(Oko, the Ringleader | Art by Magali Villeneuve

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied & Shards | Enemy & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints | Pauper/Budget

Full Steam Ahead

Howdy! Welcome to the Outlaws of Thunder Junction Set Review. I'll be giving you a tour of some rowdy outlaws coming from who-knows-where and giving you the lowdown on what you need to know about every Enemies and Wedge card in this set. We have a lot of legendary folk to get to today, so strap in!

Mythics

Eris, Roar of the Storm

Eris may be a ten-mana commander, but it won't be hard to cast them for two or four mana most of the time. It also gets around the commander tax. Once Eris is out, they'll command the sky by making 4/4 Dragons with flying and prowess. This deck will require a lot of card draw if you plan to consistently cast instants and sorceries at every point in the game. Especially in the late game when we have a board of Dragons that can be pumped for each spell we cast. Eris channels all the power of spellslinging into a fierce aggro strategy.

Felix Five-Boots

Panharmonicon for combat damage isn't something I thought we'd get. If you wanted to double your combat damage triggers, you could just give the creature double strike. Notably, Felix doesn't have white, so you'd be relying on Fireshrieker or Brass Knuckles to get double strike in these colors. Gonna have to pay to get quadruple damage triggers.

Felix looks like he'd be a fun equipment deck. Menace allows him to deal combat damage. Ward 2 gives him protection when you suit him up with equipments. However, I don't think that's how most players will build him. You can double up your draw triggers from Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Reconnaissance Mission, and Bident of Thassa. Sultai gives you access to most of the cheap evasive creatures like Cold-Eyed Selkie, Changeling Outcast, Trygon Predator to trigger these permanents. Honestly, I'm both excited and bored by Felix. On one hand, he's another commander who says, when you do the thing, do it again. But, there are 400 permanents on Scryfall within the Sultai identity that trigger when you deal combat damage. You'll be able to find weird strategies that weren't feasible before that Felix now enables.

Gonti, Canny Acquisitor

Gonti returns! They've been scaled up from mono-black to Sultai, and his theft ability has also been scaled up for Commander. For each opponent we deal combat damage to, we can exile the top card of their deck face down. On top of that, the spells we don't control are reduced by one, making it easier for us to cast multiple spells a turn. They're also in the perfect colors to run Villainous Wealth.

Sultai gives us access to many of the notable evasive creatures; Cold-Eyed Selkie, Slither Blade, Changeling Outcast. All these cheap creatures will turn into card advantage when Gonti is out. Then we can add mana accelerations like Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher to cast more of our opponents' spells. Since we're running all of these evasive creatures, we can use Inkfathom Witch or Scale Up to close out the game.

Loot, the Key to Everything

Creatures, Artifacts, Enchantments, Planeswalkers, Battles are all available nonland permanents we could control. If we're running ramp spells like Utopia Sprawl, we can have Loot out on turn two and start digging for more permanent types. Temur Exile isn't something we see all the time, but we do have some great pieces for this deck. Passionate Archaeologist will burn our opponents when we cast spells from exile. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald and The Lost and the Damned will populate our board with tokens. Additionally, we can copy the spells we cast with Nalfeshnee. Loot being as cheap as he is, makes it easy to get this game plan going fast.

Oko, the Ringleader

Notably, he can't copy legendary creatures without triggering the legend rule. This version of Oko takes his shapeshifting abilities similar to the lesser known Oko, the Trickster. If we're in a deck that's consistently able to target opponents and things they control, then he'll provide us with card advantage. His -5 ability will require him to be out for a few turns for us to activate it but could be powerful if we can get there. In proliferate decks, getting Oko to five loyalty wouldn't be hard.

Commanders with target abilities include Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Lonis, Cryptozoologist, Zimone and Dina. These are all strong commanders who could make use of Oko, the Ringleader.

Olivia, Opulent Outlaw

Our first card that cares about outlaws is Olivia, Opulent Outlaw. Similar to Party, Outlaws group together creature types and puts them under a blanket term to form a new strategy. Whenever an outlaw deals combat damage to a player, we can make a Treasure token, and then Olivia uses the Treasure we collect to make our crew stronger. She's a Professional Face-Breaker in the command zone. I'd include creatures like Grim Hireling, a rogue that'll make two Treasures for each opponent we deal combat damage to. And Delina, Wild Mage, because if we copy Olivia, each copy will generate Treasures when an outlaw deals damage. Olivia's activated ability isn't once a turn either. With all the mana we can make with Olivia, we should be able to use her activate ability multiple times a turn and swing out with a huge board of outlaws.

Pest Control

Pest Control is a good way to deal with decks that want to overwhelm the board with tokens. It can also take care of all the Treasure tokens your opponents will make. Cycling two prevents Pest Control from being a dead card since it's more situational. At lower-powered tables, Pest Control will help clear away tokens, but at higher-powered tables, this will take care of all the zero-cost mana rocks like Mana Crypt.

Stella Lee, Wild Card

Stella Lee works well with the plot mechanic since you can cast that spell for free on a later turn–making it easier to get to that third spell restriction. Cascade is another mechanic that lets you play spells for free. Wild-Magic Sorcerer is perfect for Stella since you'll cascade off the spell you cast from exile, which in turn exiles another spell. Stella is a great card advantage engine. Izzet has access to the best cantrips in the game, so you can easily trigger her first ability to see more cards. And if we can chain together a few cheap spells, we can copy our third spell which can be something huge like Crackle with Power.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

6/5 with trample and haste almost guarantees that The Gitrog will get in for damage the turn it comes down. Even if you sacrifice a 3/3, it'll still draw three cards and put three lands into play. The Gitrog would be fantastic as a landfall commander to get a ton of triggers in a single turn, or as a reanimator deck that seeks to reuse the creatures you sacrifice. Either way, The Gitrog will provide a lot of value. It looks more like something I'd see a Simic deck doing.

Vihaan, Goldwaker

What a fun Treasure commander. He's a Rise and Shine for your Treasures and gives them haste and vigilance so you can attack with them immediately. It's almost too good. Granting vigilance so you can still tap your Treasures in your second main feels like having your cake and eating it too, sort of thing, but I digress, the commander is cool.

Outlaws also encompass a lot of creatures that can take advantage of their haste and vigilance. Humble Defector can be used right away. Nighthawk Scavenger can be left up as a blocker. You can attack with Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire the turn you play him and tutor for a card. You'll want to focus more on Treasure makers for Vihaan, but I'd look through for outlaws that'd greatly benefit from the anthem effects.

Vraska, the Silencer

Vraska follows a similar design to Gisa, Glorious Resurrector. You can take an opponent's creature when it dies, but it has some drawbacks. Here, the creature becomes a Treasure artifact and loses its creature type, but does retain its abilities. This allows you to take advantage of static effects like Esper Sentinel, or get enter-the-battlefield (ETB) triggers from Dockside Extortionist. The commander gets better the stronger the table is. While you can run edict effects to get multiple creatures at once, I think this deck might have trouble with keeping up if you're not taking anything good. Plus edict effects give your opponents a choice of what to sacrifice. If you're running more instant spot removal, you can run Toshiro Umezawa and Kaervek, the Punisher to recur them and kill multiple creatures.

Rares

Bonny Pall, Clearcutter

Simic land things. Bonny Pall creates Beau, a cute Ox token that gets bigger the more lands you have. Having a big creature enables you to draw a lot of cards from Return of the Wildspeaker or Rishkar's Expertise. Or you can give it trample with Garruk's Uprising–which would've drawn you two cards from casting Bonny Pall.

While you can make this a landfall-type deck, what if you built it as a clone deck? Use Spark Double and Irenicus's Vile Duplication to make non-legendary copies of Beau so you can have an army of giant Oxen!

Breeches, the Blastmaker

Interesting for a coin-flip commander to not have a downside. He goes great with X-spells as either copying it or dealing damage are both good outcomes. To get to do either, however, you have to cast a spell first and then sacrifice an artifact. Hard Evidence and Strike It Rich are perfect for Breeches. They're cheap to cast for your first spell and satisfy the need to sac an artifact. Or this could be an artifact deck, outright. Running artifacts like Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring can be the first spell you cast and provide advantage if you sacrifice them. These all could be the basics you need to make a functioning Breeches deck that looks to copy or burn with bigger spells.

Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher

Notable Oxen: Restless Bivouac, Ox of Agonas, Makindi Ox, Arc Runner, and Charging Cinderhorn.

While it's nice to see a commander that corrals all the Oxen creatures, I don't see much going for him here. His second ability is a little underwhelming since he's a 4/3 with no evasive and needs to attack. Even then you're not guaranteed an Ox token if you're trying to build up an army of them. I would include populate effects in the deck to make more Oxen once you have the token. Determined Iteration, Song of the Worldsoul, and Nesting Dovehawk are all excellent ways to populate tokens.

Bruse Tarl's ability also triggers when he enters the battlefield, so Jaxis, the Troublemaker or Delina, Wild Mage would be able to get multiple Bruse Tarl triggers a turn.

High Noon

A cheaper Rule of Law and it can be sacrificed if you're looking to cast multiple spells on your turn. Five mana for five damage is bad, but it's a price to pay if you want to end the effect for yourself. Archon of Emeria and Phyrexian Censor are currently the best versions of this effect and they come with additional stax effects. However, High Noon is on an enchantment, so it's just a strict upgrade to Rule of Law.

Kambal, Profiteering Mayor

The first ability is neat. In a format dominated by tokens, his first ability could trigger almost every turn. The real power is in that last ability. Each time we make one or more tokens, we'll drain our opponents. Having multiple token makers out will quicken the pace of the game and pad out your life total. And if you're looking to end the game, an infinite combo that produces a token will turn Kambal into a finisher. Kambal is also perfect for a Thalisse, Reverent Medium deck.

Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot

Lilah effectively gives your multicolored instant and sorceries Rebound. She works well as a storm commander as you can cast all the spells for free on a single turn. However, the limitation of only working with multicolored spells means she's better suited in the 99 of other decks that have more colors. For example, she'd be great in Riku of Many Paths as that commander wants to cast modal spells like charms.

Malcolm, the Eyes

I don't think it's a coincidence that Malcolm works with Breeches, the Blastmaker. However, Malcolm feels like an uncommon to me. He's better in the 99 of decks that either want to investigate or care about artifacts. Ashnod the Uncaring would love to have all the clue tokens that Malcolm makes.

Pillage the Bog

Late game, this becomes a tutor for you. It's strong for two mana and can be plotted if you're looking to save your mana on a later turn. You don't even have to be in a land deck to look at more than ten cards with this. If you are in a lands deck like The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, you can almost grab any card you want from your deck.

Riku of Many Paths

Modal Spells Matter isn't a theme we've seen before, but it's a pleasant surprise. However, it could run into a similar issue like Adventure decks. All the modal spells will be good, but won't necessarily have synergy with each other, so Riku needs a theme to follow for all these spells. It could be an Exile Theme. Passionate Archaeologist will burn people when you cast the spells you exile. And Tavern Brawler gives you a card while also making Riku larger–which works with his ability to give himself trample. You even have access to the commands that allow you to choose two like Quandrix Command, Prismari Command and Titania's Command to get use multiple modes on Riku.

Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot

Putting mana into X to turn an End the Festivities into a potential game-ender makes for a fun burn deck. Add in any deal one damage to each creature and Taii Wakeen can draw a for each 1/1 on the battlefield. If this is the plan, you could even give out 1/1s to your opponents. Genesis Chamber will make a Myr whenever anyone puts a creature into play. Combat Calligrapher makes Inklings when your opponents attack elsewhere. And you can give out Spirits with Forbidden Orchard.

Paying mana enough mana into X for it to do some serious damage will be costly. Ritual effects like Mana Geyser will help you dump all that red mana to make for one explosive spell. Or, we can find other ways to ramp with Great Desert Prospector. You can use the mana from Powerstones to pay for X each turn.

Vraska Joins Up

I love seeing keyword counters pop up. They're a cool design that I'm glad didn't get stuck in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Two mana for a Toski for Legendary creatures is nice. In Legend decks, such as Jodah, the Unifier, this will be a solid inclusion. But it doesn't have to be a Legends Matter deck.

Does your commander regularly deal combat damage? If so, this is a two-mana enchantment that'll draw a card each turn. And the deathtouch counter could be relevant to commanders like Ognis, the Dragon's Lash that need a detergent for being blocked and killed. Vraska Joins Up is another way to give Skullbriar, the Walking Grave a counter. Tayam, Luminous Enigma will love removing deathtouch counters off any legendary creatures you have. This enchantment will find a lot of homes.

Uncommons & Commons

Baron Bertram Graywater

I will want this for Edgar Markov. If you care about making tokens, Baron will be great at furthering your game plan and is a sac outlet, on top of that. He's fine as a commander himself. You'll want to look at Bennie Bracks, Zoologist's page if you want some ideas of cards that'll produce tokens each turn. His activated ability isn't all that impressive as we've seen it on Dockside Chef, but might be nice for aristocrat strategies looking to produce tokens.

Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius

Simic Bear!

Great in Exile decks. With so many different mechanics like Adventure and Foretell casting from exile, Doc Aurlock will be a staple in those decks. And he's a shoo-in for the new Gonti. On his own, he's just ramp in the command zone. I don't think throwing in all the Adventure, Foretell, and Plot spells will make for a cohesive deck, but I would love to see what it can do.

Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor

This is a solid uncommon commander. Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier copies abilities that target him for each other creature you control, but Ertha Jo can copy abilities that target a creature or a player. You can copy Goblin Bombardment, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, or Brash Taunter triggers. This deck will want untap effects such as Drumbellower, so you can always hold up a Mother of Runes or Intrepid Hero.

Honest Rutstein

Creature recursion on a legendary creature will be good for Legend decks to add additional synergies. Honest Rutstein would be great in Henzie "Toolbox" Torre where he can get back a blitzed creature and further reduce the cost of big creatures. Other than that, I don't see him being the lead in many decks.

Kraum, Violent Cacophony

New Kraum isn't as strong as the original, but he's not the worst. Removing Partner prevents him from having access to more colors, so he's stuck with just being in Izzet. And you only draw a card when you cast a second spell, not an opponent. That's a hefty cap on this version of Kraum since you have to put in some effort to draw more than once in a turn cycle. However, this Kraum can get bigger. So if he's not dealt with, he can almost be as threatening as the original.

Coming to a Halt

Well, that's all I got for you today, friends. Bit of a long ride but we got there. There are a lot of legends coming out from this set and I'm looking forward to seeing what people build with them. What commanders from this set are you planning on building? Let me know down below and I'll see you next time!

Joshua Wood

Josh is a creative writer that started playing Magic when Throne of Eldraine was released. He loves entering combat and pressuring life totals, and to him, commander damage is always relevant. Outside of brewing many commander decks, he can be found prepping his D&D campaigns with a cat purring in his lap.