We're just about two months into the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. If you're still cracking open booster packs of the set, perhaps at a local draft or sealed event, you may be wondering what cards are worth enough to pay for the booster pack itself. Typically, after a set's initial hype, singles prices fade significantly, inevitably leading to a plethora of bulk rares and sub-$1 Mythic Rares.

I don't know if we've hit rock bottom just yet, but we must be close. As I browse singles from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, I'm amazed by how few are worth more than a Play Booster. Let's have a look at some of the most valuable cards in the set.

Starting with the Basics

Before I dive into alternative printings, etched foils, and serialized rarities, let's first focus on the baseline - what cards, in their normal printing, are worth the most?

As of right now, that prize goes to the Plant Druid himself, Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower currently sells for right around $20, and it doesn't take much to understand why. The Legendary Creature turns your lands into pump spells, sprinkling +1/+1 counters on creatures however you'd like. Then, for five mana at instant speed, you can double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control! That's right, DOUBLE. On Every. Single. Creature. Add in the fact that this creature itself is just two mana, and you have an early play that can snowball rapidly.

Nearly parity to Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is another creature worth a little shy of $20. Unlike Bristly Bill, however, this next most valuable card from Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a reprint! I'm talking about Terror of the Peaks, a truly terrifying creature to see on the other side of the battlefield.

I remember playing against this card in Standard back when it was printed the first time, back in Core Set 2021. It's just as powerful now as it was back then, and thanks to the recent reprint, it's now half the price as before! The powerful Dragon was flirting with $40 at its peak, but now copies are regularly selling for just shy of $20. Eventually this card will bottom out, and it'll be a great price to pick up your copies for both casual and competitive play.

As far as normal printings go, there are just two other Mythic Rares that sell for around $10 or more: Tinybones, the Pickpocket and Final Showdown.

Both of these Mythic Rares may appear to be similar costed because they both have a single pip of mana in the top right corner. Don't be deceived, though - they are two cards with very different abilities!

Tinybones, the Pickpocket is a 1-drop Black creature (Skeleton Rogue) with Deathtouch that allows you to cast cards from your opponents' graveyards if he hits them during combat. It creates an awkward scenario for your opponent because they either have to trade off one of their own creatures or removal spells for it, or else they risk allowing you to accumulate value. At just one mana, this is a frightening creature to face down turn one.

On the other hand, Final Showdown is a supercharged wrath spell. The casting cost may look like it's a single White, but this is one of OTJ's Spree cards, so you need to add mana of varying costs to achieve variable effects. In the case of Final Showdown, the most powerful mode will cost you in total, but destroys all creatures in play at instant speed. If you have an extra mana to spare, you can spare your best creature from the mass description spell by giving it indestructible until end of turn. This makes for a very one-sided, powerful effect!

It's no wonder these cards are still worth more than a Play Booster pack (or two).

The last card I want to touch on in this section is also the only Rare (non-Mythic) on the list:

This is another creature that can completely warp a game in Standard - the Bird Wizard hits fast and hard, leading to some crazy, out-of-nowhere attacks for double digit damage. It turns out Slickshot Show-Off is a fantastic target for 1-drop combat tricks such as Felonious Rage and Monstrous Rage. Playing against the $10 Slickshot Show-Off is rage inducing indeed, but opening one in a Play Booster is a lucrative endeavor.

Alternate Printings

When you expand the list of Outlaws of Thunder Junction cards to include every special printing (alternate frames, alternate arts, foils, etc.) you'll come across a fair number of more expensive cards. For example, the Showcase version of Tinybones, the Pickpocket retails for around $20, roughly double its normal printing counterpart.

Borderless printings of the aforementioned Mythic Rares are also worth a decent amount. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, Terror of the Peaks, and Final Showdown all sell for $15-$25.

Other cards that retail around $10 from Outlaws of Thunder Junction include borderless Goldvein Hydra, Slickshot Show-Off, Jace, the Reawakened, and Railway Brawler. Three Steps Ahead is another rare worth opening--the new Spree Counterspell variant has been making waves in Standard. While the normal printing is only worth a few bucks, the full-frame variant still sells close to $10 on a good day.

Other honorable mentions include the Showcase printing of Gisa, the Hellraiser and Oko, the Ringleader, both of which are worth a few bucks.

The OTJ-Adjacent Cards

It seems underwhelming to consider that there aren't more than a handful of cards still carrying a double-digit price tag from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. It's not that the set was underwhelming or unimpactful. It's just that we're entering a low point for the set as more and more product is opened. Supply will continue to climb for a bit longer before prices can finally bottom.

Unlike with some other sets, however, there's another factor that is also putting a wet blanket on Outlaws of Thunder Junction singles prices. That is all the bonus sheets of the set, siphoning off value into these non-Standard-legal cards. You can open them in packs of OTJ, but they aren't technically in the set.

For example, there's one Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Breaking News card that's worth more than all the cards I mentioned above: Mana Drain!

The card may have a different set symbol and set code, but since you can still open it in an OTJ Play Booster, it counts towards the set's expected value. Speaking of expected value, Mana Drain's continues to remain elevated despite being yet another reprint. Copies continue to sell in the $30 range.

Then there is the super-rare Textured Foil version of Mana Drain - opening a copy of this card will fetch you $180 on the secondary market! So that's where all the set's value is going!

Thoughtseize is another Breaking News reprint worth a decent amount. The regular version is around $7.50 despite being an umpteenth reprint, and textured foil versions sell for north of $40.

Other Breaking News textured foils also carry similarly high price tags. Mindbreak Trap ($200), Force of Vigor ($90), Oko, Thief of Crowns ($85), and Contagion Engine ($45) also top the list. Granted, their nonfoil printings are worth significantly less. If you're hoping to open maximum value from this set, however, these are the cards to hope for - just be aware that in some cases, certain printings will only show up in Collector Boosters.

In addition to Breaking News cards, there are also the Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Big Score cards. These are yet another group of special cards that can be found in OTJ sealed product. Once again, you have some cards with normal printings that are siphoning off value from the rest of the set. Simulacrum Synthesizer sells for around $40 and Vaultborn Tyrant is in the $30 range.

These are impressive price tags, and they eclipse any normal printing of every card in Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

The truly impressive, most expensive are special printings of these Big Score cards. Sorted in order of market price on TCGplayer, below is the list of most valuable cards.

The number one card (for now) is Raised Foil, Showcase Sword of Wealth and Power from The Big Score, which sells for north of $200! The Raised Foil, Showcase version of Vaultborn Tyrant will also fetch three figures. Other special printings from this subset of cards also command a hefty price tag, and remain the most valuable cards from the set, even if it's cheating a little bit since they're technically their own set.

Wrapping It Up

I wonder if Wizards of the Coast is examining the secondary market of Outlaws of Thunder Junction as a sort of experiment. We've had bonus sheets before, but OTJ was unique for having so many bonus sheets with multiple variants and versions. It's interesting to see how many of the base set's singles are relatively inexpensive, and much of the set's value is concentrated in these special bonus sheets and special printings.

Is this a good thing for Magic? Without being privy to all of Wizards of the Coast's marketing data, I can't make that judgment call. I will say that it is awkward to crack open a Play Booster of Outlaws of Thunder Junction hoping most to open specific bonus sheet cards, while not much in the main set is all that worth opening. Only a handful of cards are worth the price of a Play Booster.

On the other hand, this does make playing Standard significantly cheaper. It's much less painful to acquire a playset of $10 Slickshot Show-Off than it is to buy a playset of $60 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. There is something to be said about a more affordable Standard environment, as long as Wizards doesn't take things too far. If we get to a point where there's virtually nothing worth opening in a booster pack outside of a super rare, alt-art, textured foil card, then it'll make for a fairly underwhelming set.

Only time will tell which way Wizards of the Coast will go. The only thing I'm certain of is that I'll be paying very close attention to trends as we head into the next premier set release, Bloomburrow.