Outlaws of Thunder Junction is just around the corner, and there’s a lot to look forward to. For fans of Commander and various Constructed formats, there are a multitude of extremely powerful cards in this set to play with. For collectors, the Breaking News bonus sheet delivers some awesome reprints of Crimes from MTG’s past.
Recently, we covered the most expensive cards in the Breaking News bonus sheet. Today, we are going to focus on the priciest cards in the main set. Of note, we will be using TCGPlayer market price to determine our rankings, and we will be looking at the cheapest versions of each Thunder Junction card. We will also be focusing only on cards in the main set, so no Breaking News, Big Score, or Special Guest cards here. On top of that, only the cheapest variants of each card will be considered. The idea is to provide players with some of the best cards that they can open in a Play Booster of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. With that out of the way, here are the top five most expensive MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction cards.
5 | Goldvein Hydra
Price: $8
Kicking things off, we have a neat mana sink that rewards you for ramping. With a plethora of keywords including Haste, Goldvein Hydra puts a lot of pressure on the opponent to deal with it in a timely manner. Of course, when they do, you end up left with a stash of Treasure tokens for your troubles.
In Commander, it may even be worth it to pair Goldvein Hydra with a sacrifice outlet to avoid your prize getting exiled. Doubling Season works exceptionally well here, doubling both the number of counters Goldvein Hydra enters play with and the number of Treasure tokens you get when it dies.
This card is getting a lot of early hype. Add on its mythic rare status and you’ve got a card worth roughly $14.
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4 | Tinybones, the Pickpocket
Price: $9
Easily one of the best cards in the entire set, Tinybones, the Pickpocket has a lot of competitive and casual potential. Capable of stealing your opponent’s cards and allowing you to cast them, this adorable Outlaw is a value machine. Since they’re an adorable one drop, it’s no wonder they’ve been compared to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer.
Thankfully, while there are some similarities, Tinybones, the Pickpocket is hardly a new turn-one menace. Instead, this little skeleton fella is much more suited to the mid-game, where they can hit some juicy targets. Since Tinybones has Deathtouch, thankfully dealing the required combat damage shouldn’t be too difficult.
As strong as this card is in theory, Tinybones hasn’t been doing much in competitive Magic. This card has largely failed the expectations placed on it in the early days of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and has fallen from its previous throne of being the most expensive card in the set as a result.
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3 | Slickshot Show-Off
Price: $10
Out of all the cards in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Slickshot Show-Off might just be the best. Primed to be a multi-format menace, this card is undeniably the real deal. Boasting aggressive stats and fantastic spell synergy, Slickshot Show-Off is a direct upgrade to many existing decks.
Beyond being the latest and greatest mono-red staple, Slickshot Show-Off also has Plot. This miraculously turns them into a weirdly controlling force, as opponents have to hold up responses or removal for them. If, or rather when, this happens, all your other creatures get to keep swinging in, slowly chipping away your opponent.
For now, Slickshot Show-Off is easily one of the most expensive cards in the entire set. As the only rare card on this entire list, Slickshot Show-Off is leagues ahead of its competition, at least in terms of competitive viability.
For a while Slickshot Show-Off was much more expensive than its current value. While the card is viable in Modern, Standard, Pioneer and even Legacy, its not a frontline force in any of those formats.
Even though this is probably the best card for competitive Magic, Slickshot Show-Off doesn’t do nearly as well in the Commander format. All of the cards above Slickshot on this list have a strong Commander application.
2 | Terror of the Peaks
Price: $16
Terror of the Peaks is an elite card that is finally getting a reprint. Mostly known for its role in Commander, Terror of the Peaks can completely take over a game. Just like Warstorm Surge, there are multiple combos to be had. For instance, if you cast Sekki, Season’s Guide with Terror of the Peaks in play, you deal infinite damage to your opponents!
Start by dealing eight damage to Sekki when it enters, which will cause eight Spirit tokens to enter play. Each one of these can deal damage to an opponent. Then, sacrifice those eight spirits to bring back Sekki from your graveyard to play. This will trigger Terror once more, and you can deal damage to Sekki again and repeat this process.
Terror of the Peaks is a scary card. When it was in Standard back with Core Set 2021, it played a vital role in the Genesis Ultimatum shells, allowing you to kill out of nowhere. While the reprint seems to have lowered the price a bit, the card still has a hefty price tag of roughly $16.
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1 | Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
Price: $27
Not only is Bristly Bill, Spine Sower a fantastic Commander card, it also happens to be in the broken Modern deck, which is creating a ton of demand. Bristly Bill plays a rather strange role in Nadu, Winged Wisdom decks, offering a sort of bridge between finding your pieces. Sometimes, if you end up with Nadu, and are missing the Shuko piece to combo, you need something that can get some card advantage in the meantime. Bristly Bill is that card.
Otherwise, thanks to doubling counters, Bristly Bill, Spine Sower pops off in any Commander deck that utilizes counters. For those reasons, Bristly Bill is the most expensive card in the main set of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, by quite a margin.
