Everything You Need to Know About the Breaking News Cards in Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Timothy Zaccagnino 23 days ago Collecting, MTG Cards, MTG Products

Last updated on April 29, 2024

Thoughtseize | Illustration by William Tempest

Booster packs of Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) feel just about as lawless as the actual Wild West plane of villains itself. Play boosters are already new enough as it is, but OTJ boosters have so much going on. There’s “The Big Score”, Special Guests, wildcard slots, and the subject of today’s PSA: the Breaking News bonus sheet.

You’d be forgiven for not knowing exactly what’s what in a modern-day booster pack, but hopefully we can clear that up for you today.

Step right this way, pardner!

Table of Contents show

What Are the Breaking News Cards in Outlaws of Thunder Junction?

This Town Ain't Big Enough | Illustration by Andrew Mar

“Breaking News” is the name of Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s official bonus sheet. It’s similar in structure to bonus sheets of previous Magic sets, like Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive or Wilds of Eldraine’s Enchanting Tales.

The theme of Breaking News is committing crime. In other words, every card on the bonus sheet can target your opponent or something they own, whether that’s a permanent, a spell on the stack, or a card in the graveyard. These are meant to round out the crime-committing themes present in OTJ’s Limited format, and they're some of the most powerful cards in the set.

Breaking News has its own set code (OTP) and set symbol: a prison cell with a lock. These cards also have a distinct newspaper-style card frame, with the words “The Prosperity Post” scrawled across the top. Personal opinion: These would look so much better without that newspaper tagline. Still, they're some of the priciest cards in the set!

Thankfully, all the mythic rare Breaking News cards have an alternate borderless frame that removes the Prosperity tag.

How Many Breaking News Cards Are in OTJ?

There are a total of 65 Breaking News cards in Outlaws, with the following rarity breakdown:

20 uncommons
30 rares
15 mythic rares (these can be textured foils)

List of Breaking News Cards in Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Are Breaking News Cards in Play Boosters? The OTJ Draft Format?

Play boosters have exactly one guaranteed Breaking News card in every pack. OTP has its own slot in the booster and takes the place of a normal common. These cards can’t appear in the wildcard slots.

That means all 65 Breaking News cards are part of the Thunder Junction Draft format. The whole point of this bonus sheet is to provide easy ways to commit crimes during Limited gameplay.

Where Can You Open Breaking News Cards?

Breaking News cards can be found in Outlaws of Thunder Junction Play boosters and Collector boosters. There’s one guaranteed bonus sheet card per Play booster, and Collector boosters contain a minimum of three.

The borderless mythic rare versions can be found in either booster pack, but textured foil mythics can only be found in Collector boosters.

How Many Are in Each Pack?

Play boosters contain exactly one Breaking News card per pack, while Collector boosters contain at least three.

Are Breaking News Cards Standard Legal?

The presence of a card on the Breaking News bonus sheet doesn’t change its format legality at all; cards that are legal in Standard from a previous printing, like Leyline Binding, are still legal in the format. But cards that weren’t legal in Standard before, like Thoughtseize, still aren’t legal.

Breaking News vs. The Big Score

Outlaws of Thunder Junction contains a second pseudo bonus sheet called “The Big Score.” These are cards that were originally designed to be released in an epilogue-style booster pack similar to March of the Machine: The Aftermath. Due to the backlash that set received, cards from The Big Score were repurposed into the main Thunder Junction set.

The Big Score consists of 30 mythic rares that are featured in The List for Thunder Junction. A card from The List appears in about one out of every five Play boosters. The List for this set contains 40 cards total, the other 10 of which are Special Guests. Big Score cards are thematically tied to a giant vault on Thunder Junction and have an emphasis on artifacts.

The Big Score has its own set code (BIG) and set symbol (a vault door), and these cards are legal in Standard by default, unlike those from Breaking News. The Big Score won’t affect Limited as much as Breaking News, since only about five List cards appear in any given Draft pod on average, and they’re not even guaranteed to be cards from The Big Score.

Note that Play boosters can’t contain foil versions of The Big Score cards, but Collector boosters can contain foils as well as versions with a special “Vault Border.” Some of these come with a unique raised foiling as well.

Round Up

Outlaws' Merriment | Illustration by Suzanne Helmigh

Thunder Junction’s a little messy. Whether that’s due to Wizards reworking an epilogue set into the boosters or if this is how it was intended to be all along, a lot is going on in the second iteration of Play boosters. Hopefully, you can sort out what’s what based on the information here.

Quick tip: If you’re ever in doubt what set or sheet a card belongs to, consult the bottom left corner of the card. OTJ is the main set, OTP is Breaking News, BIG is The Big Score, and so on. It’s a lot to handle, but if your eyes are set on Breaking News cards, they should be distinct enough to tell them apart.

Any Breaking News reprints you’re really excited about? How do you think they’re going to play out in Limited? Let me know in the Draftsim Discord or on Twitter/X, pardners!

As always, thanks for making Draftsim your #1 stop for all things Magic!

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Timothy Zaccagnino

Timothy has been a Magic enthusiast since picking up the game in 2012, with a love of Limited and Commander. He's the co-creator of Jank Diver Gaming and co-host of The Deep Dive podcast. These days you can find him at the draft table, brewing his 20th EDH deck or cubing with friends on Arena.