Magic: The Gathering – Outlaws Of Thunder Junction’s Most Wanted Commander Deck Guide

Join Vampire Queen Olivia Voldaren and lead an army of outlaws with this Commander deck guide.

In Thunder Junction, outlaws rule the plane, and Olivia Voldaren rules the outlaws in the Most Wanted Commander deck. A native of Magic: The Gathering's gothic horror plane of Innistrad, the Vampire Assassin has come to Thunder Junction to form new alliances and gather new followers among the Rogues, Assassins, and Mercenaries.

Trading the ballroom for a bar room, Olivia, Opulent Outlaw leads an army of outlaws, using them to steal Treasure from innocent miners or, more likely, other outlaws. Commit murder, arson, armed robbery, and maybe even cause a stampede as you prove that crime does, in fact, pay.

Most Wanted Commander Decklist

Here's the full deck list, organized by card type.

Most Wanted Commander Deck Themes

People often say that crime doesn't pay, but the theme of the Most Wanted deck is to prove them wrong. This deck aims to assemble a gang of outlaws to make a bunch of Treasure, which it will use to get an even bigger, meaner gang of criminals.

A full third of the dec k is made up of creatures that qualify as outlaws , backed up by a selection of larceny-themed spells that fit both mechanically and thematically.

Most Wanted functions as a pretty basic combat deck, focusing on swinging with a variety of outlaw creatures that generate value through combat damage and attack triggers.

A variety of cards, including Olivia, Opulent Outlaw, Misfortune Teller, and Life Insurance will generate a fair pile of Treasure tokens, while others like Captain Lannery Storm and Vihaan, Goldwaker give you something to do with them aside from generate mana.

The deck also rewards you for playing dirty, giving you field advantage as you destroy your opponents' creatures.

Kamber, the Plunderer, gives you one life and generates Blood tokens whenever one of your opponents' creatures dies, giving you more instant draw options or letting you goad your opponents' creatures by sacrificing your Blood to his partner, Laurine, the Diversion.

Meanwhile, Ogre Slumlord provides 1/1 Rat tokens for the same trigger, giving you plenty of blockers or attackers in a pinch.

Never to be far from her political games, Olivia also brings a bit of politicking to the table through effects like Bounty Board, which encourages your opponents to destroy each others' creatures for a payout, and several effects that goad or gain control of other creatures.

This is a pretty minor theme in the deck, and feels more like an afterthought than a true theme.

The deck includes two other alternative commanders: Vihaan, Goldwaker and Queen Marchesa. Vihaan, Goldwaker may actually be the most wanted card in the deck, and with a little extra treasure generation, it will make him an excellent stand-alone commander.

If you swap Olivia out for Vihaan, lean harder into Treasure and ease up on outlaws.

Queen Marchesa adds the monarch mechanic to the deck. As the monarch, you'll draw an extra card during your end step, and when another player is the monarch and Queen Marchesa is in play, you'll create a 1/1 black Assassin token with haste and deathtouch.

This may seem like a win-win situation, but it does put a target on your head when you're the monarch, and you'll lose the benefits of another player being the monarch if Marchesa dies. Queen Marchesa is underwhelming and should be considered for replacement.

Most Wanted Commander Deck Analysis

Most Wanted does what it wants to do, but the theme is spread a little thin. There are a lot of solid effects and enough redundancy that you won't feel like your hands are tied if your commander is removed, but there's also a lot of room for improvement.

Several effects rely on your creatures dealing combat damage, but there's little evasion and not much in the way of combat tricks aside from borrowing potential blockers to attack with.

Additionally, there are a lot of cards that underperform for their mana value, which can be upgraded pretty easily. The vast majority of these underwhelming cards are creatures, but the outlaw category gives you a lot of room for customization.

Mistmeadow Skulk and Changeling Outcast provide a little evasion, but their main function is just to lower the average mana value for the deck.

Both can be easily replaced by something that adds more value to your board, increasing your chances of making a big play in the mid-game. You never want to include cards that you'll be sad to draw on turn five.

There's a minor political theme in this deck, which Humble Defector wants to capitalize on. Ideally you and another player would pass it back and forth, or you would use an effect like Mass Mutiny to take it back to reuse.

Realistically, you're likely to pass it to another layer and never get it back, granting your opponents an advantage, which is always a bad idea.

Captivating Crew and Mass Mutiny play on borrowing your opponents' creatures, which decreases their available blockers and gives you most of the benefits those creatures bring with them. But if you aren't going to win immediately, they'll get them right back. So, these effects should always be played with a way to sacrifice them, which is absent in this deck outside of Deadly Dispute.

If you want to lean into borrowing creatures, consider adding Insurrection to take all of them at once, and a couple of ways to sacrifice all of them.

Black decks are usually okay with paying life and sacrificing creatures as alternate costs, but Rankle, Master of Pranks and Dire Fleet Ravager will both hit you pretty hard. You can definitely find something that will synergize better with the deck without such big drawbacks.

Shiny Impetus will rarely pay for itself: your opponent will either throw away the creature or find a way to destroy the enchantment. Plus, goad won't protect you once you're down to two players. The only way it'll work for you consistently is by playing it on your own creatures, but you can find better options.

Most Wanted Commander Deck Budget Upgrades

Other Upgrade Options

• Grim Hireling is an excellent backup Treasure generator if your commander gets locked out, and if you can get both in play at the same time they'll make mountains of Treasure.
• Orzhov (black/white) decks are frequently built to tax your opponents, and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff can bring some of that to this precon. Since your opponents won't actually lose anything to him, they'll probably ignore him, allowing you to pile up the treasure quickly between your turns.
• This deck wants to create Treasure and outlaws, which is exactly what Black Market Connections offers. It also provides the option to draw cards, making it a perfect mechanical and thematic addition to the deck.
• Probably the easiest card to add is Revel in Riches, an enchantment which will provide you with an untapped Treasure token each time one of your opponents' creatures dies, and then win you the game if you have ten Treasures at the beginning of your upkeep.