Outlaws of Thunder Junction on Magic Online

Posted on Apr 09, 2024

By Tony Mayer 

It’s quiet ... too quiet. 

Was that a tumbleweed, or a harmonica?  

All of the classic tropes of a Western tale, complete with heists, loot, double-crossing, and saddling up will be at the fore of the Magic multiverse when Outlaws of Thunder Junction (set code OTJ) debuts on Magic Online next Tuesday, April 16 at 10 a.m. Pacific time (17:00 UTC)! 

The downtime to add this set to MTGO will happen tomorrow, April 10, from 9 a.m. to approximately 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). Be sure to follow our social media outlets (Discord, Twitter/X, and more) to keep real-time tabs on this release. As a reminder, our Help site and Forums will also be down during this period. 

Breaking News: New Player Changes Galore, Plus Commander Workshop! 

If you haven’t heard yet, our changes to New Player offerings will go live following tomorrow’s downtime. Be sure to check out the articles that posted on MTGO.com yesterday:

The New New for Magic Online
Commander Workshop – 2,000 Cards for $39

Get the scoop on the five Starter decks given to all new accounts, the 5,000+ cards in the Account Upgrade Kit to get players building and into games faster, and the 2,000-card Commander Workshop – the 100-card aficionado’s new resource.  

A Spree of New Stuff 

Features of the upcoming couple months include another tweak to premium treatments plus some cool new ones, the return of Commander Leagues (both Constructed and Limited), and a new group of Art Bundles in the Store.

How to Collect and Play Outlaws of Thunder Junction 

Boosters 

Each OTJ booster pack will sell for $3.99 USD in the MTGO Store starting on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT. This is another version of the new Play Booster, so the contents of the pack are different than expansions in past years. For this set, the composition is: 

• 6 regular commons
  • At least 4 of the 5 colors should appear within this group
  • 1 in 5 boosters will have a common replaced either with a card from The Big Score mini-set (set code BIG) or with a Special Guest card.
• 3 regular uncommons
• 1 regular rare or mythic
• 1 regular wildcard – that is, a non-foil of any rarity
• 1 foil wildcard – a foil in every pack!
• 1 card from the Breaking News bonus sheet (uncommon, rare, or mythic)
• 1 basic or Showcase land or common dual land – either regular or foil 

Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander 

This set has four new Commander decks for you to enjoy (set code OTC) – each deck features ten brand-new cards plus a suite of reprints. The decks will sell for $29.99 USD each in the MTGO Store starting next Tuesday. They are: 

• Quick Draw (blue-red) 
• Desert Bloom (red-green-white)
• Grand Larceny (black-green-blue)
• Most Wanted (red-white-black) 

Bundles 

We have two types of Art Bundles available for sale while Outlaws of Thunder Junction is our main focus. 

First up: the Enemy Fastlands Showcase Bundle! For just $5.99 USD, you can add one copy each of five enemy-colored lands best played on turns 1-3, all in a beautiful Borderless treatment.

If you picked up the Allied Fastlands last year, this will complete the full cycle of ten!

Our other offering this time is a trio of Crimes Bundles. All these cards feature a jaw-dropping Rain effect premium treatment (read more about it below)! Each Bundle can be purchased for $14.99 USD – the options are: 

• Instants – 4 Cards - Anguished Unmaking; Force of Vigor; Mana Drain; Mindbreak Trap  
• Permanents – 5 Cards - Contagion Engine; Grindstone; Leyline Binding; Mindslaver; Oko, Thief of Crowns 
• Sorceries – 6 Cards - Crackle with Power; Crime/Punishment; Fractured Identity; Indomitable Creativity; Overwhelming Forces; Thoughtseize 

None of the cards in Bundles are available in Treasure Chests or via All-Access/Deck Brewer’s Pass, and they will leave the Store with the release of Modern Horizons 3, so pick up your copies today!

Now, about our latest bling ... 

New Premium Effects – Gilded and Rain! 

Outlaws of Thunder Junction marks another push of the envelope when it comes to premium card treatments in our game.  

The Gilded treatment is our take on a digital version of the Vault Eclipse cards included in OTJ Collector Boosters. We decided to lean into a more digital-only effect here. Why? Beause simply applying gold borders to the card doesn't do the effect justice.  

The swirling liquid gold conveys a much better sense of the cards being truly gilded, displaying their resplendent gold borders to convey a sense of luxury - a fitting representation of the treasures found in an ancient magical vault. 

Meanwhile, the banded Rain effect used on the Crime Eclipse cards was quite difficult to nail down. The physical print cards lean into an impressive and unique metal texture that just didn't translate well to digital renderings. In lieu of just applying the texture itself, we decided to lean more into the actual visuals of the effect.  

Thus, we conceptualized a banding effect that mimics print's texture with an added flair of applying the bands in real time, visually replicating the unique physical feel those cards have. 

We continue to have a lot of fun coming up with new ways to create interesting effects for Booster Fun treatments. It’s exciting to work on ways to add collectability and pizzazz to the cards we all love! 

Booster Fun 

Alternate-art treatments of Outlaws of Thunder Junction will appear in many of the usual places. These include: 

• Borderless & Extended-Art Rares/Mythics (Treasure Chest Curated Slot – OTJ & BIG) 
• Showcase Wanted Poster Cards (Curated Slot) 
• The Big Score Vault Treatment (Curated Slot)  
• Buy-a-Box and Bundle Promos (Treasure Chest TC-Only Slot) 
• Commander Extended-Art Cards (TC-Only Slot) 
• Regular-Frame Featured Commanders (TC-Only Slot) 

However, we have heard Community feedback that too many copies of new cards enter the game at the start of the set. So, we are going to experiment with holding back certain series of Booster Fun cards (both of which can be found in OTJ Boosters) until our Treasure Chest Fast Follow on Wednesday, May 15. These two series are: 

• Breaking News Rares/Mythics (Curated Slot) 
• Special Guests (Curated Slot) 

Commander Corner 

New & Returning Commander Leagues Start Tomorrow! 

A common piece of feedback regarding Commander on MTGO had to do with how prize structures were arranged through voting for your favorite opponent. We have updated the technology a bit and are now ready to introduce Commander leagues to appeal to both competitive and casual players! 

First, we are providing a Competitive Commander League for those who want a winner-take-all multiplayer experience. We were going to use 20-minute timers, but it's been quickly changed to 30 minutes.

Next, we are bringing back the Friendly Commander League for players who want to play for flatter prizes and value the ability to reward an opponent’s creativity with a vote. Each player gets 30 minutes per match in this League. This League is perfect for those who have moved beyond Starter Commander Decks and want to play for something small. 

Finally, the Commander Masters Phantom Draft League is back! We want to ensure Limited players get a league of their own, and this event had a devoted fan base during its original run. Like before, these will be four-player draft pods. But now each course consists of two winner-take-all, single-game matches – so cross-pod play is likely. 

These Leagues are slated to run until early June when we have downtime to support Modern Horizons 3. We will closely monitor matchmaking times, overall attendance, effects on the Commander Open Play area, and feedback from community members like you before deciding on continuing the experiment. 

Here are the details of the three Leagues: 

Competitive Commander League 
Entry: 5 Event Tickets or 50 Play Points 
Location: Constructed -> Commander Play Lobby 
Structure: 3 single-game, 4-player Commander matches, 30 minutes per player 
Prizes: 

• 3 Wins – 130 Play Points, 2 Treasure Chests, and 1 Competitive Trophy 
• 2 Wins – 90 Play Points and 1 Treasure Chest 
• 1 Win – 50 Play Points 

Friendly Commander League 
Entry: 5 Event Tickets or 50 Play Points 
Location: Constructed -> Commander Play Lobby 
Structure: 3 single-game, 4-player Commander matches, 30 minutes per player 
Prizes: Each player votes for an opponent when that player is eliminated or when the game ends. 2 votes are awarded to the match winner, so the maximum number of votes a player can receive per match is 5. 

• 1 vote received = 10 Play Points at the end of the League 
• Maximum prize is 150 Play Points 
• Friendly Trophies are awarded for 9 or more votes 

Commander Masters Phantom Draft League 
Entry: 4 Event Tickets or 40 Play Points 
Location: Limited -> Draft Lobby 
Structure: 2 single-game, 4-player Commander matches, 30 minutes per player 
Prizes: 

• 2 Wins – 120 Play Points, 1 Treasure Chest, and 1 Friendly Trophy 
• 1 Win – 60 Play Points 

Commander Backlog 

We have made further progress against the Commander backlog during this development cycle. As with last time, the cards added this time were basically free to us while coding cards for this set. These will appear in the TC-Only slot. (* indicates card also added as part of OTC decks) 

Magic Online Players Rewards (MOPR) Update 

Like with the last set, upcoming MOPR rewards are single-month offerings: 

The grant on May 1 covering April play and spending features all of the Wanted Poster commons and uncommons from Outlaws of Thunder Junction in foil.  

Then on June 1, we’ll grant the five Promo Pack etched uncommons plus the uncommon Breaking News cards, all also in foil. 

For more information on earning Player Rewards, click here. 

Treasure Chest Update 

Treasure Chests will update when OTJ goes on sale next Tuesday – be sure to watch our Twitter/X (@MagicOnline) and our Discord channel to confirm this before opening Chests. 

For full details on the changes to come, check out the Treasure Chest information page.  

After next Tuesday, the next Treasure Chest update will occur on Wednesday, May 15.  

Event Updates (non-Commander edition) 

Premier Play Schedule Changes 

We have made some adjustments to the Premier Play calendar in May and early June to avoid conflicts with major tabletop events. To see the changes, visit the Premier Play calendar page found here or bookmark MTGO’s overall event calendar page. 

17 New Scheduled Events on Weekdays! 

After a suggestion from a community member in Discord snowballed, we’ve found over a dozen new opportunities to serve players who want competition but are required to work on weekends!  

You can review our Event Calendar for start times localized to you (and sortable by format), or see the full weekly grid. 

Here’s the full list of new Challenge 32 events (all times Pacific – for UTC add 7 hours, for JST add 17 hours): 

• Mondays – 4 p.m. Pioneer 
• Tuesdays – 1 p.m. Modern 
• Wednesdays – 2 p.m. Legacy 
• Thursdays – 6 a.m. Modern, 8 a.m. Vintage, 2 p.m. Pioneer, 5 p.m. Modern 
• Fridays – Pioneer 5 a.m., Pauper 6 a.m., Modern 8 a.m., Vintage 3 p.m., Legacy 5 p.m., Standard 7 p.m. 

We also have five new Preliminaries, including a quartet of new Pauper events to better serve that player base: 

• Mondays – 10 a.m. Pauper 
• Tuesdays – 8 a.m. Pauper 
• Thursdays – 9 a.m. Pauper, 6 p.m. Pauper 
• Fridays – 1 p.m. Modern 

We hope you are as excited as we are and find the format you want on the day you want! 

Alternate Play Schedule 

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Modern Horizons 3. Each description mentions if the Draft is Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) unless otherwise noted.  

• April 16-May 1 – Outlaws of Thunder Junction is center stage for these two weeks. As has become our custom, a Best-of-One League will be available during that period. 
• May 1-8 – Here’s a change of pace – unbelievably, we’ve never run this set as its own alternate play – it's Modern Masters 2015 Flashback. (Phantom) 
• May 8-22 – Vintage Cube returns to support the next MOCS Showcase on May 18. (Phantom) 
• May 22-29 – As a prelude to the next big thing in Modern, we’re running back Modern Horizons 2 Flashback Draft. (Phantom only) 
• May 29-June 11 – We have some ideas here, but they’re not yet locked in ... 

Deck Brewer’s Pass Takes a Break 

We have experimented with granting a short period of All-Access at the start of the set over the last several months. Over time, we have learned that it boosted Constructed play, but that gain came at the expense of Limited play. 

Therefore, we are pausing experiments with the Deck Brewer’s Pass.  

Avatars 

We will grant Prestige avatars from Murders at Karlov Manor shortly after the end of that season on April 16.

Now let’s look ahead to the avatars of the newest plane in Magic! First up is the avatar given out in New Account kits – it's Fblthp, Lost on the Range! 

Next, we present the single avatar available in Treasure Chests – it’s The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride! 

Finally, we will dole out some Prestige! As usual, you get five points for each Competitive trophy you earn in Leagues and one for each Friendly trophy. At the end of the season (when Modern Horizons 3 releases), you'll earn every avatar for which you qualify:  

Earning at least five points gets you the uncommon Annie Flash, the Veteran avatar.  

Earning at least 20 points nabs you the rare Oko, the Ringleader avatar.  

Earning 40 points or more rewards you with the mythic rare Jae Reawakened avatar.  

Odds and Ends 

• Outlaws of Thunder Junction will be redeemable. Redemption Tokens are planned to go on sale in the Store on Wednesday, May 15. Stay tuned to the Weekly Announcement Blog at MTGO.com for details. 
• As usual, Constructed and Limited events will rotate to OTJ versions of the same event on release day, so make sure you complete any Leagues before the set launches. 
• Reprints in Outlaws of Thunder Junction that are entering a format won’t become legal until the new Leagues kick off next Tuesday. 
• The refreshed New Account Kit will include OTJ cards once we are up from downtime, but non-reprints won’t be legal for use until OTJ goes on sale. 

Whether you’re just joining us for the first time, for the first time in a while, or every time – we're glad you here. Have fun and we’ll see you on the battlefield! 

P.S. We’re Growing – Join Our Team 

Do you have a passion for creating cards or managing complex servers? Check out Daybreak’s careers page to see if you may fit the bill – most jobs are found by filtering location to Washington, though you can apply if you are (or can become) able to legally work from Washington state, California, Texas, New York, or Massachusetts.