As a longtime fan of both Fallout and Magic, their crossover event earlier this year was a dream come true for me. There were so many interesting and powerful cards in this set, and while some of them have received the recognition they deserve, like the Pip-Boy 3000 and Codsworth, Handy Helper, there are still so many cards that I feel have flown under the radar (and EDHREC data backs this up).

As the Bloomburrow hype fades and we settle in for our one-month break before the Duskmourn hype begins, I'd like to look back on my favorite release of the year and share some of, in my opinion, the most underrated cards from the set.

Brotherhood Outcast

The blink archetype has been one of my favorites since I began playing Magic, so whenever a new set comes out I'm always looking for good enter triggers on creatures. The Fallout set has a lot of good ones. For example, Legate Lanius is a solid alternative to Plaguecrafter that has extra value against go-wide token decks, Rampaging Yao Guai can wipe out all those pesky treasure, food, and clue tokens at will, and Commander Sofia Daguerre can keep must-kill commanders in check.

The card that I think stands out for blink decks is Brotherhood Outcast, a 3-mana 3/2 that, when it enters the battlefield, either returns a small aura or enchantment from your graveyard to play or puts a shield counter on a target creature, letting it survive the next damage it takes or removal spell that targets it. Both of these abilities are great, and I always love to see blink targets with flexibility. The second ability is likely the one I'll be using the most, but the first ability can also be relevant in blink decks running cards like Sword of Hearth and Home and Reality Acid.

This card is fantastic for blink decks that care about attacking, with the shield counters protecting your most important creatures from removal or from dying in combat. Classic blink commander Brago, King Eternal comes to mind, as well as Modern Horizon 3's Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. Brotherhood Outcast is also great with the two Jeskai legends we just got in the Bloomburrow commander decks: Zinnia, Valley's Voice and Arthur, Marigold Knight.

Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep

Go-wide decks in Red rejoice, for Fallout has granted you your own version of Toski and Coastal Piracy! Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep is one of my favorite cards from the set that uses the new Junk token mechanic, a mechanic I love for its utility and versatility. With Duchess in play, whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, it gets a quest counter. You may also use her other ability to pay one mana and remove a quest counter from a creature to create a junk token, which you can sacrifice at sorcery speed to exile the top card of your library and play it that turn (if you're new to Magic, we call these effects impulse-draw).

In go-wide decks in Red, Duchess is an excellent way to turn your attacks into card advantage. Unlike a lot of other popular Red combat damage effects, like Professional Face-Breaker, her ability is not limited to once each player, so each creature that connects is a card you can save for later. You'll have to pay a mana each time, but not necessarily right away, so you can save your cards for later if you want. This card advantage also comes in the form of artifact tokens, which allows for extra synergy with artifact payoffs like Reckless Fireweaver and Inspiring Statuary and with token doublers like Anointed Procession, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, or the recently-printed Ocelot Pride.

Colonel Autumn

Colonel Autumn is my favorite type of Magic card: a card that seems innocuous but can do some very powerful stuff with a bit of support and build-around. This card plays around with the Exploit mechanic, which debuted in Dragons of Tarkir and made a reappearance in our third visit to Innistrad in Crimson Vow. This mechanic is really sweet, letting your creatures with exploit sacrifice a creature when they enter to get an effect. Colonel Autumn not only gives this keyword to all of your legendary creatures, it also rewards you for exploiting by putting counters on all your creatures.

Aristocrats is nothing new for the Orzhov color combo, but Colonel Autumn puts a fun spin on the classic archetype by also encouraging you to play lots of legendary creatures. There are a few notable ones that play really well with Autumn, like Adeline, Resplendent Cather, Denethor, Ruling Steward, and Lord Skitter, Sewer King, all of which can exploit creatures and make additional tokens to be sacrificed later. Because of the way exploit is worded, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is also an all-star in the deck, letting you exploit two creatures instead of one to search for your two best cards.

If you want to see what a commander deck with Colonel Autumn at the helm would look like (under a modest budget), you can check out my own brew here: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/gS5a7MzJgEih9VUHKAOcoQ