Ignore all those three-color cards for a moment.
The barren lands of Thunder Junction may be lawless, but there are still some rules to follow.
The following color pair titles come directly from Wizards of the Coast in their public Limited archetype breakdown.
Do not go into a Thunder Junction Draft attempting to build a ‘Desert deck.
‘That’s just not a supported strategy in the format.
This theme’s spelled out pretty clearly on the two sign-postuncommons.
Colossal Rattlewurm by Filip Burburan
The workarounds are pretty loud and clear.
In other words, you still get to play the game while also fulfilling the condition on your payoffs.
Second, there’s a high density ofgood cards with flash.
Colossal Rattlewurm by Filip Burburan
Activated abilitiesthat cost mana also play well with this theme.
Blue/Black: Crimes
Turns out Magic players have been seasoned criminals all along.
Committing a crime is relevant in every color, but blue-black specializes in law-breaking.
Black/Red: Outlaws
Outlawsin Outlaws of Thunder Junction?
You don’t say.
At Knifepoint and Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier are both decent payoffs for the archetype.
Vial Smasher’s more of a straightforward ‘just push damage’ kind of card.
Notably, there are a couple removal spells that interact in different ways with outlaws.
Give these old dogs some extra giddy-up in this set.
Jolene’s also decent, but 4/2 for three mana has never been an impressive statline in Limited.
Honestly, don’t get too caught up in the intended theme here.
Your typical red-green deck, as it were.
Keep in mind that Mercenary tokens can modulate your creatures’ powers.
First off, Mount is a creature jot down, and each Mount is a creature by default.
They can attack and block independent of their Saddle abilities.
Additionally, unlike Crew,Saddle can only be activated as a sorcery.
This color pair incentivizes you to draft Mounts highly, thoughit’s ostensibly a creature beatdown deck.
From a strategic standpoint,be careful how you’re using your Saddle abilities.
Don’t leave yourself defenseless just to Saddle up a creature.
A small number of cards in this color pair mention Vehicles as well as Mounts.
Attrition is technically correct, butsacrifice feels like a better description.
Ruthless Lawbringer is pushed for a three-drop, andone of the strongest gold uncommons in the set.
It can blow up any nonland permanent, which includes any of the many enchantment-based removal spells in white.
As with most Limited sacrifice themes,the goal here is to scope out expendable bodies.
Blue/Red: Second Spell
You’ve had one spell, yes.
But how about second spell?
Both of blue-red’s gold uncommons go from pretty weak on their ownto amazing when you’re effectively double-spelling.
Plot’s also here to help this deck in almost the reverse of blue-white’s strategy.
Stockpile a few cards for later turns and unload your plotted cards for easy double-spell turns.
This can be a skill-testing deck at times.
‘Vague, but ‘graveyard stuff’ tends to be black-green’s modus operandi in most sets anyway.
The two gold uncommons are perfectly in tune with one another.
Form a Posse is one of the least reliable gold uncommons in the set.
That’s somewhat made up for by just how good Ertha Jo, Frontein Mentor is.
It’s a ton of stats for four mana, and essentially doubles up all your Mercenary token activations.
Prickly Pair’s a top-tier common for any red deck, but really excels here.
The same goes for cards like Wanted Griffin, or really anything that leaves behind a Mercenary token.
Outlaws’ Fury is a specific common to be on the lookout for.
Plot’s also good enough as a standalone mechanic that you don’t really need to build around it.
Still, blue-green has a strong plot enabler with Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius.
That probably leaves blue-green as the base of a multicolor deck looking to splash around into other colors.
Take it and bias towards blue-green when possible.
