Rankings for All 2 Outlaws of Thunder Junction Planeswalkers

Oko, the Ringleader | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Welcome to Thunder Junction, a place where apparently, crime doesn’t does pay. The Omenpaths are open, and some of the worst criminals of the multiverse are joining forces – including some famous planeswalker characters.

Aside from being in Thunder Junction, Jace and Oko are also known for wreaking havoc in Constructed formats. Outlaws of Thunder Junction brings new planeswalkers to the game, but are they going to be broken like previous versions of Oko and Jace?

Let’s find out.

Why Isn’t There Only One Planeswalker in Outlaws of Thunder Junction?

Plan the Heist | Illustration by Fariba Khamseh

The last few MTG sets, namely The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Wilds of Eldraine and Murders at Karlov Manor, had only one planeswalker card in them. Although Outlaws of Thunder Junction focuses more on legendary creatures, there’s two planeswalkers. Oko, the Ringleader is one of the story’s main characters. Jace Reawakened is the secret mastermind behind the story.

When asked about this on his Tumblr, Mark Rosewater said that “One planeswalker card is the norm, but two planeswalkers can be an option.” So, here we have two options: Either the set’s story required two planeswalker cards, or Jace Reawakened should be in another set and was transferred to this one. Jace was actually planned for an epilogue-style set that was intended to follow up Thunder Junction, but that set was scrapped, and Jace was added to the main set instead.

Anyway, we have two exciting new planeswalker cards, so let’s rank them and discuss whether they’ll see play or not.

#2. Oko, the Ringleader

The first Outlaws of Thunder Junction planeswalker is Oko, the Ringleader. It's a 4-mana planeswalker costing and has a starting loyalty of 3. Let’s see what we can do with that.

• Passive: At the beginning of combat on your turn, Oko becomes a copy of a creature you control, except they have hexproof.
• (+1): Draw two cards, discard two cards. If you’ve committed a crime, discard only one.
• (-1): Create a 3/3 elk token.
• (-5): Create a token that’s a copy of each other nontoken permanent you control.

The first thing to note is that Oko’s +1 ability, which is usually the go-to ability, can be a draw-2/discard-2, or a draw-2/discard-1, effectively generating card advantage. Thing is, committing a crime is harder in Simic , so you’ll probably join forces with red, black or white. It’s awesome to kill your opponent’s creature, then draw two and discard one. Or playing this planeswalker in a discard shell, where you cast a targeted discard spell like Thoughtseize, then go up a card with Oko.

Oko’s gotta have their elks around them. At least this version of Oko isn’t turning other permanents into elks with the positive ability. Still, being able to produce 3/3 tokens is a good rate. This goes together with Oko’s passive, giving you a 3/3 that you can turn Oko into if you don’t control something better.

Oko’s passive is very important. As a Simic card, you can copy a flying creature and get in the air, or copy a giant green creature and beat your opponent down. It’s interesting to see what Oko can do with green hasty creatures or in a Temur deck.

All in all, Oko, the Ringleader looks like an important 4-mana planeswalker with a ton of synergies. It’s an important slot for Standard decks, either in the main or sideboard. You can do a ton of stuff with this card: generate card advantage, deck filter, reanimate, generate value through flashback, the list goes on. I know I’m going to play this card in Sultai and Bant decks (at the very least).

#1. Jace Reawakened

Jace has returned in Jace Reawakened. It costs only and it starts with 3 loyalty counters. It’s a really weird version of Jace, but let’s break it down:

• Passive: You can’t cast it on the first three turns of the game. The Serra Avenger clause. It’s interesting to see that WotC can use a planeswalker's passives to limit the card.
• +1 : Draw a card, discard a card. So here you can loot but not get any raw card advantage.
• +1: You may exile a card from your hand with mana value 3 or less and it becomes plotted. Remember that a plotted spell can be cast for free at sorcery speed on a later turn.
• -6: Until end of turn, if you cast a spell, you’ll copy that spell. This is a clear nod to plotting a spell every turn, and when you ultimate Jace, you’ll cast all your plotted spells, resulting in a big splashy turn.

While I think Oko is the overall better planeswalker, it’s hard to knock Jace off that easily. Let’s see some advantages to this card:

• The potential to do broken stuff with the plot ability is very real, and cunning MTG players already identified that you can cheat Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor with this version of Jace since the frontside (Valki, God of Lies) costs only 2. When casting it, you can cast the more expensive 7-mana planeswalker on the backside for free.
• The discover mechanic works very well with Jace Reawakened. Many discover cards already cost 4 mana or more, so if you discover Jace on turns 4+, you’ll be able to cast it. There are some exceptions, for examplediscovering into Jace with Etali's Favor on turn 3. But there’s zero risk since you can just put Jace into your hand instead.
• Be careful not to plot counterspells. Since you can only cast exiled plot cards as sorceries, a plotted counterspell is essentially a dead card.
• Finally, many spree cards have a low mana value, so you can plot them with Jace and cast them in a later turn – but you’ll still need to pay the additional costs.

Round Up

Jace Reawakened | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

Outlaws of Thunder Junction breaks with the one-planeswalker-per-set rule, and I can understand that WotC changed their plans with this set a little bit. Still, it’s not a big deviation, considering that three to five planeswalkers used to be the norm. Regarding the two planeswalker cards we get, Oko, the Ringleader is similar to Sorin the Mirthless, in the sense that you can get card advantage via the +1, or tick it down to get the defenses online. Jace is weaker but has the potential to do more broken stuff. Either way, they’ll get plenty of play.

What do you think about these two planeswalkers? Are they going to see play or not? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it in the Draftsim Discord. Either way, thanks for reading guys, and let’s put our hands on OTJ cards as soon as we can.