MTG Thunder Junction’s lethal lizard Commander bribes opponents’ creatures

MTG’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction set has brought in a new Mercenary Commander that rewards paying off and stealing opponents’ creatures.

Laughing Jasper Flint is an instantly iconic MTG Commander card that makes full use of Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s new Outlaws subtype. Outlaws group together several types of creatures like Pirates and Mercenaries, building up support for each. Laughing Jasper Flint specifically boosts Mercenaries, and does so in a powerful and flavorful way.

WotC

Laughing Jasper Flint powers up a fun MTG strategy that is sure to annoy and amaze other players at the table in equal measure. When your Upkeep phase begins, you exile the top X cards of an opponent’s deck of your choice. The value of X is equal to the number of Mercenaries you control. Additionally, you can cast any of those exile cards until the end of the same turn, using mana of any color.

What makes this Commander creature work so well is its passive ability. When Laughing Jasper Flint is on your field, all creatures you control but don’t own gain the Mercenary type in addition to their other types. Through this, Jasper’s theft ability grows exponentially more powerful the more creatures you snatch from opponents’ decks and bring over to your side.

As well as functioning as a great Commander in their own right, Laughing Jasper Flint fits right in among some of the most popular Commander decks around. It’s a running joke among the MTG Community at this point that seemingly half of all Rakdos (red and black mana) cards fit in a Prosper, Tome-Bound deck. But the jokes exist for a reason: Prosper is a historically excellent Commander, packing value generation and huge potential bursts of damage.

Right on cue, Reddit commenter Leklor had this to say in response to Laughing Jasper Flint’s reveal:

“I would like to point out that Prosper is a Warlock, therefore an Outlaw, and therefore yes, this is yet another card to add to your Prosper deck.”

Being in on the joke, Reddit user NihilismRacoon replied:

“Thank God, I was slightly worried there was a Rakdos card that did in fact not go in Prosper.”

The Outlaw type is an aspect of MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction that is set to go down a treat with fans. Grouping together several iconic creature types that could definitely do with support like Pirates, Warlocks, and, of course, Mercenaries. With Laughing Jasper Flint as a dedicated Mercenary Commander, this type is ready to break out of MTG obscurity once again.