Magic: The Gathering – The 10 Best Reprints In Outlaws Of Thunder Junction

Despite being a set all about breaking bold new ground, Magic: The Gathering’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction isn’t afraid to look to the past as well. You can see this in the cheeky throwback cards featured in The Big Score, and even more keenly in the multitude of reprints that pepper the set.

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Many cards are getting their first-ever reprints here, including eternal staples and casual workhorses. No matter what kind of player you are, it’s hard not to find something to love among them, as our ample umming and ahhing over this list will attest. We got there in the end, however: these are the very best reprints from a set chock full of them.

10 Terror Of The Peaks

Burn Them All!

A fiery fiend not seen since the halcyon days of Core Set 2021, Terror of the Peaks may just be the epitome of the word ‘Burn.’ It burns any target whenever you play another creature, and, thanks to its pre-ward version of ‘ward - pay 3 life,’ it burns your opponents if they try to remove it, too.

All that damage adds up quickly over time, even in a standard game, to say nothing of the combo potential the second ability brings to the table, giving the Terror potential in both Standard and Commander. With just one prior printing, this Dragon’s triumphant return is welcome indeed.

9 Enemy Fastlands

Gotta Go Fast!

What ‘Best Reprints’ list would be complete without a good land cycle? Powerful two-color lands are one of the most consistently expensive aspects of playing Magic, so any time a batch of these are reprinted is worth celebrating. And while they’re not quite on the level of Shock or Fetch lands, the enemy-color Fast lands are still more than welcome.

First seen back in Kaladesh, these lands make fine budget options in low-to-the-ground formats like Modern and Legacy. They’ll also, undoubtedly, be heavily played as long as they’re in Standard, so they’re great for players both new and old.

8 Torpor Orb

A Phyrexian-Made Silver Bullet

The ongoing joke about Magic getting ‘A new Panharmonicon in every set’ has perhaps gone beyond a joke now, which makes the Torpor Orb reprint in The Big Score all the more timely. It doesn’t matter how many effect multipliers your opponent has set up: with Orb in play, none of them are going to be triggering.

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As a sideboard card, Torpor Orb sees play in formats as far-reaching as Modern, Legacy, and Commander. Thanks to this reprint, it will most likely do the same in Standard. Incredibly, this is actually the first time the card has been reprinted since its New Phyrexia debut, too, so its price should become much more reasonable as a result.

7 Mana Drain

A Contender For The Counterspell Crown

It’s impossible to discuss the best Counterspells in Magic without Mana Drain coming up at some point. The card’s ability to both counter a spell and grant a big mana payout the following turn is incredibly powerful. So powerful, in fact, that the card retains a high price tag despite multiple reprints and limited format legality.

While mostly seen in Commander these days, Mana Drain is still a key player in Vintage, giving it the kind of eternal appeal most cards can only dream of. You’ve almost certainly heard reverent whispers about the card’s power level before, and this reprint gives you the chance to experience it for yourself.

6 Dust Bowl

Perfect Flavor, Perfect Function

Land destruction as a mechanic has been all but phased out of Magic in recent years, which makes Dust Bowl, a prime example from all the way back in Mercadian Masques, all the more shocking to a modern audience. Not only is it repeatable land destruction, but it comes on a land itself.

This means there’s virtually no opportunity cost to include the card in your deck, making it an excellent addition to most Commander decks and even some Legacy and Vintage brews. And on the flavor side, there’s really no better place to reprint Dust Bowl than the desert-rich Thunder Junction.

5 Thoughtseize

An All-Timer Makes A Comeback

Thoughtseize is the kind of card that will likely retain a high price tag no matter how many times it’s reprinted. That said, it’s always great to see it in a new set so that more players can get the chance to play with what is probably the best discard spell ever printed in Magic.

The range of formats Thoughtseize sees play in is staggering, from Modern and Pioneer to Legacy and Vintage. It’s not hard to see why: dealing with any nonland card in advance for just one mana is hyper-efficient and, no matter how far power creep goes, probably always will be.

4 Mindbreak Trap

An Answer To Eternal Format Shenanigans

It may surprise you to see a niche card like Mindbreak Trap on a list like this, but its inclusion becomes obvious when you consider two key facts. One, that the card is a crucial tool against Combo decks in the likes of Legacy and Vintage; and two, that the card has never been reprinted since its debut in Zendikar.

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These two factors combined have made Mindbreak Trap a very pricey card indeed in recent years, so this reprint couldn’t have come at a better time. If you’re planning to take the plunge into Magic’s older formats, you’d be well-advised to bring a few copies of this card with you.

3 Rest In Peace

Keep Those Graveyards Squeaky Clean

A card doesn’t need to be hyper-expensive to earn the title of ‘Great Reprint.’ Case in point: Rest in Peace. The card has been very affordable for a while now, and yet, because of its wide-ranging applications, it remains a sought-after piece that few would be unhappy to open.

Rest in Peace is probably the best graveyard hate card ever printed, wiping them clean when it enters and making sure they stay that way as long as it’s in play. The list of decks this card single-handedly takes down is surprisingly lengthy, making it a sideboard staple that’ll never go out of style.

2 Grindstone

Mill, Mill, Mill Your Deck

To the chagrin of many, dedicated Mill decks have been making a bit of a comeback in recent years. This makes it all the more surprising that Grindstone, one of the very best Mill cards, hasn’t received a proper reprint since Tempest, until now.

Of course, when you consider the degenerate Legacy Painter Combo deck it enables, that may be for the best. For fans of shredding their opponent’s deck, however, this new reprint is a godsend. Outside of Legacy, it also has plenty of ‘fair’ homes in Commander, too, so there’s a lot to enjoy with this one.

1 Archangel Of Tithes

The Tax Man Cometh

Archangel of Tithes is the rare card that plays offense and defense equally well, helping you stay alive while making it much harder for your opponents to do so. The fact that its taxation effect applies to all players has made it something of a staple in Commander, which in turn has made it quite expensive, especially since it hasn’t been reprinted since Magic Origins.

This reprint is welcome, then, and gives a whole new generation the chance to annoy the entire Commander table with just one card. It won’t be setting Standard on fire any time soon, but as long as Commander exists, Archangel of Tithes will have a home.

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