Metagame: Outlaws of Thunder Junction's First Week

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is finally out!

Available on online platforms since last Tuesday, April 16, the latest Magic: The Gathering set began to show its first signs of impact on the competitive Metagame in the Challenges events that took place last weekend, where cards like Slickshot Show-Off, Tinybones, the Pickpocket and Duelist of the Mind have established themselves in one or more formats.

Check out, in this article, an analysis of the main innovations and decks that the new expansion brought to competitive Magic and their impact on the first week of Challenges!

Standard was one of the formats most impacted by the expansion, but despite the notable presence of some cards, the first results don't show a significant change in how the best decks behave, with Esper Midrange remaining a solid option while most other decks only included some specific cards.

What is new, however, is the new Five Color Legends proposal, with Honest Rutstein and Annie Joins Up.

This new variant relies on a dozen micro-interactions around Relic of Legends with Rona, Herald of Invasion and Annie Joins Up, which allows us to put Rona's ability into the stack, tap her to generate mana, and then untap her twice.

With Honest Rutstein in play and another copy of it in hand, we can use it to generate mana with Relic of Legends alongside Rona, cast the copy in our hand, sacrifice the Rutstein tapped by the Legends rule and return it with the new Rutstein, creating a loop for infinite mana (as Rona generates two mana and Rutstein generates one) or infinite looting (tapping Rona a first time and then untapping her twice with Annie Joins Up).

The new combo can be used with Slogurk, the Overslime to transform it into a gigantic threat or with Sheoldred the Apocalypse to prevent the opponent from winning through damage, making this the most innovative deck in the first week of Outlaws for Standard.

Present in Legends lists, Tinybones, the Pickpocket could be a potential staple after appearing in some different archetypes this weekend, from Esper Legends to Rakdos Midrange, passing through other archetypes in lower positions.

A one-drop that punishes blocks and extracts value from a format whose biggest impact is on permanents makes Tinybones a potential threat as the game goes on, with some comments on social media already comparing it to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer - a typical exaggeration, given that Tinybones requires a few turns to extract the desired value while a single turn in which Ragavan connects can put its controller far ahead.

However, its results in the Top 8s are notable, and I recommend keeping an eye on the potential of this new creature in the coming weeks and at the Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction, taking place between April 26th and 28th.

Raffine, Scheming Seer seems like a perfect match with Nathan Steuer's world champion card, Duelist of the Mind, where Raffine can significantly increase Duelist's power when you draw more cards.

Duelist of the Mind also interacts with the removals and counterspells currently run in Esper Midrange variants and with Deep-Cavern Bat, helping to filter the hand searching for better answers while discarding lands and other cards that are no longer necessary.

Slickshot Show-Off became the big news of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, also impacting Pioneer and Modern.

In Standard, in addition to having entered some Mono Red Aggro lists, the insertion of enemy Fast Lands into the format's mana base allows the rise of aggressive multicolored decks, such as Temur Prowess, which seeks to make the most of the new creature alongside other cards that also care about instants and sorceries.

In addition to the inclusion of these cards in Standard, other creatures such as Aven Interrupter and Stoic Sphinx were present in this weekend's Challenges, as well as a new variant of Izzet Pirates.

Slickshot Show-Off gave Gruul what was needed to resume one of the most well-known strategies from Khans of Tarkir's Standard days, Atarka Red, now with a greater density of quality threats with Questing Druid and Soul-Scar Mage.

The new version of the deck was so impressive this week that it came in first place in two of the Challenges, in addition to producing other impressive results in the Top 8 and Top 16.

The new creature also appeared in some Boros Heroic lists, where it replaced Tenth District Legionnaire and made room for the archetype to run 18 threats in the maindeck.

Kaervek, the Punisher was also present in Pioneer, mainly in the Waste Not lists, an archetype that has grown in the Metagame and capable of using Kaervek in the best possible way with its cheap discards and removals, making it a powerful source of recursion.

Niv to Light also had impressive results this week in the hands of the player claudoh, with the inclusion of Pillage the Bog to dig deeper into the deck as early as the second turn, managing to seeing up 1/4 of its list as the game goes on, commonly finding the ideal card and functioning as a pseudo-tutor.

Finally, the Training Grounds deck that made Top 8 in one of the events deserves to be highlighted, both for the inclusion of Harrier Strix as another enabler for and for the use of Proft's Eidetic Memory as a wincondition, where we use Omen Hawker, The Enigma Jewel and Training Grounds to fuel the looting abilities and use the enchantment to deal lethal damage.

Just like in Standard and Pioneer, Slickshot Show-Off was also one of this week's highlights, where it gave players a reason to try out new Prowess variants in the format again, but without any major changes compared to previous versions.

The Gruul version stands out because it's been a long time since the last time a non-blue variant seemed viable, and it could be the right path for both those who prefer fewer mana issues and for those who opt for a more budget list.

Simulacrum Synthesizer was one of the highlights of our Modern review and proved its potential in Affinity, where its ability triggers with several creatures to establish gigantic pressure once it is in play accompanied by Frogmite, Sojourner's Companion or Thought Monitor.

Affinity is also an excellent deck to run Urza's Saga and Outlaws of Thunder Junction brought new relevant equipment to search with the land and give immediate impact to any creature - Lavaspur Boots, which has become a staple of Saga decks and appeared in several variants, including a recent version in Golgari colors.

Another card that received some attention this week was Smuggler's Surprise, present mainly in Amulet Titan as a way to play Primeval Titan on the opponent's turn and try to get past Subtlety.

Roxanne, Starfall Savant was also inserted into the deck's Sideboard as an efficient removal that also generates mana rocks, helping to keep the battlefield under control and deal with specific hates and/or troublesome creatures.

Satoru, the Infiltrator has had a recurring presence in Esper Reanimator lists, where his interaction with Evoke and Ephemerate or Persist makes him as efficient at extracting value as Up the Beanstalk, currently banned from the format.

Reanimator strategies have grown significantly in Modern and could dictate a portion of the Metagame in the coming weeks, especially if Satoru remains as a must-answer threat as it seems.

Jace Reawakened also had its share in this weekend's Challenges, but without any significant results.

Instead of trying to make the most of Valki, God of Lies, the lists that ran him opted for a Control shell where their main target is Ancestral Vision to draw three cards for free on the next turn.

As in Modern, Simulacrum Synthesizer had a huge impact on Legacy due to its interaction with artifacts and Affinity, especially since the original artifact land cycle is legal in the format.

Patchwork Stompy was already producing some results after Warhammer was released on Magic Online, but it has proven to be an even more powerful option now that it has even greater support with the new artifact.

Pest Control was also present on various lists this weekend, but not all with impressive results. Its presence in the format is so relevant that it led decks like Reanimator to adopt a small splash to try it out.

The changes to Pauper were relatively minimalists and, currently, are summarized in two inclusions for specific archetypes.

The first was the inclusion of Reckless Lackey in Kuldotha Red, a one-drop that positively trades with multiple creatures on the mirror while its abilities trigger both Goblin Blast-Runner and Goblin Tomb Raider, in addition to generating an extra draw in longer games.

The second was the inclusion of Ping Lands, or the new expansion's desert cycle in some archetypes - especially in Boros Glitters, where the extra damage is more relevant than the life gain from Wind-Scarred Crag and in Rakdos Burn, where Jagged Barrens helps boost the clock while also fixing mana.

Both will likely remain on lists in the coming weeks and should cause small changes to the way games play out on Pauper in the weeks leading up to the release of Modern Horizons 3.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!