MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction release date, spoilers, news

Outlaws of Thunder Junction was the second premier MTG set of 2024. It took place on a brand new plane and gave Magic’s take on the Western genre, full of dusty desert showdowns, saloons, and cowboy hats. Find all the Outlaws of Thunder Junction release dates, spoilers, and news below.

As well as Westerns, the other main theme for this MTG set was villains, who had come to this frontier fantasy from all across the multiverse to seek fortune and riches – by robbing an ancient vault.

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction is out now – you can find the key cards, and set information below. You can also check out our MTG release schedule guide to see where Thunder Junction fits in alongside the rest of 2024’s sets, like Bloomburrow and Murders at Karlov Manor.

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction release date

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction global release date was April 19. Before the set came out there were two weeks of card spoilers between March 26 – April 5, finishing with the set’s Commander decks.

Fans were able to get hold of Outlaws of Thunder Junction cards a little early from their LGS – from the prerelease events on April 12 onwards. And the cards arrived on MTG Arena on April 16, a couple of days before the set’s global launch.

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers

We’ve seen all the main set Outlaws of Thunder Junction spoilers now, from the basic lands to the Commander decks. Here are some of the most interesting or impactful:

Outlaws of Thunder Junction Planeswalkers

First of all, we saw this set’s one and only MTG planeswalker card. And of course… it’s Oko! Wait, come back. This one’s not so scary. He makes elks, but at a sensible rate. He draws cards, and he has a sweet ultimate that copies all your nonland stuff.

But what’s really cool about this card – and fits with the characters shapeshifting magic – is his static ability. He can become one of your creatures each turn!

There’s also an absurdly low cost Jace. It can’t enter play till at least turn four, but has very solid abilities for its cost, looting, cheating spell costs, and eventually copying whatever you cast.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction Legendary Creatures

Outlaws of Thunder Junction has an enormous number of legendary creatures, with many, many new MTG commander options. The set seems to be geared heavily to EDH, though Mark Rosewater has assured that future sets will pull back on this somewhat.

Tinybones, the Pickpocket is a very diddy legendary creature, with a simple theme. When he lands an attack you can cast a permanent card from the attacked player’s graveyard, letting you take advantage of whatever busted spells your foes are playing.

As you might gather from this card’s name, each character in the villain posse has a name indicating their role in the group, characteristic of western or heist movies.

Like Annie Flash, the Veteran! This Naya creature comes in with Flash and brings a (tapped) friend back to the battlefield. Then she provides impulse draw. Honestly, even in Commander, this seems a bit rough for six mana.

There’s also Vraska, the Silencer, and this one’s much more interesting to us. Vraska’s still using her gorgon assassination powers, turning creatures into treasures which provide ramp. Any activated or static abilities stick around though. In Standard, we’d love to hit a Sheoldred with this.

More Golgari fun, here’s The Gitrog (I always thought he was the monster from Gitrog)! This flavorful card can eat its rider, and then you get to draw cards and pop lands down equal to their power.

Another Rakdos so soon? Yep the guild leader is on Thunder Junction, and still doing sacrificial shenanigans. He’s got in-built indestructibility, and can steal cards from the top of other player’s library, or impulse draw your own.

One of the most interesting Thunder Junction cards for Commander is Obeka, Splitter of Seconds. This card messes with the structure of turns, giving you an additional upkeep step when she deals damage.

Everyone’s going to have different ideas of what to do with this Obeka, which we predict will be one of the most popular commanders in the set. Some are going to take advantage of double triggers for Phyrexian Arena, others are going to win the game in short order with Mechanized Production. We like the first group better.

Fblthp, Lost on the Range lets you Plot cards off the top of your library. This means you can pay a spell’s mana cost on one turn, then play it for free on a later turn. It seems like a decent toy for Izzet Storm decks.

Breaking News Bonus Sheet

Outlaws of Thunder Junction was yet another set with its own bonus sheet, containing a collection of thematic reprints. This time, it was a bunch of cards that represent crimes (see our mechanics overview lower down for more info).

These cards are also decorated to look like newspaper articles, filling Thunder Junctions denizens in on all the wrongdoings being done.

The Big Score

As well as its Breaking News bonus sheet, Outlaws of Thunder Junction also had something a bit unique going on. See, this set was originally going to have its own associated micro-set like March of the Machine Aftermath. Aftermath performed so poorly that this idea was scrapped, but Wizards had already produced the cards.

Therefore, there are a number of rare and mythic rare cards that form a separate subsection within Outlaws. Named ‘The Big Score’, these cards focus on what actually happens once Oko and co open the Vault.

This frame can also appear on the set’s ‘Special Guest’ cards, thematic reprints Wizards has begun including in every set since Lost Caverns of Ixalan. It’s pretty confusing, but at least we only have two types of pack to worry about now!

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction mechanics

There were five new Outlaws of Thunder Junction mechanics:

• Crimes
• Spree
• Plot
• Saddle/Mount
• Outlaws

First up, Crimes. Various cards, like the Oko planeswalker way above, refer to ‘committing a crime’. A crime refers to any spell or ability that targets an opponent or one (or more) of their permanents, spells on the stack, or cards in the graveyard.

The set has lots of cards that trigger when you or someone else commits a crime, and the cards in the Breaking News bonus sheet are all crimes.

Spree is a new modal mechanic like Kicker. You pay the base cost of a Spree spell, and can then plug in different quantities of mana to activate its other effects.

There’s also a mechanic called Plot, which works a bit like Foretell. Basically, you can pay a spell’s Plot cost on one turn to exile it, then cast it (at sorcery speed) on another turn for free.

Saddle is like Crew but for creatures instead of MTG vehicles. Mount creatures can attack by themselves, but get some kind of bonus when you tap a creature to Saddle them.

And finally Outlaws is a new kind of creature batching. When a card refers to an outlaw, it means any creature that’s a pirate, mercenary, rogue, assassin, or warlock.)

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction story

This is another genre set, so Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s story closely followed Western tropes. Officially, the set was part of the ‘Omenpaths arc’, which was meant to show the effects of the Phyrexian invasion (namely the Omenpath rifts that opened up between worlds).

The Omenpaths arc followed new character Kellan on a whistle-stop tour between planes. Outlaws of Thunder Junction is where he finally met up with his dad, Oko, who was doing a heist for Ashiok (but actually Jace).

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is also about a multiversal group of Magic: The Gathering villains coming together to pull off a big job. The image above shows that group. From left to right we have Tinybones, Vraska, Kellan, Oko, new character Annie Flash, and Rakdos.

This motley crew was aiming to unlock a mysterious ancient vault, rumored to contain unspecified untold riches. Naturally, Oko’s crew wanted to be the first inside.

MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks

There were four Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander decks appearing alongside this set. All four Thunder Junction commanders and decklists have now been revealed.

For more things Magic, check out our list of the best MTG commanders and this up-to-date list of MTG Arena codes.