Good Games is excited to share with you our exclusive spoiler from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Outlaws of Thunder Junction!
Shepherd of the Clouds features a gorgeous pegasus that fits the set’s magical wild west theme perfectly, and gives us a sneak peek into Outlaws of Thunder Junction! It’s a White 4/3 with flying, vigilance, and lets you return a permanent card from your graveyard to hand (or the battlefield if you have a Mount.)
If you want to try this card and everything else from OTJ, come and check out our Prerelease Events here! 🤠🤠🤠
PSST…. What’s a mount?? While we’re at it – let’s go through the set mechanics!
The Mounts/Saddles Mechanic
Mount is a new creature type, similar to Vehicles. The key difference? Mounts can attack and block without needing to be crewed, but can be saddled for bonus effects. Think less tanks and mechs, and more trusty steeds and rustling beasts. It’s pretty straightforward, a flavour win for the set, and gets me excited to saddle up. Imagine the Great Ur Dragon, Primeval Titan or even the Eldrazi mounting a poor pony!
The Plot Mechanic
As true Outlaws, you’re going to want to Plot your crimes ahead of time. This new keyword lets you put a card in exile for its Plot cost, then cast it later for free at sorcery speed, a lot like Foretell. Fun fact, the exile zone is public information, so everyone can see anything that’s been Plotted. On the upside Plotting cards into exile protects your cards from being discarded or stolen from your hand!
For commander players, our favourite lost boy Fblthp, Lost on the Range lets you Plot the top card of your library for its mana cost! Invest your mana and Plot ahead! You might just cause your opponent to lose the plot! 😓😩😥
The Crime Mechanic
The recursion ability of Shepherd of the Clouds feels like an indirect response to the set’s Crime keyword. Crime is basically targeting anything an opponent controls. Whether that’s their permanents, library or even their life total, anything you target is considered a crime. Bolting the bird? Crime. Giving their creatures +1/+1 counters? Believe it or not, crime. We’re even getting a reprint of Thoughtseize to enable your criminal behaviour.
And crime pays in OTJ! 💰💰💰 Cards like Oko, the Ringleader and Duelist of the Mind let you draw and discard when you commit a crime, turning into great draw engines!
The Spree Mechanic
What’s a crime without a crime SPREE? Spree is found exclusively on instants and sorceries. Like Escalate, when you cast a spell with Spree you choose any additional costs to gain even more effects. But unlike Escalate, the cost changes based on the effect. For example, Unfortunate Accident lets you create a creature token for one extra mana, but paying three more lets you destroy a creature too!
BACK TO THE PEGASUS
With all that said, let’s take a deeper look at Shepherd of the Clouds!
As a five mana drop, it’s a tad high on the mana curve to build around. It’s like a better Serra Angel where you get more for your mana (thank you power creep) but it’s like a worse Sun Titan since it only triggers once.
In a set full of crimes like Crime//Punishment, it might be good to have recursion in your deck. Remember, “target permanent card with mana value 3 or less” includes lands and anything with X as its mana cost. You can even recur the Sword of Wealth and Power if it gets destroyed!
I would try to maximise this card in a deck full of Mounts to really get the feeling of a wild west stampede and guarantee Shepherd of the Clouds’ trigger into the battlefield. Or maybe I’d put this in my White Equipment deck to bring back destroyed artifacts from my graveyard.
One place where our beautiful pegasus really shines is for limited formats (which you can play at events near you!) It’s a strong addition and I can already imagine myself playing it late game when I’m low on health with a graveyard full of answers and wincon coming in the clutch like a pegasus coming down from the heavens. 🪽
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for providing us with this spoiler card!