Outlaws of Thunder Junction finds new use for old toys.
You’d think a card game with as many expansions as Magic: The Gathering would have done something as poker-adjacent as a Western set before now, but it’s taken until its 100th expansion for Magic to cowboy up. Outlaws of Thunder Junction explores a new plane full of arcane trains to rob and cactus-spider monsters to shoot—called cactarantulas, naturally—but it’s interesting how much this brand new set’s mechanics have made me want to go trawling through older cards.
For starters, there’s Crime now. Several cards improve or trigger abilities if you committed a Crime that turn, where Crime is defined as « Targeting an opponent, anything that opponent controls, and/or any cards in an opponent’s graveyard ». That covers quite a lot of ways you can mess with other players, but doesn’t include basic attacking. When you take a swing at an opponent in the combat phase, you’re not targeting anything specific, which I like to imagine as all your creatures marching forward windmilling their arms like Bart Simpson. Nothing criminal about that.
To actually count as committing a Crime, you have to play something that deliberately targets a specific card or opponent. When you do, you’re rewarded by cards like At Knifepoint, which gives you a free Mercenary; Rattleback Apothecary, which gives another creature Menace or Lifelink for the turn; and Marauding Sphinx, which lets you Surveil 2.
