MTG Thunder Junction: How to upgrade Most Wanted Commander Deck
WotCUpgrade MTG’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction Most Wanted Commander deck to stockpile treasure and overrun your opponents with mercenary might.
Most Wanted brings the overwhelming might and sacrifice strategies of Mardu (red, black, and white mana) to MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction. While it starts at a decent level for a pre-con, this deck can easily be upgraded, bringing extra value and power to your next Commander night.
We’ll walk you through the best cards to add to or cut from the Most Wanted deck, so you can power up Olivia, Opulent Outlaw and prove that, sometimes, crime does pay in MTG.
Must-haves: Pitiless Plunderer and Revel in Riches
WotCPitiless Plunderer
This powerful pirate is worth slotting into any version of the Most Wanted deck, as it takes the sting out of any of your forces falling in combat, even rewarding you when your Creatures die. You can afford to make aggressive plays as soon as this Creature hits the field, as even if other players block and kill your attackers, you’ll be the one sitting on a huge pile of Treasure when all is said and done.
Revel in Riches
The first ability of Revel in Riches will make your opponents think twice about blocking your attacks, as you’ll gain Treasure for each of their Creatures that die. In conjunction with Pitiless Plunderer, you’ll be reaping the rewards no matter who comes out on top in a fight.
The second half of this card is even more impactful in the Most Wanted deck; An alternative win-con that is all too easy to accomplish here. If your opponents don’t swiftly wipe out either your artifacts or this Enchantment, you can pull out a win within a single turn cycle.
Budget cards to upgrade your deck
WotCVial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier
Excellent payoff for a cheap initial investment, this Creature will burn your opponents plenty over the course of a game, thanks to your abundance of outlaws.
Port Razer
Most Wanted rewards your aggression with resources, and Port Razer gives you a number of extra chances to attack each turn. This card can quickly set you up for the win, helping you to pressure opponents again and again.
At Knifepoint
This Enchantment is mana-cheap and provides multiple beneficial effects. Your outlaws gaining first strike makes them a much more potent threat in combat, and given the number of crimes you can commit here, At Knifepoint will build you up a huge crowd of beneficial token Creatures.
Marionette Master
Any deck with both black mana and the capacity to generate artifact tokens should consider adding the Marionette Master. If you’re able to build up a significant pile of Treasure, sacrificing them all at once will allow this card to burn an opponent’s life down to nothing in a split second.
Xorn
A key piece of this deck’s engine that can speed up how quickly you make tokens, effectively doubling the reward Olivia doles out each combat.
Mirkwood Bats
While it may not have the same explosive payoff as Marionette Master, Mirkwood bats also caring about tokens being Created makes it an incredible, reliable source of burn damage in this deck.
Premium cards to upgrade your deck
WotCProsper, Tome-Bound
As one of the most popular Commanders of all time, copies of Prosper are in high demand. Still, it’s well worth tracking down one if you can, as Prosper fits right into Outlaws, generates additional Treasure, and can provide a decently tough deathtouch blocker to discourage opponents’ attacks.
Grim Hireling
Alongside Prosper, Grim Hireling makes the jump over from Battle for Baldur’s Gate. This Creature can be one of your absolute best sources of Treasure tokens, incentivizing swinging out as all your opponents and amassing as many resources as possible.
Bitterblossom
While not quite as expensive as it once was, Bitterblossom still costs a significant sum. Still, for just 2 mana and one life in each of your upkeeps, you can generate a 1/1 flier that counts as an outlaw. In conjunction with Olivia’s buffs, this can quickly build you up a hard-to-block swarm of devastating attackers.
Smothering Tithe
This card pulls double duty as an incredible way to amass Treasure tokens and a tax on opponents’ mana. If they want to stop you from swiftly building up your resources with this card, they’ll have to spend most of theirs.
Cards to cut
WotCTemple of the False God
By the time this land is paying off, it’s usually too late in the game for its impact to be properly felt. Add in the fact that it’s a dead draw in an opening hand, and Temple of the False God, unfortunately, comes off as filler too often used to pad out pre-con manabases.
Hex
This Sorcery may seem like a good tradeoff at first, paying one mana for each Creature destroyed, but its undoing is its specificity. If there aren’t exactly six Creatures available to be targeted, Hex cannot be cast. This makes the card far too fiddly and situational to rely on, especially for an investment of six mana.
Mistmeadow Skulk
This Creature is safe from targeting by higher mana value effects, and cannot be blocked by higher mana value Creatures. But honestly, unless Olivia can significantly buff its power, it has so little impact on the board that opponents would rarely bother to waste the mana on it anyway.
Aetherborn Marauder
Olivia, Opulent Outlaw cares more about going wide than tall. While moving counters onto a flying Creature to deal a hefty chunk of unblocked damage can seem appealing, it usually isn’t worth siphoning power from your other cards in order to do so.
Mass Mutiny
While this card can occasionally help swing the tide of combat, it all too often paints you as a target in need of taking out, making the temporary assistance rarely worth investing in.
Shiny Impetus
Worth keeping as an interesting social play if you enjoy goad effects, but Most Wanted needs some significant reworking to really take advantage of this mechanic.
Humble Defector
You have better ways of gaining card advantage without handing off a boost to other players too. This deck can make enemies quickly, and no amount of olive branches like this can counterbalance the target painted on your back.
