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MTG’s Breaking News cards are a series of reprints found in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Unlike some of the reprints in this expansion, the cards on this list are not Standard Legal. 65 spells from across Magic: The Gathering’s rich history have been reprinted, and are only tournament-legal for formats they are already allowed in — and in Limited formats. Lore-wise, they represent crimes committed across the plane and feature fantastic newspaper designs.
This might be the hardest list I’ve ever done for Magic: The Gathering. It changed many times before it went live. There are so many amazing Breaking News cards in MTG’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction, that it was impossible to include them all. Here is a sampling of the best cards you could find in this set.
Which Breaking News cards are the best in MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction
1) Mana Drain
Naturally, Mana Drain had to be one of the best Breaking News cards in MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction. A 2-blue counter, it also grants you colorless mana equal to the spell’s mana value you countered. Depending on how big of a card you foil, you could do some truly destructive things with that spare mana. It’s especially great in a colorless/artifact deck.
Perhaps you want to play the powerful new Luxurious Locomotive vehicle early, but don’t have the mana. You will almost certainly be able to afford it on the next turn. It’s easily one of the best counterspells in the game.
2) Reanimate
Reanimate is one of my favorite cards in Magic: The Gathering, period. I’ve been using it for a very long time. It’s one of the best reanimation cards, even at the secondary cost it triggers. So what makes this one of the best Breaking News cards in MTG’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction?
Not only does the card let you put a creature from the graveyard into play, it can be from any player’s graveyard. You lose life equal to its mana value, but depending on what it is, that won’t matter too much anymore. Maybe you’re playing a game of Commander, and one of the cool new legendaries is in someone’s graveyard. Suddenly, it’s in play on your side of the field!
3) Contagion Engine
Contagion Engine is definitely one of the best Breaking News cards in MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Sure it costs six colorless mana to get it into play, but its value is undeniable. Even if your opponent doesn’t have a lot of creatures in play, Superfriends decks adore this card. When you activate this card's special ability, you Proliferate twice.
Take it from me: my Superfriends control decks always ran this when it was Standard legal. If you pair this with cards that increase your ability to Proliferate, such as Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, you’ll be able to hit your ultimate abilities on your Planeswalkers repeatedly, and with little to no effort on your part.
4) Fling
Do you like to win Magic: The Gathering games completely out of nowhere? Is attacking fun, but not your particular flavor of victory? Fling is among the best Breaking News cards in MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction for that very purpose. Considering the number of gigantic creatures, especially Hydras, there are ways to get around your opponent’s chump blockers.
This is one of my favorite ways to wrap up a Commander game. When you cast this, sacrifice a creature. Fling then deals damage equal to that creature’s power to any target. It’s not unprecedented to have a huge creature locked down, being rendered unable to attack — or perhaps it has weird attack requirements. Instead, just throw them at the other player.
5) Grindstone
Depending on how the game winds up, you can use Grindstone to mill an opponent out of almost all of their cards in one shot. Not only is Grindstone one of the best Breaking News cards in MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction, it’s one of my favorite artifacts in the game. It’s low-cost, and potentially high value.
When you activate it, a player mills two cards. If they share a color, repeat the process. That means, even if they’re multi-colored, as long as the same color is on both cards somehow, you can repeat the process repeatedly. It doesn’t repeat on lands, but anything else is fair game. I’ve watched huge chunks of decks disappear to this card. In addition, you can use it on yourself to get cards in the graveyard for reanimator/self-mill shenanigans.
MTG’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction releases on April 19, 2024. Breaking News cards can be found in Draft Boosters in this expansion.
