(Freestrider Lookout | Art by Matt Zeilinger)

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

Cactus Lean, Cactus Green, and Cactus Mean.

YEE! HAW! Welcome to our dusty town of set reviews. My name is Nick, and I will be your sheriff for this set review of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. I will see you at high noon as we mount up to stop a plot being undertaken by some outlaws. I won't let a spree of that nature come into my town. So let's giddy up and get along.

Mythics

[elAncient Cornucopia[/el]

Green mana rocks are...interesting. While this card is not quite Astral Cornucopia and not quite Pristine Talisman, it tries its best to be an impression of both. It fails miserably with this attempt. This card is not bad but doesn't do enough in the decks that would want it. There are better ways to gain incidental life in something like Dina, Soul Steeper. If you need multiple colors of mana at many different moments, other three mana rocks, such as the oft-forgotten Coalition Relic or one more mana Firemind Vessel, do a much better job.

Bristlebud Farmer

From the farm but not quite to the table here, we see power creep at its finest. This farmer is right at home in The Big Score portion of OTJ. We get a 5/5 with Trample and two food tokens for only four mana. But wait, there is more. Someone at R&D said this card needed more words, so they added a nice little food sacrifice to mill cards with a dash of returning a permanent to your hand. This card should be in your deck if you have a deck that cares about the graveyard, food tokens, or even creatures well above the rate.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

Have you ever thought, what if I could make Avenger of Zendikar better? Bristly Bill once had that thought. So he went and sowed up his cactus field and returned with +1/+1 counters. This card is simple but strong, and any classic effect that makes +1/+1 counters better will get along with this bristly fellow. Don't get too close; Bill is not a fan of hugs.

Goldvein Hydra

If there is any downside to this card, I can't find it. I imagine this is pound for pound, one of the strongest green mythics in the set, and it's up there for the strongest card of any color in the set as well. This card comes down and hits hard right away. It is good at any point of the game and will still give you a payoff when it gets removed. People can say that having treasures come in tapped of this card is terrible, but those people have not played against Old Gnawbone enough. If someone shows up to a table and hits me with this Hydra boosted by Bristly Bill, I will respond with an enthusiastic YEE HAW!

Railway Brawler

Green players like giant creatures, right? Well, so do rhinos. This card is an absolute unit and has two goals in life: the first goal is to turn all your other creatures into absolute units. The second goal is to have those creatures assist in winning your games. This card also features the first instance of the new Plot mechanic from the set. Plot lets you pay a cost for the card now, in this card's case, 3 green mana, to cast it for free later. Your opponent might know what's coming when you plot a card, but that means they still have to find a way to stop it.

Omenpath Journey

This card is going to make you have a bad time. Endless Horizons is likely on a short list of "cards people thought were broken but were not." Omenpath Journey joins that list. Getting the five best lands out of your deck and getting one at random on your end step is not a terrible effect. It is, however, slow. Having the other players at the table fight over who gets to use their enchantment removal spell first to ensure you never get ANY of your five best lands is terrible. Very few scenarios exist where this card is not immediately removed unless five basic forests sit beneath it.

Sandstorm Salvager

I wish this card were called Sandstorm Splicer, but I digress. As a 1/1, I don't see this card staying around for a long time, but once might be enough if you have a giant board of tokens. Giving your tokens trample can do a lot in Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer, and it can provide some extra bite to the tokens made by Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second. The lifecycle of this card will be longer outside of Commander, but I will be prepared to lose to this card in the future.

Vaultborn Tyrant

I have never played anything from the Fallout franchise, but if someone had told me one of those vaults had dinosaurs, I might have given it a shot. Pairing this card with The Great Henge might get every blue mage to switch to green forever once they see how many cards you can draw. I am unsure why this card needs to become a token when it dies. It's as if Doubling Seasonwas not good enough. The tyrant does everything an excellent green mythic should do these days. It draws cards, gains life, and gets over blockers with ease. Big Dino is a good card, but it's a bit boring. This card has a lot of YEE, but it is missing the HAW, which makes other cards in the set more intriguing.

Rares

Colossal Rattlewurm

Four-mana green creatures stay winning in this set. It's a straightforward card to give flash even if you don't focus on your lands being Deserts. A myriad of lands with the Desert subtype are worth putting in a deck: Scavenger Grounds, Endless Sands, and Arid Archway. Even without flash, this card is still a 6/5 with Trample. This card will find a home in many formats, and when your opponent kills it, it can grab you one of the deserts mentioned above to let you cast even more wurms. I imagine cards like this are why I would not want to be in the world of Dune.

Dune Chanter

Commander players aren't surprised by the effectiveness of a Chromatic Lantern. Many players love both milling lands and gaining life. I wish this card was worded like Rootpath Purifier, but the commander pods aren't ready yet. This card is one of the most important for any desert-themed deck. With the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, there are 36 deserts in the game. Most of these come in tapped; if they don't, they usually only tap for colorless mana. Giving all your lands the ability to trigger the effects of commanders such as Yuma, Proud Protector, or Hazezon, Shaper of Sand is a big boost. Did I mention this card also has reach?

Freestrider Lookout

This is a card we should be on the lookout for, depending on how much crime is around. It's the first green card we've seen on this list that involves committing a crime. How easily and consistently you can target your opponents and their permanents with this card on the field is what will make this card good or bad. If it is easy to commit a crime, this card becomes better. If you can find a way to commit a crime on your opponent's turn, then this card gets crazy. It's a solid role-playing card in a variety of decks.

Ornery Tumblewagg

There is a precedent of cards that can give counters before combat. What makes them suitable is when they are cheap, but this card is a bit too expensive for this effect. It also needs to attack while saddled - think crewing vehicles but a bit worse. I will not count this card out because the player base loves Brushwaggs, and mounts are a new lead for exploration within the format.

Outcaster Trailblazer

There is a key phrase that is not on this card: Once per turn. This card might be one of my favorites from the entire set. It gets the juices in my brain churning and flowing with the thoughts of brewing. Adding one mana when the creature enters might seem irrelevant, but if I may introduce everyone to some best friend cards, Aluren and Cloudstone Curio. Playing this card for free and having a way to bounce it back to your hand to use it more than once opens up some compelling plays. Drawing a card when the other four power or larger creatures enter is the icing on this card cake. The key ingredient, however, is that this card has the Plot ability. Setting this card aside and saving it for later is enormous. Play this card without paying its mana cost, net mana, then play something like Thragtusk and draw a card while at it.

Rumbleweed

This card is no Craterhoof Behemoth. This is, however, the fourth-best version of Craterhoof. Being one step from the championship podium isn't a bad place. The part of this card that keeps it just outside the top ranks is that it does not have haste. Vigilance, Reach, and Trample are all great in combination, but cards like this want to be part of the attack. This is also on the upper end of mana costs for Overrun creatures, and the cost reduction is reliant on lands in the graveyard. There's a bit too much anti-synergy for this card in a classic green stompy deck, but in a more land-focused deck or maybe Plant or Elemental typal decks, this could potentially take the place of the classic Craterhoof Behemoth and its copycats.

Savvy Trader

It's a cool take on Eternal Witness type cards. Reduction for cards cast anywhere from your hand is nice, but I wonder how much it helps a color like green? Green ramps well and does not usually struggle to cast big things. This card is made for decks like Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, and Kellan, the Kid.

Smuggler's Surprise

Spree; it's a kicker card but with extra steps. Cards with spree in Outlaws of Thunder Junction lead to some interesting evaluations. Looking at a card like this is often comparable to looking at two or even three different cards. This card is a bit easier since the most similar card has a kicker-like mechanic in Entwine, seen on Tooth and Nail. This card takes a bit more work to "win the game" than Tooth and Nail, but it is undoubtedly powerful. Tack on the bonus of giving your big creatures hexproof and indestructible, and there is no doubt this card should be one of the top-played cards from the set.

Tower Winder

People often say a card or set is "designed for the commander." This card is from a commander deck, which would be a fair description. But, for a card to call out Command Tower in the text might make this the most commander card of all time. Green didn't need help fixing mana or getting lands, but if it is going to get help, at least it will get help in a cool and interesting way.

Vengeful Regrowth

This card is not for me. But this will be someone's favorite card of all time. The plant warrior tokens that this card can make will be decent blockers, and in a mill-based strategy, there is an opportunity to make a lot of 4/2s. Not to mention, this card has a flashback. But if I want to get my lands back from the graveyard, I'm reaching for the likes of Splendid Reclamation or even the recently printed Aftermath Analyst.

Uncommons & Commons

Full Steam Ahead

CHOO! CHOO! There's a runaway train coming, and it's only uncommon. Full Steam Ahead is one of my favorite cards from the set. This is one of the best Overrun cards I have ever seen. It is a bit more expensive of an effect at five mana, but giving Trample and "can't be blocked by more than one creature" makes winning a game trivial. Watch for this card in draft and snag one before your next commander night.

Gold Rush

Not many combat tricks involve making mana on the side. This card will not grant the most significant buffs by itself, but the way the game is played today, almost everyone has some treasures kicking around. If a creature can sneak through, it might be game over.

Rambling Possum

There is something sneaky with green cards in this set and returning cards to your hand. It might only take a creature with one power to saddle up this possum, but that does not mean we can't add more to that number. Just like when crewing vehicles, you can "overpay" for the cost of Saddle. The hard part with this card is having to attack to bounce creatures back to your hand. If there is a combo with this card though, someone will find it.

Rise of the Varmints

What if you could cast Spider Spawning for free? Well, then you would be casting this card. Now, not having flashback is a real downside; that is one of the reasons the Spider Spawning deck was so hard to grind against. This card might not be as big of a draft bomb as the spiders, but I wouldn't sleep on these varmints.

Spinewoods Armadillo

Learning how valuable a card like Krosan Tusker is, I might get hate for this, but the armadillo is better than the tusker. This card costs less mana, is bigger, gains life, and can get the hard-to-reach snacks off the top shelf. It even has everyone's favorite mechanic, Ward, for good measure. In the early game, it will help you advance your board; in the late game, this card can be just what you need to close out a game.

Into the Sunset.

We ride off into the sunset with the final set review of monocolored cards, and there are so many things to think about with these cards. Thanks to this set, new decks will be made, and additions to longstanding archetypes will be made. On a personal level, I am more interested in seeing what other players do with some of these cards than what I will do with them. I think Outlaws of Thunder Junction will affect multiple sets, but Commander will continue to take the most significant piece of the pie as more sets come out. I will leave you with one final YEE HAW! and a GIDDY UP PARTNER! Be on the lookout for more set reviews on both EDHREC and Commander's Herald, and check out my other articles in my Myth Realized series.

Nicholas Lucchesi

Player and lover of all Magic the Gathering formats. Forged in the fires of Oath of the Gatewatch expeditions. Always down to jam games with anyone and everyone. When not playing Magic I am doing something else equally, if not more nerdy.