Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) Sealed and Prerelease Guide • MTG Arena Zone (2024)

Hey everyone! We’re getting awfully close to the official launch of Outlaws of Thunder Junction and that means it’s time for prerelease. I hope you’re excited to slap a cowboy hat on a ton of random Magic characters while screaming some form of yeehaw. I’m here to make sure that you’re properly prepped to take home some packs from prerelease by telling you how to build your sealed and dropping some sweet tips and tricks to guide you through.

Building Your Sealed Deck

The first step is always to check out what your power cards are. This can be everything from busted bombs (and I can assure you that there are plenty of them running around Thunder Junction) to mythic uncommons. These cards are going to give you a general idea of what your plan is to win games. Fair warning, there is a huge amount of variance in pools here because of how the play boosters are set up.

The next step is to sort out all of your mana fixing. This is going to include all of your dual lands, Conduit Pylons, Mirage Mesa, Oasis Gardener, and even treasure makers. This is going to let you know how nuts you can really get with your deck. Sometimes you can play all of your bombs and sometimes you have to narrow it down to a more focused approach.

Next, you should sort your cards by color. While doing that you should also separate them into piles of cards you definitely want to play, ones you’ll situationally play, and ones you hope you don’t have to play. This lets you see how deep each color really is and prevents you from thinking a color is stacked when it is actually a few high-end cards with a pile of undesirables.

At this points you can usually eliminate at least one color and start looking at different combinations. Try to identify which color combo looks the best and build the decks the examine them to examine them for weaknesses. Try to see if those problems could be shored up through a reasonable splash.

Once you’ve made your selection, you need to be very honest with yourself about how it will stack up against most other sealed decks. If you feel like it can’t hold its own in a long game, then you should see if you can make a low to the ground aggro deck to try to go under opponents. It’s also a good idea to have this as a sideboard option when playing against a much higher power level deck.

Now you’re just a mana base away from crushing some dreams.

Tips and Tricks

Sealed tends to be slower than draft unless someone busts the nuts. The decks are less focused so that gives you more time to play your spells making slightly more expensive cards or card advantage better.

Counterspells also tend to be better in sealed because of that extra time. Hard counters are preferred, but you’re still playing Phantom Interference if you’re blue. I shouldn’t have to say this, but on the subject of counter spells, Mana Drain is an insane limited card.

Even though power is important, synergy can be what makes the difference between good and great decks. Deadeye Duelist might seem unimpressive at first glance, but it is a key cog when you have a bunch of payoffs for committing a crime.

There are plenty of crime payoffs that are limited to once a turn such as Vadmir, New Blood. Remember that you can get two triggers per turn cycle by committing a crime on your opponents turn as well.

Don’t just plot to plot. It takes a lot of strategy to maximize it. Does it seem like your opponent is holding up a counter, then plot to make them waste their mana. It’s pretty easy to set yourself up to double spell with it too. Take your time and figure out your next couple turns before doing it.

Having said that, it’s often right to plot Highway Robbery early on if you have a free spot in your curve. You might end up sitting on it for a bit, but you’ll have a way better idea of what you should be doing with it later.

Longhorn Sharpshooter may not look like it, but is one of the mythic uncommons of the set. Flametongue Kavu is still good these days. Feel free to splash it if it doesn’t strain your mana base too much.

The common duals pinging for one damage matters more than most people think. It really changes the equation for how low you should be willing to go. Going to one life feels like you’re basically waiting to die in this format.

Speaking of those duals, they do target the opponent so they do commit a crime when you play them. Depending on how many payoffs you have, you might want to play the ones that only have one of your colors.

Sometimes you really, really need to commit a crime. Don’t miss the line when you can use one of your tricks to target their creature just to make it happen.

Spree is a great limited mechanic that gives you early options while still adding plenty of value later when you can get it all. They are probably better than most people are valuing them.

Rakish Crew is a card that might be undervalued. Anyone who played Bastion of Remembrance in Ikoria won’t be making that mistake.

Snakeskin Veil is in the set, be mindful of that. It’s always one of the easiest ways to get badly blown out.

Per usual, the best sealed strategy is to open a busted pool. I would highly recommend getting lucky here. The second-best strategy is to remember that this is prerelease so focus on having a great time(while winning)!

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this guides you to victory this weekend at your OTJ prerelease. Check back tomorrow for my limited review of the red cards of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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