Outlaws of Thunder Junction was a surprisingly massive set. Not only did it come with the typical base set, but the planned Epilogue release - The Big Score - was also added in as a Bonus Sheet. Not only was The Big Score an additional set this time, but so too was the bonus sheet Breaking News.

This additional subset leaned into the set's core mechanic of committing crimes. Every card on the bonus sheet would allow you to commit a crime, ensuring that you'd almost always have a way to do so and trigger the cards in your Limited decks.

As with most bonus sheets, there are a whopping 15 Mythic Rares. Every one is an interesting inclusion, and as such I'm going to go through and rank each of them today!

There's a ton to cover, so let's get right to it!

15. Anguished Unmaking

Anguished Unmaking is perhaps one of the most quintessential removal spells in Commander and is pretty great in Cube as well. The only problem, however, is that it has seen a fairly substantial number of reprints. As a result, it's hardly the card it once was and is pretty worthless, making it unexciting compared to the other cards on this list.

14. Mindslaver

I still remember when Mindslaver was first printed in the original Mirrodin and the wow factor it brought to the game at the time. Nowadays, it's much more of a neat novelty that's mostly just casual fodder. Despite that, it's not even all that played in Commander outside of players looking to abuse it for combo purposes. As a result, it finds itself on the low end of this list.

13. Oko, Thief of Crowns

The original Oko, Thief of Crowns is famous for being one of the most broken cards in Magic's long and storied history. Despite this remarkable pedigree, Oko faced a big problem with this reprint. He was banned in just about every format under the sun. Sure, you can play him in Commander, but he's just fine there, and he's also excellent in Cube though there's debate if he's maybe a little too good there. What this means is that there was very little demand for the card to come back, fitting as it was for this release.

12. Crime // Punishment

It might not seem like much now, but there was a brief period where this card shot up to around $30 thanks to its play in Modern. You could use the Punishment side to deal with low cost Artifacts or Creatures, making it particularly solid at dealing with the Rhino tokens from Crashing Footfalls.

This was one of the first reprints announced for this set, though. That's to say nothing of the fact that the card began to fall out of favor after Violent Outburst was banned and the impending release of Modern Horizons 3. Now you can find this card for pennies, so while it was helpful in the moment, it was more an interesting blip compared to many of the other cards on this list.

11. Fractured Identity

Fractured Identity is famous for its prowess as a Cube all-star. Its reprint only helped to make the Outlaws of Thunder Junction experience have that much more of a Cube feel for many, as well as putting more copies into players' hands.

There's just one problem. The card had already seen reprints in a 2021 Secret Lair release, as well as the more recent Doctor Who Commander decks. As a result, the card had already become more accessible in recent years. Worse still, the card's Cube utility has diminished somewhat in recent years, leading to a much lower ranking here.

10. Overwhelming Forces

What makes Overwhelming Forces such an interesting print here is that it was one of the last few major cards that needed a huge reprint from Portal: Three Kingdoms.

Many cards from Portal: Three Kingdoms, such as Imperial Seal, Warrior's Oath, and Capture of Jingzhou, had seen recent reprints. Others like Imperial Recruiter, Rolling Earthquake, and Diaochan, Artful Beauty had prominent reprints in the past, as well as some judge foils like the powerful Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed. Even Ravages of War was reprinted a month prior in Fallout.

Overwhelming Forces was one of the last non-Legendary spells that seemed like it could get a reasonable reprint, and it finally received it here. The reprint came and went, and can now be had for less than a dollar, but the fact that it was reprinted at all was massively newsworthy.

9. Grindstone

Speaking of older cards getting surprising reprints, seeing Grindstone here was a very welcome surprise. The original card, first printed in Tempest, came from the era of the Reserved List, which had many people instinctively thinking this couldn't be reprinted. That was until it was reprinted as a Kaladesh Invention Masterpiece and as a Judge Promo.

Given the card's Combo play in conjunction with Painter's Servant, Grindstone being reprinted in a simple Play Booster came as a surprise. However, it was a well liked one, giving players better access for formats such as Legacy and Commander, despite its limited appeal.

8. Crackle With Power

Casual players everywhere love a good Fireball. What about a Fireball that can hit just about everything and do major damage in the process? This is what makes Crackle with Power such an appealing card, and it was on a rise in use and cost at the time, which this reprint helped deflate.

Despite this, the card has continued an upward trajectory thanks to its appeal to Commander players everywhere. If it weren't for this reprint, it would be downright inaccessible, making its inclusion here surprisingly timely.

7. Contagion Engine

Few mechanics are as popular as Proliferate with casual players, and Contagion Engine takes the mechanic to 11. Not only do you get to double up on your Proliferate abilities, but you also get to Proliferate the -1/-1 counters Contagion Engine doles out. This has made the card an absolute Commander staple, with prices hovering around $20 prior to its reprinting here.

The card sits fairly close to that price once more today thanks to the -1/-1 counters in Lorwyn Eclipsed. However, this reprint brought it down to around $5 for some time, making it easy for players everywhere to acquire copies.

6. Leyline Binding

Admittedly, it felt a little weird to see Leyline Binding get another reprint like this so soon after its initial printing. After all, the card was still legal in Standard, with Dominaria United continuing to hang around for another year.

Despite the seemingly unusual timing, it couldn't have been better. At this point in time, Domain was a major player in Standard, fueled in part by Leyline Binding. This would extend to similar Multicolored strategies in Pioneer and Modern, leading to remarkably high demand.

This reprint gave players a major injection of copies at a critical time, even though its price would come crashing down to Earth soon after.

5. Indomitable Creativity

Every now and then, Indomitable Creativity decks make a big splash in different metagames. It just so happens that Creativity saw a pretty big spike shortly after the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. As a result, copies of this classic became red hot again, making it extremely timely that it saw a reprint in this set, even if Creativity left as quickly as it came.

4. Force of Vigor

Force of Vigor has become one of the best two spells from the Modern Horizons "Force" cycle alongside Force of Negation. While that card has seen multiple reprints thanks to its multiformat appeal, Force of Vigor was very much hurting for a reprint.

Prior to the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, copies were priced between $25 and $40 depending on the era. This reprint brought it crashing down to earth, where copies now comfortably sit around $7-8 apiece. This gave Modern, Legacy, and Commander players alike the copies they needed to compete - especially in the wake of Nadu summer that was soon to follow.

3. Thoughtseize

By the time Thoughtseize was reprinted here, it had been some time since its last major reprint. It had a Secret Lair release in the 2022 Featuring: Junji Ito Lair as well as a reprint in the super limited Time Spiral Remastered in 2021. Prior to that, its last major reprint was in 2020's Double Masters.

While all of these helped ensure players could find copies of this powerful spell, there was no doubt that more supply was needed. The card was - and remains - a staple of Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Cube, and some higher level Commander decks. As a result, putting copies into readily available Standard boosters proved huge, ensuring availability for years to come.

2. Mana Drain

By now, I've talked about Mana Drain three different times in my Mythic Rankings series, and every time it has ranked quite high. The famous Legends Counterspell is always hotly in demand and more copies entering the marketplace continuously proves to be huge for players everywhere.

The reprint in Breaking News proved even more impactful for a simple reason. Players could open a copy from a basic Play Booster. Every previous reprint was either a high end promo or exclusive to a Masters-style set, meaning packs were often more costly and/or limited in their availability. Commander Legends is perhaps an exception to this, though the size of the set made it difficult to acquire copies.

Here, none of that mattered. Players had their best opportunity to date to get their hands on this legendary spell for their Commander decks and Cubes. Oh, and crush their Limited events in the process.

1. Mindbreak Trap

You'd be forgiven if Mindbreak Trap doesn't look particularly memorable over Mana Drain, as that's somewhat true nowadays. However, at the time Mindbreak Trap was sitting close to $70 and was a staple of high level Commander and some competitive Modern, Legacy, and Vintage play. Prior to its reprint here, it had only seen one printing in its original form from Zendikar. As a result, it was begging to get a second printing pretty much anywhere.

It just so happens that it got two more in the years after thanks to Mystery Booster 2 and the Marvel Universe Source Material Cards releases. As such, the price has cratered quite substantially. However, there is no doubt that at the time, this was absolutely the number one reprint of this set by a considerable amount, and it frankly wasn't even close.

Paige Smith

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