Welcome back to the final part of the Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) Commander deck upgrades. In case you missed the first 3 parts you can find them here: Desert Bloom, Quick Draw and Grand Larceny. It's known that Thunder Junction is full of outlaws and Olivia, Opulent Outlaw is in charge of this rowdy gang of misfits in the Most Wanted Commander deck.
Olivia cares when you connect with an Outlaw. These are assassins, mercenaries, pirates, rogues, and warlocks. You also get a treasure token for the trouble. Flavour wise I feel like this is the Outlaw either stealing or extorting it. Olivia also has the ability to use these treasures. If you pay (3) and sacrifice 2 treasures, you get to put +1/+1 counters on your team. It's a shame Olivia isn't green as that has the most counter doublers. Let's get on with the upgrades as these are wanted, dead, or alive. Although preferably alive so you can get the benefit :).
I will start out with some honourable mentions. These are the cycle of cards from the old sets of Mercadian Masks and Nemesis.
These all allow you to tutor a Mercenary permanent with 1 less converted mana cost (CMC) than the card and put it onto the battlefield. This would allow you to assemble an army pretty quickly. You don't even need to add the entire cycle; just play the higher-cost ones to fetch out all your other cards. These have been relegated to the honourable mentions list as they would take up too many slots for me to include properly.
Table of Contents
Upgrade 1
Olivia is similar to Gonti, Canny Acquisitor in terms of wanting your creatures to connect, but in the case of Olivia, they need to be Outlaws to get the trigger. Archpriest of Shadows fits into this slot nicely, first being an Outlaw itself and then having a decent recursion ability when you connect. But that's not all, it also has a couple of other abilities. Having deathtouch on a 4/4 body might be weird, but this means your opponents can't eat it with a larger creature and it's not going to trade for a couple of 1/1 tokens. This makes it more awkward to try and stop it. The other ability it has is backup 1. This means when Archpriest of Shadows enters the battlefield, you can put a +1/+1 counter on a creature, and it gains the rest of Archpriest's abilities. I.e. it gains deathtouch and recursion. A neat thing about this ability is if you have no other creatures you can just add the counter to itself. I am dropping Captivating Crew. While a cute way to remove blockers it is quite an expensive way to do so. This card is best served in a ‘grab and sac’ style deck where you run sacrifice outlets, such as Ashnod's Altar, to make sure the opponent doesn't get their creature back after pinching them. Most Wanted only has two of these and only one is repeatable (Fain, the Broker). If we are being technical there is another in Mirror Entity where you activate the ability for zero. But then this will also wipe out your board. So you really need to have the creature gone to do this, which is why I didn't count it.
Upgrade 2
The next card I'm cutting is a Swamp. This very nearly was Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. But the more I thought about Grenzo, the more I liked how it doubled the on hit effects. A lot of the preconstructed decks tend to add in a lot more mana sources and lands in the decks to make sure the player doesn’t get mana screwed. But running the maths, you have over a 60% chance to curve out fine into 4 mana, and this isn't accounting for the treasure tokens you can make. This deck is on the low end of the mana curve with only 11 cards that cost 5 and 1 card that I am adding that cost 6. I'm not counting Curtains' Call as a 6 drop as it will, at maximum, cost 5 and more likely be a 3 or 4 mana card. To help boost your mana is Kalain, Reclusive Painter. Kalain has a nice bonus effect if you do need to use mana instead of sacrificing them to Olivia. This comes in the form of +1/+1 counters, which pairs nicely with all the other +1/+1 counter synergies in the deck.
Upgrade 3
Mistmeadow Skulk is an okay card. It's just a little bit of a small body. Having protection from 3 converted mana cost (CMC) or higher is nice. I just feel like it's going to be stopped by a token or a mana dork. While having lifelink is nice and pairs well with Olivia being able to put counters on it I still think it's lacking. Especially when compared to Kellogg, Dangerous Mind. Kellogg, apart from being a nice cereal, fits into Most Wanted perfectly. Making a treasure token on attack. Combined with haste almost guarantees getting one, with a possible second from Olivia as he is an Outlaw. Having first strike is going to make him annoying to block, especially when you can start to stack the +1/+1 counters onto him. The final ability from Kellogg is just the icing on the cake. Sacrificing 5 treasures to steal a creature for as long as you control Kellogg.
Upgrades 4 and 5
The next two cuts I’m grouping together as they are partners and there isn't as much point keeping one when I'm dropping the other. Partner cards tend to have slightly weaker abilities but synergise well with their partner. And as you are guaranteed to get the other when you play one then as a whole they are stronger. The two I’m cutting are Kamber, the Plunderer, and Laurine, the Diversion. Laurine is the strong half of the pair in the deck, synergising with the treasure tokens and being able to sacrifice them to goad creatures. A 3/3 first striking body is nice, it just isn't enough, and Kamber, the Plunderer doesn’t pull his weight enough to keep the pair in the deck. The Blood Tokens don't really have any synergy in the deck other than with his partner.
The first card I am replacing the pair with is Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake. Unlike in his original Commander deck, he fits well into here. Butch synergises with other rogues by getting +1/+1 for each of them and being evasive with menace. The activated ability is what helps push him over the edge. Being able to put menace counters to your creatures makes them that much harder to block. Making them rouges is a nice touch as well, as it makes the few creatures that aren't Outlaws into one.
The next card I am adding is one that would benefit from becoming an Outlaw. Professional Face-Breaker. This helps double up on the treasure making, so if you connect with an Outlaw, this when combined with Olivia makes 2 treasures that are ready to put the counters on your team. It also has a nice second ability for when you run out of cards. By sacrificing a treasure, you get to exile the top card of your library and play it. While not a true card draw, it can help you out when you're in topdeck mode.
Upgrade 6
The next card I am adding is another treasure maker in Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff. This is a little rouge from the Lord Of The Rings set, punishing your opponents for casting two spells. It can also trigger off any player so you can do it yourself to get the treasure if needed. Simple card but just adds to the consistency. I am cutting Angrath's Marauders. This can be a powerful card but it is also an expensive card. This is also a very heavy removal magnet, likely to die on sight. If I were going to add in a damage doubler, I much prefer the enchantment versions like, Gratuitous Violence. As these are much harder to remove.
Upgrade 7
Another expensive card I am cutting is Hex. This is an interesting one, as it is worded in such a way that you need to be able to target 6 different creatures. So if there are only 5 targets on the board, then you can't cast this spell. While this can be a blowout with it costing 6 mana, it's high on the curve and going to take most if not all your mana to cast the spell. To try and keep with the removal theme but have it stuck on a body, I am adding Wasteland Raider. This is a new take on the Fleshbag Marauder cycle of cards. This costs an extra black mana but comes with a bigger body and the Squad ability. It allows for flexibility to pay more mana into it to get extra copies. Importantly, Wasteland Raider is a Mercenary so also counts as an Outlaw.
Upgrade 8
To carry on with the treasure theme I am adding Xorn. This one doubles up any treasure you make. A simple effect, but it can add a lot of value to the deck. This is similar to Professional Face-Breaker, allowing for activations of Olivia with any Outlaw that gets through. But this also works with any of the other treasure makers adding extra value to any of the triggers. I am cutting Impulsive Pilferer. While a treasure maker itself, it’s only on death and can only generate a max of 4 total. Being a one shot effect does limit it somewhat which is why it's getting swapped out for Xorn.
Upgrade 9
Humble Defector is a weird inclusion in the deck. When this was originally released, it was brewed around with sacrifice outlets so only you would get the card draw. As I have stated earlier, there aren't many in this deck so you are basically passing around a card draw engine to your opponents. I am instead adding in Sigarda's Summons. This is one of the cards that make use of Olivias' ability to put the +1/+1 counters on your team. This is pretty much an upgrade for every creature in the deck by setting the base power to 4/4, which will make them at minimum 5/5 with the counter. The counters add on after the base power is changed. The only creature that you might downgrade is Nighthawk Scavenger. If you want to know the reason, please see Layers. A quick overview is in Layer 7a, character defining abilities like on Nighthawk Scavenger are applied. On Layer 7b effects that set power and/or toughness to a specific number or value are applied, like Sigarda's Summons. Later layers override earlier ones. This is one of the more nuanced parts of Magic but allows for interaction like this to occur and be worked out. Anyway, Sigarda's Summons gives a powerful buff to all your creatures and evasion in the form of flying, all while still leaving them Outlaws.
Upgrade 10
The last card I am adding also works with the +1/+1 counters theme. Together Forever is a cheap way to get some protection for your important cards. It buffs up your 2 smallest toughness creatures when it enters. Then you just need to have (1) to be able to save it from death. The only problem with this is it does say ‘dies’, so exile effects will get around this. There aren't a lot of ways to dodge this sort of hexproof/shroud/blink, with most of these being on casting spells so you don't get a permanent answer. The final card I am cutting is Rankle, Master of Pranks, this is an alright card with flying and haste. My problem with it is that all the effects are symmetrical, without many ways to break the parody in Most Wanted. The discard option is the most likely one for you to break by having no cards in hand, but so can your opponents. Everyone drawing cards is ok but I like to be selfish and not give my opponents cards without some punishment. The last one is harder to break as we want all of our creatures and we don't have an easy way to make tokens.
Conclusion
Most Wanted is a new take on typal decks. It’s not locked into 1 subtype of creature, instead focusing on a group of them. It allows for more variation when you are deck building. I do hope Wizards continues on this theme and gives us more commanders that care about group typal so the decks don't look as homogenised by playing all the best creatures in that type. My main gripe with Olivia, Opulent Outlaw is she is trying to do too much without the support behind it. While flavourful, there isn't that as much crossover between Outlaws and treasure. Olivia is the only one that is relevant to both. This is where I think the idea falls flat. Unlike in typical typal decks, there is a clear focus. Most of it will synergise together giving you benefits to that type. I feel like the deck is a bit of a mishmash of good cards that happen to be an Outlaw. I could be wrong about this, having not played the deck enough to work out the nuances so these are just my initial thoughts. With some more cards swapped and bigger ticket items added I think it can be a strong contender for a deck. Hopefully my suggestions below will help with that.
Finally, thanks for staying with me and reading through these deck techs. Until the next time I hope you have good luck and have fun in all your games.
Non-budget Upgrades
Fancy picking up the Most Wanted commander deck? Shop Outlaws Of Thunder Junction and all things Magic: The Gathering here at Gathering Games.
Magic The Gathering: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Most Wanted Commander Deck
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Description Vampire queen Olivia Voldaren failed to dominate Innistrad, but her new alliances on Thunder Junction may yet prove worthwhile. Gather a motley crew of outlaws and overpower your opponents with a deck that’s ready to play right out of… read more
