can that even brings a Skeleton buff along for the ride.
