Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, brings planeswalking spellslingers to the Wild West. This dusty plane is full ofoutlawsand brigands that won’t think twice before holding you up and stealing every last dime, and the Grand Larceny Commander deck showcases the set’s thieving ways.
Blue and black are two Magic colors that have always had a penchant for taking what doesn’t belong to them. Grand Larceny throws in a splash of green to allow burglary to happen from graveyards, libraries, and every other Magic location you can think of. Read on to discover the ten best holdup cards in the Grand Larceny Commander deck.
10Thieving Varmint
Get back here you dirty rat!
The one problem with stealing spells is thatyou can’t necessarily cast those spells unless you have the right colored mana. Grand Larceny has three out of five colors covered, but that still leaves two colors unaccounted for. That’s where Thieving Varmint comes in.
For the low price of one life,Thieving Varmint will provide you with two mana of any one color. The catch is that you can only use this mana to pay for spells you don’t own. Otherwise, Thieving Varmint would be the best little mana producer Magic has ever seen.
9Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
More than the bear necessities
Doc Aurlock doesn’t necessarily produce mana, but so long as you’re not casting cards from your hand,Doc will make almost everything you do cost less. Grand Larceny most often casts cards from exile, but Doc Aurlock could easily find a home in a more traditional reanimation deck, or a deck that takes advantage ofthe new plot keyword.
Honestly,Doc Aurlock could be a great commander for his own deck. While he’s great in Grand Larceny, being able to consistently cast Doc on turn two would be hoot.
8Dream-Thief’s Bandana
An accessory you won’t notice while you’re awake
Turn any unblockable creature into a repeatable source of card theft. Put Dream-Thief’s Bandana on Triton Shorestalker, Silhana Ledgewalker, or Slither Blade, and watch your opponents tear their hair out as you keep stealing their spells.
Dream-Thief’s Bandana isbetter than most theft effects in Magic. Where other cards only allow you to cast your opponent’s spells for a single turn, Dream Thief’s Bandana keeps that card in exile permanently until you’re ready to cast it. That’s a useful ability shared with a few other cards in Grand Larceny we’ll get to later.
7Arcane Heist
How to enchant without casting an enchantment
Cipher makes its return in Thunder Junction. This keyword allows you to repeat a spell’s effect so long as the ciphered creature manages to deal combat damage to a player. This allows Arcane Heist tokeep casting instants and sorceries from your opponent’s graveyardso long as you can keep getting through.
Grand Larceny can easily slip past your opponent’s defenses to ensure Arcane Heist goes off again and again, casting spells from enemy graveyards repeatedly. It’sa great way to turn an opponent’s removal against them(at least for one turn anyway).
6Savvy Trader
There’s always a deal to be made somewhere
Savvy Trade is a card that just seems destined to wind up in a lot of decks. Grand Larceny is a great fit since you’re constantly casting cards from exile, but like Doc Aurlock,Savvy Trader doesn’t really care where the card is being cast from so long as it isn’t your hand.
On top of that, Savvy Trader hasa unique graveyard recursion mechanic. Instead of digging a card directly out of your graveyard and putting it into your hand, you place it in exile until you’re ready to play it. This not only allows you to have more cards available than a maximum hand size of seven, but it also lets you play with that card with other exile effects.
5Orochi Soul-Reaver
Ninjas are back!
Orochi Soul-Reaver offers a different way of stealing thingsthan most other cards in Grand Larceny. Rather than place an opponent’s card into exile to play later, Orochi Soul-Reaver manifests it and then gives you a Treasure token to (hopefully) flip that card over. The net effect is still the same, of course, but you potentially get to use that Treasure token for something else if your opponents are playing the same colors as you.
But who cares about taking cards that don’t belong to you through convoluted means;the cool part about Orochi Soul-Reaver is that it’s a ninja, and ninjas are inherently cool.
4Felix Five-Boots
Not having organs makes for a highly reliable henchman
There are a lot of cards in Magic that trigger after hitting your opponent with a creature. Grand Larceny has a few, such as Dream-Thief’s Bandana, Cazur, and Silent-Blade Oni, but there are way more (Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Scion of Calamity, and Sakiko, Mother of Summer comes to mind).Felix Five-Boots makes all these cards trigger twice, going from great value to absolutely incredible value.
On top of that,Felix is hard to blockthanks to Menaceand hard to killthanks to having ward 2—an ideal target for Arcane Heist or Dream Thief’s Bandana.
3Heartless Conscription
A bolder way to sweep a board
Eight mana to sweep the board of creatures is a lot, even if it’s a very reliable way of sweeping the board. But Heartless Conscription goes a step beyond merely resetting the game;every creature exiled becomes available to playusing whatever mana you have available.
If the board is a morass of Eldrazi, Colossi, and various versions of Ghalta,Heartless Conscription will get them out of the way and eventually turn them to your side—especially if you have cards like Thieving Varmint of Doc Aurlock around to help.
2Gonti, Canny Acquisitor
Take everything. Give nothing back.
Gonti’s Wild West makeovergives the Dream Thief’s Banadana ability to everyone all at once, while also making those stolen cards cost less. It’s a potent combination that pairs extremely well with sidekick Felix Five-Boots and a deck full of creatures that find it easy to get around blockers.
It’s no surprise that the box topper for Grand Larceny isone of the best cards available from Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Commander decks, but it’s not the best card you could possibly grab.
1Tower Winder
Sakura-Tribe Elder can finally retire
The winner of the best card in Grand Larceny is no contest. Tower Winder doesn’t steal anything—it doesn’t need to. When Tower Winder comes into play,it finds the best land in your deck(Command Tower), andthen it sticks around to convince enemies that it’s a better idea to keep their creatures at homelest they die to a 1/1 snake with deathtouch.
This card is so good that it’lllikely become an auto-add to any deck that even splashes the color green. Even if you’ve already found your Command Tower, Tower Winder is still a rattlesnake that’ll protect you with an immediate kill to most attacking creatures. Expect to see a lot more Tower Winders well beyond Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
