Outlaws of Thunder Junction Prerelease Guide for Sealed and Draft | MTG OTJ set review 

@TenebrisImpyris Thanks. Enjoy your first prerelease!

@thmsdrew Have fun. I've taken many long breaks myself and it doesn't matter. You'll be right back in it from where you left off.

You couldn't find a better channel to prepare! Good luck and welcome back 💪🏽

Same thanks

@andrewpark78 Thanks

@snorlax42 Thanks!

@joshhanson163 Thanks

@raydelmartinez2905 Thanks! I am excited for the otj prerelease at my lgs too.

@tedhand6237 I hope we all open a few things that are amazing! There are so many great cards that are fun build arounds. I can't wait.

@BigFattyWaffles Thanks. I put a lot of thought and care into how I organize the information and what to prioritize. We've been doing some "observational science" to measure the effectiveness of my guides. Fun fact: about half of my lgs group watches my guides and the other half don't. Of the people that watch them we have noticed an average of ~one game won per person more than their win rate would normally be if they did not watch my guide, regardless of starting skill level! So people who used to go 2-2 on average are now going 3-1+ consistently. 3-1 players have bumped up to 4-0 finishes more often (this is the smallest bump in win rate since even a great deck can 3-1 due to bad draws and variance but that's normal and expected). I even had a good friend, that only one set ago, was a consistent 0-4 / 1-3 sealed player (1-2 drafter), come up to me yesterday before prerelease and tell me how much he liked this guide and that he watched it and felt ready. He nailed a perfect 4-0 yesterday. I was more excited for him than myself! I could not have cheered any louder for him during prizes at the end. It's exciting to see first hand how these guides can make a big difference. Thanks for your support.

@@mtgmonster8755 In your first video I saw, you started out with something like " Welcome to the best prerelease guide around " and I knew in that moment it was simply the truth. Future vision

@communitygirl20 lol thanks communitygirl20! 🍻

@bradleyserage4861 Thanks. I'm glad you found this video as a good fit for you. I also want you to know that I think it's okay to have different opinions/ initial thoughts on a set or card than others as well. I find when I disagree on a point with someone else it ends up benefiting everyone. It forces me to reexamine or to think more deeply about my own thoughts to recheck it or maybe even makes me see it in a different light. It also hopefully helps the other person do the same. This set is so deep and so good. There are so many cool ways to win with this set. I will not be surprised if I get beat with a strategy I initially undervalued or didn't see it for how good it could be. This set should be diverse enough to be fun for the entire time it's out hopefully! I know everyone at my lgs is absolutely pumped to get out and draft it every week. 🍻

@papobufalo Thanks

@rolling.reggie Thanks! Congrats on your channel's success as well. 🍻

@wolflion_37 Wow! That video was near the beginning of the channel. Thanks for supporting me for over a year now!

@richarddueck1770 Thanks.

@@mtgmonster8755 when you’re ready to start a patreon component to the channel, I’d be on board

@mistertadakichi Thanks and welcome back to mtg. 🍻

@SuperPlumber64 Thanks

@RhythmBeast360 Thanks. I agree. There is a high likelihood this will be the best set of the year.

@kooyongwarlock6390 Thanks! Have fun and good luck.

@AlexParkourLinz thanks

@LifeLineChronicles lol, yes there was. Viewers that regularly watch my channel for draft will already know I've been very ill for about 2 months now. I'm still extremely fatigued most days, and I won't sugar coat it getting the energy to put together this video/ analysis took all of the little energy I had. I'm sorry my tiredness came through. When I'm not feeling my best I try hard to hide it, but I didn't have the spare energy to do that here. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel!

That time again is happening a bit fast, IMO, but I think the next standard set isn't due out in September, so we have a bit of breathing room. :-)

​@@mtgmonster8755Sorry to hear that!

@michaelgriffith7033 Thanks. The sets are coming out a bit too fast for my liking as well. Lots of people at my lgs have said the same thing. It's just too much product. I've pretty much stopped buying/playing new set that aren't standard legal just to cut down. My most recent exception to that was lotr. It might surprise many people to know I rarely draft on Arena. I usually only draft once or twice a week there. Most of my drafting is done tabletop, in pod, at my lgs. I vastly prefer it to any online experience. Even though the next standard set isn't until September, Modern Horizons 3 is in June. It is coming to Arena and will have a tabletop prerelease kit as well which means I'll have a guide to go with it. June is soon! Here's to hoping I can feel back to 100% health asap.

@@mtgmonster8755 No apologies required nor requested. If anything, I owe my last 4-0 pre-release to your notes and strats on the Manor. Many thanks. You're right though: there's too much too soon. It's like the Grinch being made to feel all of the Whobalation at once. I do miss the days of a good block, maybe two, and then call it a year.

@tempiasjdoiasd thanks!

@firewing1319 Ouch... This set does have some very broken things. That sounds rough to sit across from. gl in your next matches. I promise you won't run into something that broken every time.

also don't overlook the armored armadillo. that little critter won two of my games almost by himself

@ganon019 Nice! Yes, like I said in the video there are lots of different ways to win in this set. That's what makes it good. There is not just one best win con. Congrats on the mounts wins!

@bdplayss777 That's always maybe the toughest question before play with the set begins. So great topic. Thanks for asking! My best guess is overall it will be a bomb heavy "prince" format that most games will end with you or your opponent casting an incredible card that goes unanswered and saying gg. That being said, aggressive strategies are almost always great early in any format because most control players haven't figured out the correct combination of cards needed to slow down the aggressive decks. 1 drops are important in any format in general. Even in slower formats they are important, but I think they will be slightly less relevant for this set. My reasoning is that things get big early, and synergies get out of control quickly. I'd recommend trying to show up at your first tables of the format with a stellar set of good removal/ interaction, 2-4 great win cons, and have a good curve out that can capitalize on synergies if possible... I don't know if being fast will be *most important for this set, especially at prerelease. But, a good curve out with value plays/ synergies are a must imo. If you can do that with a few broken cards to compliment it you'll probably find yourself winning a lot of sealed games at prerelease.

@throwaway7425 I have not noticed this at any of the prereleases I went to. With over 60 players at each, no one playing red green went 4-0. The vast majority of 4-0 decks were red black crimes (sometimes splashing green, white or blue). There were a few 4-0 decks playing green white mounts or blue x control (usually grixis or esper). At my lgs red green decks were okay usually ending up middle of the pack. The problem with them was that they were pretty clunky making them easy to blow out with bounce or removal leaving the red green player vulnerable to any interaction. Obviously if your op doesn't have any interaction green red can roll over people, but I found all the top players have a large amount of interaction so playing too many expensive things was just actively bad. I did play Jund one time and it did well with the fast red black start, but I think my Jund deck was much more a red black deck than a red green deck. Jolene with At Knifepoint makes her much stronger since no one wants to block a 4 power first strike so she can attack in way easier and also trigger the At Knifepoint for the mercenary. I very much enjoyed that combo, but I don't think I would have liked Jolene nearly as much without the At Knifepoint on board too. Just to point out as well my Jund deck only had one 4 mana spell. Everything else was 3 mana to cast or less so I was a very low to the ground crime deck using green for fixing. I'll have to try out the red green big stuff some other time a bit more, but no one at the top was playing a pure red green deck from what I saw.

@stormcountmtg4183 In general I agree, but it is worth noting that in sealed in particular I believe you might have all of these target types on the board more often than not. It is a very good sideboard card at minimum. If you have enough discard and draw value it's main deck-able. I think the set is fairly slow. The card becomes even more viable if you build your own deck with some “safety net” ratios. The reason why this card gets slightly better in this set in my mind is the presence of the Big Score and some very strong artifacts/enchantments even in the main set/breaking news that can be more than problematic if not dealt with. There are more than a few great artifacts that can run away with the game and solo you. So when I consider that I start to rate cards like decimate a little higher. I have to assume you will be playing against ops that know a strong artifact or enchantment when they see it and will try and put it in their sealed builds. There’s also a surprising number of enchantments floating around in all of the colors, some being extremely problematic in the right deck. So it’s a bomb heavy set where I expect people to be likely to play their amazing artifacts/ enchantments if they get them. Enchantments are going to be the more difficult target to find out of the two, but that can be compensated for by your own build. If you're playing Naya this should be no problem for you to load a few extra enchantments in so just in case you can target your on enchantment. My own personal preference of when to play decimate or not is if I have at minimum 3 different ways to get an artifact on the board including treasure, and 3 enchantments in my own deck. This way it's likely I can make sure there is one of each type of target. In some cases you’ll be trading your own enchantment for an artifact, land, and creature but that’s normally still a great deal. But yes, you’re right you do need to be careful with the card. The ceiling for the card is very high though. Careful use and thoughtful deck building is key. At minimum it’s a card worth knowing is in your sideboard just in case. In fact it's a great board in card. Once you know your opponent is heavy artifact or heavy enchantment you can tailor your deck to have the missing component and bring the card in for round two. That's how I play it most of the time. Out of main round one and bring in round 2 and 3 after getting info on ops build. Tbh in sealed if some of those big score artifacts get dropped in game one against me I would probably go to great lengths to change my deck around to have answers to them. That's where my praise of the card is coming from here. It's not that it isn't a risky card, it is! It's that the set has a lot of targets that it can deal with that many other cards can't so that might make that risk more worth it. There's also 2 rummage cards in red at common, so if you're really worried about it you could play those to mitigate your risk as well. But yes, I agree it's a high risk card requiring a thoughtful build around to play it. Thanks for the comment!

@vitd602 All cards in your prerelease pack are legal for limited. You can use any Breaking News, Big Score, and/or Special Guests. If you open it you can play with it in limited (which is the format of prerelease events).

@@mtgmonster8755 I understood wrong. Thanks!

@vitd602 No problem. It was a good question. Have fun playing at prerelease.

@Solrex_the_Sun_King Not even close. Jund, Black red green. But better than that is probably Sultai, green black blue. Blue for bomb rares and spell recursion from the grave.

@@mtgmonster8755in an 8 player draft I ended up going Green White Black and got 3rd place, 2-1 games across the board. My deck was pretty tough.

@@Solrex_the_Sun_King Abzan is solid in this set as well with mounts and recursion (black green white). Just to re-check above you asked about Mardu (red black white) so I want to make sure we are all on the same page.I think I personally like Sultai a touch more even if the original question was meant to be between Abzan and Jund… Just because you can rebuy lockpicker from the grave (sometimes multiple times in a game) and recast all the different sorceries and instants you have. This is something any deck without blue is lacking, and with the sorceries and instants being so very strong you are often buying back cards that are the best ones in your entire deck with lockpicker. But, that being said drafting what’s open is much more important than what you like best. Especially, in pod play. Pod play is a lot about building the best deck for your seat and never passing a better deck than the one you’re building. Abzan can definitely hit all the right boxes with the right rares and uncommons and roll a table, but given the correct opens almost any 3 colors could combine in pod play to be the winning deck. Congrats on your draft! Thanks for sharing.

@Claire_Blight Yep. It's great too. I love Jund here. I'd imagine you'd want a theme of commiting crimes with control from red/black and big finishers from red/green. Green/ black spells to bring some serious grave recursion and value to the table as well, so that's a great way to edge out the late game. Lifelink on the large things would be great too. There aren't any specific Jund spells for the set, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't make a great color trio. If your sealed pool takes you that way its a great place to end up.

@the121smashchampion Thanks!

@jonboman1990 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XCF5K_71Cos.htmlsi=3uvO28q1DllOHQOv&t=56m Woman