Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoiler season is right around the corner! Aside from some new cards hitting the scene shortly, this also means that some other MTG traditions related to spoiler seasons are coming to fruition.
Yesterday, MTG designer Mark Rosewater gave players some teasers for the new set over on Blogatog. Think of these as some random facts about the new set, showing off some interesting inclusions. That said, these are generally only part of the puzzle, making it fun to speculate on what these could actually mean.
Typically, Rosewater’s teasers relate to the main set, while Gavin Verhey’s relate to the Commander expansions releasing alongside a new set.
Here are some of the most shocking things found in Mark Rosewater’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction teasers!
“You get that many additional upkeep steps after this phase.”
What an absolutely terrifying line of text. This may look rather unassuming at first, but this card is likely to become a Commander all-star. Let me show you a few examples why.
My immediate thoughts when hearing about this ability is to throw it into any Prismatic Bridge deck. This is an incredibly popular Commander, at least in my experience, as multiple players in my play group all have an Esika, God of the Tree deck, and they all do different things.
That said, any Esika deck loves to get as many Prismatic Bridge triggers as they possibly can. For this reason, cards like Paradox Haze and Sphinx of the Second Sun are popular in Esika builds. These are offering recurring Prismatic Bridge triggers in the form of extra upkeeps.
So, the ability to get multiple upkeeps can translate to multiple Prismatic Bridge triggers, but that’s not the only place in Commander where these kinds of effects see play. Here’s a shortlist of some of the Commanders who would love to have a card with this text in their 99:
- Jhoira of the Ghitu (Time Counters get removed twice)
- The Ninth Doctor (Upkeep shenanigans)
- Braids, Conjurer Adept (Break parity by dumping multiple things into play on your upkeeps)
- Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor (Move multiple curses around and draw a ton of cards)
- Zedruu, the Greathearted (Lifegain and card draw trigger gets triggered multiple times)
- Xanathar, Guild Kingpin (Target multiple opponents)
- Koma, Cosmos Serpent (Create multiple Coils)
- Sen Triplets (Play everyone’s hand)
This card is going to be incredibly powerful for a variety of different Commanders and, even if it asks a high mana value for its effect, this could easily win games and be used as a win condition in the right deck.
More Trigger Doubling Abilities
If anything has been made clear with recent MTG releases, it’s that Commander players love doubling stuff. Whether you’re doubling tokens with Doubling Season, Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus, or doubling effects with Panharmonicon or Roaming Throne, all of these cards are incredibly popular ways to generate huge value in Commander.
Mark Rosewater has confirmed that yet another ability doubling effect is coming in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. This time, Legendary creatures will be reaping the rewards from a card with this text:
“If a triggered ability of a legendary creature you control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.”
Depending on the mana value of the card with this ability, it could even see some constructed play. Thanks to the Channel Lands and fantastic Legendary creature support in Standard, a card that doubles Legendary creature triggers could be viable in the format. Of course, this largely depends on its mana value as well as its other elements, but the possibility is definitely there. I would expect this card to be rather expensive as long as its remotely castable.
Dual Deserts?
Thanks to the early introduction of the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks, players have a pretty strong suspicion that Deserts will be returning with Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Currently, according to this Scryfall search, there are no Dual Deserts in MTG, which just bolsters the argument of Dual Deserts evermore.
Of all the predictions players can draw from Rosewater’s teasers, this is the one they feel the most confident about. That’s because one of these Dual Deserts have already been unofficially leaked. Someone leaked a prerelease kit from Outlaws of Thunder Junction last week, and one of the revealed cards in that leak was a Selesnya land with a Desert subtype. That said, these Deserts do look like the ‘enter the battlefield tapped’ fixing lands that appear in the mana slot for drafts, so don’t get too excited.
Of course, it’s important to remember that these leaks may not necessarily be real, but they certainly look pretty legitimate.
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Value or Versatility?
The biggest teaser that stuck out to us right out of the gate is a new card that is capable of returning three different types of cards from the grave to the battlefield. This could ironically mean a bunch of different things.
The most exciting version of this effect would be the capability to return all three different card types to the battlefield at the same time. If that were the case, however, the card probably has a high mana value, and could function similarly to Relive the Past, which technically returns three different card types, but is ironically limited in its capabilities because of the specific card types it returns.
Alternatively, this new card could simply return one thing to the battlefield, but offer some choices as to what you return. This would be much less exciting, but could ultimately create a card with some strong utility. The mana value would likely make this borderline playable in Standard as well.
A really interesting application of the new effect could be something like a Saga that can return three different card types to the battlefield as different chapters. There’s no real indication that Sagas are a meaningful part of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but this would be a cool effect to include at some point in Magic’s lifespan.
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Lots of Things to See!
While we highlighted some of the most exciting elements to Rosewater’s new Teaser, there’s definitely a lot more to see than what we mentioned. This includes some more hints, card text, and even some crazy creature types being released in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. If you want to read everything that Rosewater had to say, you can find his teasers here.
If these teasers have you excited to see what Outlaws of Thunder Junction has to offer, good news! Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoiler season kicks off on March 26, which means that players won’t have too much longer to wait. we’ll be sure to highlight the most exciting things to hit the internet for Magic’s newest set.
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