Search Results

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) has its full release around the corner and, for what I believe is the first time, the OTJ packs will have a secondary set inserted into them, The Big Score. The Big Score is comprised of 30 cards that were added from what would have been the Aftermath-equivalent set. You can conclude that these are cards that are part of the main set as they will be legal in all formats, including Standard. Let's take a look at some of the most interesting inclusions. Lost Jitte This has been quite the controversial preview. Many have said it's super strong and maybe stronger than the original Jitte. Others say it's unplayable. It's funny that our community can be hyperbolic, but in many cases, one of the things can be true, and this card fits that case. This is either a card that warrants a slot in decks with cards like Urza'a Saga or Stoneforge Mystic, or it simply isn't. My stance is this card is too weak to include in every deck playing Urza's Saga, but it will be a potential tool in creature-heavy decks playing Saga, as it won't be a poor draw on its own. This card will shine the most when Saga is still in play, and you can use it to create an additional construct by untapping Urza's Saga. Umezawa's Jitte got multiple counters a turn making it more difficult to come back from. The Lost Jitte can ramp your mana some or make a creature not block, but its snowball effect is not that big. Lost Jitte is strong but also beatable in Limited. In Constructed, it will be another tool to add to the Saga toolbox, but I'm skeptical that Lost Jitte sees any long-term play in even those decks. I'm not a big believer in Lost Jitte, but I can see situations where certain decks might want a one-of in their Saga toolbox. Bristlebud Farmer Four-mana creatures have come a long way since Ernham Djinn. Bristlebud Farmer has a sizeable body as a four-mana 5/5 trample and a solid enters-the-battlefield effect providing two food immediately, and if you can start attacking with the Farmer, you can sacrifice food to get real cardboard into your hand. This is a tough card to evaluate. It's strong on its face, but four-mana cards have to be so good to see play because there are so many options and you can only play so many due to the steep mana cost. While this card looks great, you have to compare it to Standard's best four-drops such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypyse. While Bristlebud Farmer is nice, it's worse than Sheoldred. Without a mana dork that costs one-mana, cards that look strong on their face aren't good enough in Standard since they need to compete with several years of other four-drops and years of synergies. Bristlebud Farmer doesn't have much synergy at the moment. Bristlebud Farmer would be an excellent card against an aggressive field of red decks, as it's tough to kill with damage-based removal and the extra food tokens will be relevant if it dies before it gets the opportunity to get into combat. I like Bristlebud Farmer, but not being one of the best four-drops in the format means I don't think it will see much play unless its ability to make two food tokens plays a role in it being included in a deck. Harvester of Misery This is probably my favorite card from The Big Score. Harvester of Misery has a modal ability where it can act as a cheap removal spell early and a sweeper on a stick later. Harvester of Misery punishes small-creature decks early and late. This card will be prolific if there's a standout deck with lots of small creatures. If the Standard format shapes into more of a midrange grindfest, Harvester of Misery will sit on the sideboard or perhaps not be seen at all. I suspect we'll see this card plenty, potentially even outside of Standard, because it's so flexible with a high upside. While discarding it isn't the most efficient removal, it's good enough in many scenarios. Harvester of Misery is like a better or fixed Massacre Wurm. It won't hit as hard, but you don't mind seeing it in your opening hand, and you can get it into your graveyard, which makes it an excellent tool for decks reanimating creatures from the graveyard, whether that be from a card like Cruelty of Gix or as a card to add to your cube. Nexus of Becoming While Harvester of Misery is potentially my favorite card, Nexus of Becoming is next, if not top, on the list. Nexus of Becoming is so powerful if you're able to fit in enough high-end cards to cheat into play for big effects. My first thought was cheating Atraxas into play and starting a chain, but even putting redundant copies of itself into play is powerful since it draws you additional cards and you can find a big hit. Portal to Phyrexia is another juicy play with this, and even Harvester of Misery would play nicely in a deck with Nexus of Becoming because both are cheap removal spells that can double as a powerful play off Nexus. On top of Nexus, we discussed Make Your Own Luck, which could act as a redundant way to cheat a bunch of expensive, high-impact plays into play. Boseiju being legal is a big problem for Nexus, and this idea may be a bit too clunky. However, there are a lot of neat ways to build with this card and the potential is high. I'm a big fan of Nexus of Becoming, and this is the card I'm most excited about building around in Outlaws of Thunder Junction or The Big Score. Fomori Vault Fomori Vault looked cool to me at first glance. It's a value land that can let you dig deep into your deck if you're able to support it well enough with a plethora of artifacts in play. There are tons of options for value lands, and while this may be a card you want a copy of in a deck like that, those decks are uncommon or creature-heavy and want the value lands to put pressure on the opponent. While Fomori Vault can act as a discard outlet, it's just a Desolate Lighthouse with added steps. It reads like it could be strong, but it's not that easy to have a bunch of artifacts in play. If I want a colorless value land, I have many choices, and this isn't the top of the list. Fomori Vault is probably a cool Commander card, as people tend to play lots of artifact mana, and you're limited to one copy of lands per deck. It's mostly a miss, but you may occasionally see a copy in 60-card formats. Legion Extruder I've seen some compare Legion Extruder to Bonecrusher Giant, and I can say without question this is not even close. Stomp was an instant, which was and is an important part of its play pattern and power level. Being able to pass on turn two with Stomp mana up, kill the opponent's creature, and immediately slam a 4/3 on an empty board was incredible. With Legion Extruder, you get to play at sorcery speed and at best kill something. Even though it lets you turn food and treasure into 3/3 golems, it's going to require that effect to be outstanding for this card to be playable in your deck. That effect may have some corner-case situations, however Legion Extruder is mostly too weak for any real consideration. A much closer comparison for Legion Extruder would be Omen of the Forge. I'd expect it to see the little play that Omen has, but rather in specific situations where you're building an artifact deck that wants to keep artifacts in play and wants a cheap removal effect or some way to sacrifice artifacts. I'm not a big fan of this one and while I won't be surprised to see a few copies here and there it is far from a format staple like Bonecrusher Giant. Tarnation Vista Speaking of wanting random cardboard cards with colors sitting in play, Tarnation Vista wants just that. We've seen many versions of lands that enter tapped, and you choose a color they can produce, so we need to focus on its second ability to evaluate this card. Tarnation Vista's biggest upside is producing more than one mana when it's tapped. To get to that point, you need three different colored mono-colored permanents in play to produce one additional mana. That's not a tough nut to crack. It's possible to build your deck in a way to make that easier, as you can have mono-colored permanents with low value sitting in play with cards like Legion Extruder. Tarnation Vista comes into play tapped, meaning its upside would have to outweigh that downside for this to be a strong land choice. My initial inclination is that it will be too inconsistent to consider this land in any 60-card format. This is more of a Commander card that any deck can and will want to play because it will be useful more often in a typical EDH game-state. The cost of lands coming into play tapped is too high these days to only produce a single color of mana and with such an inconsistent additional upside. Memory Vessel This is a fixed Memory Jar that doesn't force opponents to discard. If you activate this and don't win on that turn, your opponent will get to play with their fresh seven cards. Memory Vessel gets exiled on use, so there's no recurring it repeatedly to deck the opponent. One of my favorite use cases is in sloppy Vintage Cube games. Memory Jar was a broken card because of all the small pieces of the card, including how it forced the opponent to discard, so cards like Megrim were the win condition or casting an Upheaval in the middle of a Jar activation left the opponent with no resources. Memory Vessel is powerful and worth trying as a redundant Jar for a cube. You don't have to worry as much about your opponent drawing cards like Force of Will or Force of Negation because the cards don't go into their actual hand and they'll need something already in it to pitch to cast those. While I love the callback to one of my all-time favorite cards, I don't understand this card since it will never be used fairly. Perhaps this is an effect desired for Commander players, but in 60-card formats this will never show up, and if it does it will be in a deck using it to piece together a combo. I doubt we'll see much from Memory Vessel. The Big Score is a nice added twist to booster packs that you'll commonly see in drafts. With all these extra potentially strong cards being Standard-legal, I wonder if we see something break. Outlaws of Thunder Junction and The Big Score are just around the corner with an April 19 release date. I'm most excited to get into the draft queues, but I also want to put together a nice Nexus of Becoming deck. OTJ is the most excited I've been for a set in a couple of years, and I'm hoping it's as fun as it looks.

I don't usually sing praises of Magic sets before I play them, but for the first time in years, I'm getting excited reading through the previews. Limited is my favorite way to play Magic, and this set looks fantastic in that regard. Desert synergies, powerful gold cards, cool mechanics, and creatures that can block efficiently are all reasons why I'm looking forward to the set. Regarding Constructed, I've highlighted a few cards with some potential. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is a generically powerful creature in lots of contexts. Something most recent Standard decks have been missing is two-drops with the ability to snowball. Bristly Bill can do that, but while the mana in Standard is close to its best, we don't have fetch lands to really abuse Landfall. Where I'm most excited about this card's potential is alongside Slogurk. Bristly Bill can put counters on Slogurk allowing it to be returned easier, double its counters in the late game, and work in any versions with Splendid Reclamation or the like. Bill is also legendary to reduce the cost of channeling lands like Otawara and Takenuma. Slogurk decks also typically play high land counts, so you'll never miss a land drop that is beneficial for Bill. It seems to fit in nicely and synergize so well with my favorite card in Standard, and it's a powerful threat that can stand on its own as the game develops. Bristly Bill has other potential uses. I can see it as a nice "curve topper" in an aggressive shell. You can plan to cast Bill on turn three after curving out and following up with a fetch land, whether it be a card like Evolving Wilds in Standard or a true fetch land in Modern for a deck like Hardened Scales. Bristly Bill looks like an all-around solid two-drop that can also have a big impact later in the game. I like this card a lot. Caustic Bronco Speaking of two-drops with snowball potential, Caustic Bronco is the latest Dark Confidant variant. This card looks like it could see some play if the Standard format allows it to attack regularly, which if paired with a lot of removal and/or Raffine, it very well could. I love the idea of curving this into Raffine and opening the door to draw extra cards and filter through them. Later, you can saddle it to start draining the opponent's life and the game should end quickly. Outside of a deck like Esper, it could potentially see some play in a deck like Golgari Midrange. One of the big issues with two-drops recently has been they don't leave behind value, which leads to three-drops dominating the format. Cards like Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Wedding Announcement, and Raffine dominated Standard for so long and we didn't have many ways to get extra cards at two mana. Caustic Bronco isn't a broken card, as its design is similar to a card like Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, but it is an option at three mana that will help you play through mulligans and other powerful cards that generate tons of value. I think Caustic Bronco makes sense to try in decks like Golgari Mid, Esper, and potentially Dimir Midrange. Slick Sequence Slick Sequence is easily my favorite design of the set, which is why I'm highlighting it here. It's so simple but beautifully designed. Slick Sequence allows for one-for-one early interaction, and it becomes more powerful as the game develops. It leaves you up a card when you sequence it with another spell and kill something. Additionally, it's designed to work well with plot, a key set mechanic. I'm not sure this card will see any Constructed play. It's almost there, and I could see it in something like an Izzet Prowess deck with a card like Slickshot Show-Off. I love this card and hope there are enough two-toughness creatures in Standard for this to see play. Make Your Own Luck This is a cool design with potentially powerful applications. Obviously, my mind is immediately drawn to Eldrazi with cast triggers that can take advantage of Make Your Own Luck or perhaps Atraxa. Its obvious home in Standard would be Domain, as you could high roll an early 0 mana Atraxa into play. The problem with pure card draw cards is that you fall too far behind on the board to a point you can't recover. When permanents are providing value and threatening your life total, spending a turn not adding to the board can be devastating. Make Your Own Luck makes up for it by giving you back tempo and hopefully recouping at least the amount of mana you spent on it on the following turn, giving you an opportunity for an incredible follow-up turn. A Pioneer Marvel deck is the first deck that comes to mind after reading Make Your Own Luck. Aetherworks Marvel had issues with redundancy and hitting the correct pieces when you spun the Marvel and looked. Make Your Own Luck is a solid plan B. It's likely not good enough, but I'm interested in trying to build and test it out. Make Your Own Luck's biggest issue is that it's a five-mana card that incentivizes you to play lots of other expensive cards, and we all know you don't have a bunch of time to dawdle these days. Brainstorm effects could potentially fix this issue some, but they're few and far between. Make Your Own Luck is a cool card, and I'd like to try it out, but I think it will be too clunky. I definitely want to see how it plays in Vintage Cube, though. Aven Interrupter Aven Interrupter is a new and flashy white three-drop reminiscent of Spell Queller. The Interrupter will chew up a ton of the opponent's mana by exiling their spell and forcing them to spend two extra mana to cast it on a later turn. It works against cards like Supreme Verdict and can be used to protect your spell from a counterspell. It looks solid on its face and likely will see a lot of play, but the taxing effect is attached to the creature, so you can shock the Interrupter and freely cast your spell. This isn't necessarily a big problem, but Aven Interrupter will play best at the top of the curve in a white aggressive deck, and there are already many options for that at three mana. At the very least, I expect white aggro decks to play some of these in their sideboards against slower controlling decks since it will be a nightmare to lose so much mana and tempo to this card. Aven Interrupter is all-around solid, cleverly uses the set's new mechanic, and provides a lot of utility. We will see a decent amount of this card in the future. Seraphic Steed Here's another powerful two-drop that can snowball like crazy. A Seraphic Steed on turn two into a four-powered three-drop on three is going to end a lot of games before they get a chance to start. This two-drop also has first strike that makes blocking it exceptionally hard. After it's saddled and connected once, it will be easier to saddle and make another 3/3. It will be hard to lose a game when this creature makes two tokens. While I think this card is good, it forces you to play out creatures to saddle it. Instead of your spent mana interacting with your opponent's blockers, it will be providing new jockeys to ride this steed, making it vulnerable to a few blockers. Seraphic Steed is powerful if unchecked, but it's less exciting if it can't create an Angel and live through it. It's a solid card that might see some play if a deck can support it, but it's not worth building around too much. Assimilation Aegis Assimilation Aegis is a weird card but in a good way. It's not the most powerful removal spell since it's relatively mana-inefficient, but it provides us with the ability to clone what it exiles, which adds a lot of upside. I can see a world where the opponent cheats an Atraxa into play and we're able to exile and clone it for a huge hit. However, if an opponent puts an Atraxa into play, they're going to have a bunch of extra cards, such as a Leyline Binding to exile this. I like how this card overlaps into the Commander world as a cool card for that style of gameplay but also a card with practical uses in 60-card formats. One of the most potentially useful applications is as a one-of to tutor up with Stoneforge Mythic in eternal formats as a removal spell for the midgame. I like that this card exists, and I love how it was designed, except for the lack of ward 1. An Aegis is a powerful magical shield, and adding ward 1 to this mythic rare seems reasonable. Other than that, I'm glad we have another potential tool in Stoneforge Mystic's toolbox. I love what I'm seeing so far, and I'm excited to play with Outlaws of Thunder Junction, especially in Limited.

Preview season is back, and Outlaws of Thunder Junction has showed some interesting designs and put a spin on a few old ideas. Let's take a peek, starting with Oko. Oko, The Ringleader I love the design of this card. I'm worried it's not quite good enough in any format, but its play patterns are strong on open battlefields. Typically, we'll play this on turn four, make a 3/3 Elk, and pass the turn hoping to untap intact. At that point, we can attack for six damage copying the Elk and even making another. This reminds me of a pushed Garruk Wildspeaker, and it has a higher ceiling since it can copy tons of relevant creatures, however a lot of the stronger creatures are legendary, and Oko will legend rule in that case. In a highly interactive deck, Oko works as a card engine to get an extra card if you commit a crime, otherwise it can filter cards if you need more gas or want to fill up your graveyard. I'm interested to see how this will play alongside a card like Slogurk, the Overslime since they have the potential to synergize. I like Oko, and while it may not be nearly as strong as it would have been in prior years, it will likely see some play in Standard and maybe Pioneer. Jace Reawakened Jace is back, and this one is interesting. Many people have pointed out its synergy with Valki, God of Lies, as it's a clean way to cheat Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor into play. We also could cast zero mana suspend cards like Crashing Footfalls. While this is a nice bonus for Jace, that would likely be your plan B. You'd want to play Jace because of how much mana it functionally produces. We can cast three or less mana spells for zero throughout the game, which seems strong if it's sitting in play. It makes sense that Jace isn't castable until turn four because it would be broken if castable on turn two. You could start storing away spells to cast on a later turn while piling up a huge mana advantage. Having Jace come out on turn four means the game will have settled, and your opponent has an opportunity to get on board first before this can take over the game. I could see Jace being a bigger role player in a format like Legacy where the average converted mana cost is lower. Allowing Jace to cast every spell in your deck would be a nice boon. Ultimately, Jace is likely an overall miss because of the inability to cast on the first three turns, which are the most relevant turns in modern Magic. Insatiable Avarice We have a Spree card, which seems the same as a split card with fuse, but it's cleaner and on a single image with more than two modes. Insatiable Avarice is a nice tool for the Mono Black toolbox since it can be used as card advantage in the form of a three-mana draw, but it's also a way to give a deck like Mono B Aggro a little reach with the ability to target the opponent. The Vampiric Tutor mode will mostly be used in the late game on top of the draw three or in cases where you're so low on life that you can't afford to draw three but have no other use for the card. This is a cool card to exist, as it will give these Mono Black decks a tool in their tool belt, but it pushes any Mono B deck into contention because of its existence. The mechanic isn't revolutionary because it's an expansion of past mechanics, but hopefully it's fun to use. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride We get our first look at the saddle mechanic. Saddle is effectively crewing but for creatures. Creatures that are mounts function as normal creatures, but they'll get an additional ability when saddled. The Gitrog monster looks cool as a five-mana 6/5 trample haste, but that's where it ends. In some cases, you can cash in a three-powered creature to draw a few cards, but if the Gitrog is connecting then you're probably in a good spot. It's worth noting that this saddled ability won't function if it connects to a planeswalker, which is significant since I could see back-and-forth games as ones you'd want to sacrifice damage and board presence for cards in hand. Overall, I evaluate the Gitrog as a 6/5 trample haste creature for five mana, which may be playable in some decks in a small number, but it's likely not good enough in modern Magic. Rakdos, the Muscle Rakdos, the Muscle is another five-mana 6/5 creature, but this one looks better than the Gitrog. While it's missing haste, it makes up for it with its ability to protect itself. You can simply cast Rakdos with any other creature in play, and they're forced to use multiple removal spells or risk you being able to get tons of cards sacrificing three- or four-mana creatures for value. Ultimately, this card is clunky and will likely want you to have a relevant synergy, whether that's part of a sacrifice deck or a deck with threaten effects to steal opponents' creatures as food. Rakdos provides versions of Cat/Oven Sacrifice decks with a tool like Korvold without having to add an additional color. While it's not quite the Magic ecosystem where we build around five-mana sorcery-speed creatures, Rakdos has a huge body with flying and trample, the ability to protect itself, and a way to generate a ton of card advantage. Rakdos will likely see play as a one- or two-of in Standard decks and, if not for Jegantha, maybe Pioneer. Colossal Rattlewurm Yet another 6/5 creature, but this one is for four mana and has flash in ideal circumstances. We haven't seen how many Deserts there will be, but this leads me to believe that we'll have a common cycle of lands and newer versions of the older Deserts like Ramunap Ruins. This is a sick creature if we get a bunch of playable Constructed Deserts to go with Rattlewurm. If not, it's solid but unspectacular. The ability to play this alongside counterspells or instant-speed interaction will make or break this card. If we get a strong enough cycle of lands to combine with Rattlewurm, it's essentially a flash 6/5 trample for four mana that gives you a Rampant Growth to boot if or when it dies. In the last few sets, they haven't been shy about pushing creature sizing on creatures with no downsides. While vanilla creatures are usually not good enough for Constructed, Colossal Rattlewurm will have legs if there's support. Return of Fast Lands I like having a solid dual land that gives functional mana in early turns for Standard decks. It feels bad losing Standard games because you played a tapped land on the wrong turn. While that will happen with fast lands, at least you develop or interact on the most important turns with these. Since fast lands are Pioneer staples, I'd expect to see them printed more. It will be awesome to have all ten fast lands in Standard. Outlaws of Thunder Junction looks interesting so far, but a lot of the newer mechanics feel like older mechanics that went through the washing machine and came out slightly different. I'm not excited yet, but from a Limited player's perspective, the return of Desert mechanics is excellent. I loved Hour of Devastation Limited, and it's usually good to have Limited sets where there's tension between drafting lands and spells. I'm excited to see how the rest of the set pans out.

Welcome to 95 Game Center! We specialize in collectible trading card games and accessories. Join us for a scheduled event, or anytime for casual play. Retail and player space , starting at noon every Tuesday-Saturday! We carry sealed product and accessories in addition to a vast array of MTG, Pokémon, and Lorcana singles that you can access using our unique in-store kiosk system . Online shop links you to our current selection of MTG singles. For the best selection of all products, please visit us in person ! ​ We Stock Magic: the Gathering Pokémon Lorcana Dungeons & Dragons Board Games Plushies Clothing Accessories ... and more! ​ We Buy MTG, Pokémon, Lorcana Please contact our staff for more info. ​ Proud to be a WPN Premium Location Join our c ommunity | Connect with us Upcoming Events Apr 19 10 PM MTG: FNM Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft Friday You know we have open play Commander all day, always! Join us for our weekly FNM Draft! Packs awarded based on record. On draft: Murders at Karlov Manor $15 Booster Draft @6pm Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 20 6 PM Lorcana: Set Championship Saturday Bring your strongest constructed deck and duke it out in 5-6 rounds of swiss and a top 8 of single elimination. $25 entry, booster packs added to prize pool with each entrant, top 4 get special promotional items Download FACEBOOK SHOP Apr 23 4 PM MTG: Weekly Standard Tuesday Join us each Tuesday @6:30pm for our MTG Standard Tournament Standard Constructed, $10 Entry Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 23 4 PM Pokemon: League Play! Tuesday * FREE open play ** Or join tournament, Standard Format, $10 entry @6pm every Tuesday Catch 'em all at our weekly Pokémon League Night! Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 24 4 PM D&D : Free to Play Session Wednesday Join one of our weekly campaigns or just come out and pick up some D&D goodies while they're 20% off! Every Wednesday @6pm Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 24 4 PM MTG: Weekly Modern Wednesday Bring your fetches, it's our weekly Modern league! Three rounds of swiss with a chance to win store credit! $10 entry, store credit payout based on record. 3-0 - $25 2-0-1 - $20 2-1 - $15 Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 25 4 PM Lorcana: Weekly League Thursday Join us every Thursday @6pm for some weekly Lorcana! Casual Constructed, $10 entry, players get a pack for each win Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 25 4 PM Star Wars: Unlimited Weekly Thursday Bring your favorite 50 card deck and come on out @ 6:30pm for some Star Wars: Unlimited. Each entrant adds a pack to the prize pool! $5 entry, Bo1, 3-4 rounds based on attendance Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS Apr 26 4 PM MTG: FNM Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft Friday You know we have open play Commander all day, always! Join us for our weekly FNM Draft! Packs awarded based on record. On draft: Outlaws of Thunder Junction $15 Booster Draft @6pm Download FACEBOOK SHOP WIZARDS 1/2 Each week's schedule may change due to special events and new releases. Check our social media or contact our staff to get updates on daily events.

Looks like there’s nothing here. Feel free to continue browsing the site. Back to Homepage