Introduction

Howdy partners!

After extensive testing, playing multiple games in the new format, we are ready to give you some basic guideline in the wild wild magic west of Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

Fix Your Mana Early

This set is full of bombs and removal and for this very reason you don’t need to pick every niche good card and removal you came across early on.

We have lots of ways to fix mana even at colorless and you shouldn’t be afraid to splash even two or three colors if it worth. Crime deserts are also a good pick even early on.

We already have some goods colorless cards for this task with nice side effects like card draw and lifegain and there are a good amount of treasure makers that can help you.

If you are on a green base (spoiler: YOU SHOULD!) is even easier to play whatever other color you want thanks to the great mana dorks and desert fetchers at your disposal.

Go Green

Not only is good for the environment but is also the best color in the set. The mana fixing is already great but the overall card quality is nothing to scuff at. Good cheap beaters with general utility are always a safe pick in limited.

Also some of the best multicolor bombs in the format have green mana in their cost.

You even have some nice removals in Savage Smash and Throw from the Saddle.

Don’t go all in on a specific mechanic

Synergies are less important than individual card quality in this set. With high amount of rares and the overall high power level, committing all to a mechanic playing some subpar cards only for the sake of synergy is not a good plan.

But you should absolutely leverage those mechanics you naturally enable playing the games. Committing crimes is something you’ll do even if you are not building for it, with all the deserts and the removal, so it’s not a bad idea to get some good payoff.

Also self enablers like Blood Hustler are a nice pick.

Double spelling is another thing you already want to do and probably will do a lot in the lategame so why not getting the good payoff? It’s also well supported by the plot mechanic and there are some great cards there too.

And you can play the good mounts almost anywhere, they don’t need extra support or payoff if they are already good unsaddled.

Don’t get too attached to your creatures

Like i said before, removals are plenty so you’ll creatures will die often. Every color have a way to protect a creature at un/common but often is not enough so it’s better to think that you’ll creature probably won’t stick. To counter this, you should always prioritize creatures with immediate value or that pose a good threat in every phase of the game.

Roxanne, Starfall Savant is great for that. They will probably try to kill her on sight so she'll not only eat a removal but she'll also leave you with a mana stone and 2 damage to kill one of their small creatures. Not bad for 5 mana.

With the abundance of good removal in the the Breaking News you can also de prioritize them a bit on the pick order, you’ll still have plenty of occasions to get them.

Conclusion

And for today that’s all folk! Grease your guns and check you bullets, it’s a dangerous world there in the frontier!