Outlaws of Thunder Junction Prerelease This Weekend

Giddyup, folks! It's time for the newest set to finally hit your local game store as Outlaws of Thunder Junction prereleases kick off this weekend. Check your LGS for when they'll be hosting their events and check out Magic's 100th premier expansion. If you can't make it out to your local shop, be sure to check out the Outlaws of Thunder Junction store page right here on CoolStuffInc.com for all your new set needs.

Equinox Superdrop Secret Lair On Sale

It's time for yet another Secret Lair Superdrop! Last week I mentioned how we were shown the upcoming Fallout Secret Lairs that would be featured in this upcoming Equinox Superdrop. In addition, at the end of last week we also saw several other Lairs such as tarot-inspired style of Artist Series: Rovina Cai, the Diabolical Dioramas living up to its name featuring wild art by Laura Plansker, and a whimsical set of cards in Featuring: Phoebe Wahl. Purchasing select bundles also got you a unique Ignoble Hierarch promo as well. You can check out the full details in this announcement.

THIS SUCKS. We're back to having to buy these as soon as the go live or you're SOL.@wizards_magic @MTGSecretLair I preferred when we were moving AWAY from FOMO and not leaning into it.

You've got a great product here but we can't even post a review before it's irrelevant pic.twitter.com/sTX3tsWY9T

— Jake & Joel MTG (@jakejoelmtg) April 9, 2024

This Superdrop wasn't without its controversy, though, with several Lairs selling out in less than 24 hours of the sales kicking off. Several more have since sold out as well, with others noted as having low stock via emails sent out to those on the Secret Lair mailing list. This continues the controversial shift of the Secret Lair line from a print-to-demand system to a singular print run system that has lead to player concerns over inevitable feelings of FOMO.

MTG Arena Historic B&R Update Announced

In the latest MTG Arena announcement article outlining various details of the upcoming Outlaws of Thunder Junction release, Wizards announced a handful of cards being added to the Historic ban list. These cards include Force of Vigor, Commandeer, Reanimate, and Mana Drain. All of these come from the Breaking News bonus sheet and each is considered potentially too powerful for the format. While changes were noted for Historic, the announcements article notes that no changes are currently planned for Timeless. This is due to the Arena team wanting to wait and see how the cards perform in the format's high powered environment first before making any adjustments.

SCG Runs Short of RCQ Kits

SCG has nearly sold out of RCQ kits for the upcoming season in the US. The amount of restock won't meet the demand they have seen, so they are reducing the number of RCQs each store can run back to one for those that haven't scheduled yet. Stores should schedule right away. #mtg pic.twitter.com/EQll8UmhWj

— Robert Taylor? (@fireshoes) April 6, 2024

Starting with the upcoming Pioneer season, retailer and tournament organizer Star City Games is taking over North American RCQs and RCs for the 2024-2025 season. Robert Taylor (@fireshoes on Twitter) broke news from SCG's Discord server that they were running low on their supply of RCQ kits for stores. The demand has been far greater than anticipated and even with an impending restock, it's likely that not all stores will be able to get the maximum amount of kits (three) for the upcoming season. Check with your local game stores to see what they have been able to receive and what events they will be hosting.

Magic Online Improvements Continue

At this point it's almost becoming a regular inclusion to bring up how the team at Daybreak Games is absolutely killing it with Magic Online. As it happens, that's because it's incredibly well deserved. This week, there's several things to celebrate regarding the program.

First up is the latest additions every new account gets upon purchasing the $5 account upgrade package from the store. Each brand new account receives a collection full of all kinds of goodies, including decent playables for all kinds of formats such as full playsets of check lands and Theros block Temples. Each newly upgraded account also receives a set of starter preconstructed decks to get fresh players a decent foot in the door with something to do aside from a semi-blank collection. This includes one deck for each of the following formats: Pioneer (Humans), Pauper (Delver), Commander (Braids, Arisen Nightmare), Legacy (Burn), and Modern (Infect). You can find the full details of this new starter collection here.

In addition to an updated starter package for new players, the team at Daybreak also compiled a massive collection of 2000 cards that you can get for just $39! This product, dubbed Commander Workshop, is meant to provide a method to kickstart new players' collections so they can dive right into the program with games of Commander. This package doesn't just benefit Commander players, though, as there are tons of Constructed playables in the mix such as one of most shock land, Cabal Coffers, Xander's Lounge, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and way more. I realize I rattled off mostly lands here, but take my word for it: it's a lot to go through and lands are easy universal players to pick out of the mix. If you're looking to get into Magic Online, this is worth it and then some. You can find out the full details on this product here.

But wait, there's more?! There sure is! Slightly buried in the announcements for the upcoming release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction was an announcement of the return of Commander leagues. This has been hotly requested among Commander players to provide a way to play the format in a more meaningful manner on the Magic Online client. The program will offer friendly Commander leagues for those who just want a chill experience, while those that enjoy CEDH can check out the competitive Commander leagues instead. This is a huge boon to MTGO and one that players have already been jumping onto.

Massive hats off to the Daybreak team for continually crushing it lately with everything they're doing for the game.

Decklist of the Week

Izzet Prowess | OTJ Standard | yoman5

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Elusive Otter
• 4 Fugitive Codebreaker
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Slickshot Show-Off

• Instants (16)
• 4 Consider
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Monstrous Rage
• 4 Play with Fire

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Ancestral Anger
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Lands (18)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Botanical Sanctum
• 2 Thran Portal
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

As is tradition with the release of a new set comes the usual yoman5 article featuring several fresh lists for players to toy around with. I highly recommend you check out the article for all the lists, but I at least wanted to highlight one list and this one looked promising. Slickshot Show-Off has been getting no shortage of hype during preview season for the potentially explosive turns you can achieve utilizing it. Thanks to it showing up here in this set alongside a handful of fresh dual lands, yoman5 has put together a new list utilizing plenty of good old fashioned burn spells and cantrips to make the most out of this new bird and its other prowess buddies. It wouldn't surprise me to see a more fleshed out list like this in the coming weeks as the format settles, making it a great option to pick up and check out on MTG Arena or at your local Standard nights.

Paige Smith

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