Best Modern Cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Magic’s newest set, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, had its prerelease this last weekend, and with it all Outlaws of Thunder Junction cards are now legal in all formats. Most standard sets do not have more than a couple of playable Modern cards, however, Outlaws is an outlier. Multiple cards are very strong and likely modern staples, and beyond those, there are many strong build-around cards.

Lavaspur Boots

The first two cards are rather obvious. A powerful 0 or 1 mana artifact is immediately considered for Urza’s Saga decks, often they do not make the cut. However, Lavaspur boots provide a level of threat not presented by other Saga tutor targets. The boots provide Haste and Ward allowing the second Construct created by Urza’s Saga to attack the turn it comes into play. While haste and a buff on power seem small, attacking with both constructs one turn sooner increases the clock provided by constructs. The low equip cost effectively gives all creatures that come into play haste and such a small boost on every creature has a big impact on the game.

Lost Jitte

Jitte is another 1 mana equipment and provides a lot of versatility. While Lost Jitte isn’t good enough for most Urza’s Saga decks it will likely see play in Hardened Scales as all three abilities, giving +1/+1 counters, untapping lands, and removing blockers, are all useful for the strategy. Counters work as they are buffed by the namesake, Hardened Scales. Untapping lands can provide extra mana and even create extra constructs from Urza’s Saga. Lastly, removing blockers is incredibly relevant for a deck that plays heavily in combat. 

The next three cards each deal with the new mechanic plot. Plotting a card puts it in exile face-up and can be cast for free on a later turn at sorcery speed. 

Make Your Own Luck

Make Your Own Luck plots one of the top three cards and draws the other two. For 5-mana, it is a lot on Modern and is unlikely to see play unless it is doing something incredibly powerful such as plotting Emrakrul, to cast for free the following turn. Outside of specifically that I don’t believe Make Your Own Luck will show up in Modern. Plotting is also strong as when being cast on a later turn it allows the card to be cast with mana up for protection, such as counterspell, or Veil of Summer. Lastly, Make Your Own Luck does cast Emrakrul which, unlike many other ways of getting it into play in Modern, will allow you to take an extra turn and attack with the Eldrazi.

Kellan Joins Up & Jace Reawakened

Kellan Joins Up & Jace Reawakened both plot cards of mana value three or less. On face value these both seem strong but are opened to abuse with Double-Faced cards and Adventure cards. Kellan Joins Up and Jace plotting a Valki, God of Lies, or a Bramble Familiar allowing both Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter and Fetch Quest to be cast far earlier than they should be. 

Specific to Kellan Joins Up

Kellan Joins Up’s trigger to put a counter on all creatures is a powerful effect but is lacking powerful enablers. A deck looking to abuse the second half would need a significant density of legendary creatures and have a significant amount of synergy with the first half for it to be viable. I think if a deck plays Kellan Joins Up it will primarily abuse the first half. I have been doing some brewing with Kellan Joins Up, Renegade Rallier, Saffi Eriksdotter, Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer, Satoru, the Infiltrator and support cards like Delighted Halfling, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, and other pieces but that is for another article for a later date, Brewing with Satoru, the Infiltrator!

Specific to Jace Reawakened

Jace Reawakened is the third two mana planeswalker ever printed. He has the drawback of being unable to be cast on the First, Second, or Third turns of the game. This can be gotten around through a Leyline of Anticipation effect to be cast on your opponent's turn two. He has two +1 abilities that are very powerful. One is a simple loot, drawing and discarding a card every turn for two mana is very good. The second plots a card of mana value three or less. This, as previously mentioned, can cast high mana value and high power cards. This is certainly powerful. However, I believe it is feasible that Jace will be strong enough on his own that Leyline of Anticipation is not necessary, and going all in on Fetch Quest or Tibalt will put too many dead cards in the deck. Plotting a card each time is already cheating on mana cost to a significant degree. For this reason, I believe Jace may be playable on its own. Modern is hyper-efficient, so effectively an additional three mana each turn with the option to loot may just be good enough. 

Slickshot Showoff

Slickshot Showoff is likely the best Prowess threat seen in years. The plot ability allows you to pay the mana cost without running the creature into an obvious counterspell. It gets a significant power boost off of every non-creature spell and the Showoff having flying, haste, and the wizard creature type each increases its playability. This card is very, very good. As with most prowess threats casting this normally on turn two would not be incredibly powerful, so being able to plot it and then cast it with interruption on a later turn enables tons of hard-to-interact-with lines. It does die to lightning bolt which is a real downside as other prowess threats can grow out of bolt range, but your prowess creatures dying to removal spells is part of how the game is played, so such a downside may be negligible. Plus, protection spells can always invalidate bolt, a list from Andrea Mengucci that went 5-2 at an Italian 77-person modern tournament ran Apostle’s Blessing as a protection spell.

Assimilation Aegis

Assimilation Aegis is another card for the Stoneforge Mystic fans. It pitches to Solitude, Subtlety, and Force of Negation which is truly, very relevant. It is a tutorable Oblivion Ring with an additional upside. Turning your Stoneforge Mystic into either Yawgmoth or Primevil Titan is very good but often the hits will be worse. Regardless a removal spell with an upside that has a low cost for deck inclusion is good and will see constructed play. 

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

Bristly Bill is a funny card. I think it will be good enough in some sort of stompy strategy, likely Domain Zoo, as it with a fetchland is a two-mana 4/4 that consistently grows. Scion of Draco gives Bristly Bill trample which is very relevant for being included in Zoo. Additionally in Zoo making all your creatures simply +1/+1 larger than your opponents makes you very likely to win combat. The mana sink is good late game as even with the rummage ability from Territorial Kavu, it is often the deck can not spend its mana late game.

The last card I want to talk about it the one I am most excited about. It is a card I have been brewing with extensively due to how both open-ended and powerful it is. 

Satoru, the Infiltrator

Satoru, the Infiltrator rewards you for doing something you are already incentivized to do; cheating mana costs and creature into play. Satoru triggers off of a myriad of different very powerful modern cards. Satoru works with Evoke Elementals (Grief, Subtlety, Endurance, & Solitude), the scam cards that often accompany them (Not Dead After All, Undying Evil, Ephemerate), Tutors (Eldritch Evolution, Chord of Calling, Finale of Devastation), other effects that cheat creature into play from your library (Break Out, Collected Company), re-animation (Goryo’s Vengeance, Persist), methods of casting creatures without paying their mana cost (Dauthi Voidwalker, Kellan Joins Up or Jace Reawakened(???)) as well as a myriad of other random cards and strategies that trigger it (Aether Vial, Norin, The Wary, Saffi Eriksdotter, Renegade Rallier, Ninjitsu Cards, 0-mana creatures). It is highly likely that I am missing powerful ways of drawing cards of Satoru. A key thing people often do not understand about Modern is that at no point should you play bad cards to make your bad cards really good, but rather you should look for strategies that make your good cards great. Satoru does that, Grief scamming is already powerful, but doing so and drawing 2 cards aswell makes it far better. 

I love Satoru and what makes his design interesting is that many of the best ways to cheat creatures into play/trigger him are in Red, White, and Green. This presents an interesting deck-building challenge as playing 5 colors is infeasible. I will be putting out another article soon about Brewing with Satoru so look forward to that, there are plenty of ways to abuse his ability!

I hope these ideas can help you are you go forward in your Modern Journey! If you are curious about any other reviews on other sets, guides to Yawgmoth Combo, or more I have written at length about a variety of topics in modern!