Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) Limited Guide: White

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) prerelease events take place on April 12, 2024, with the official release a week later on April 19, 2024. Want to know more about how each card rates in Limited, along with some potentially fun synergies? Then check out this series of OTJ Limited guides!

For the mechanics, see this article: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Mechanics Explained

Rating Scale

5.0: Unconditional first pick
4.0: Worth a first pick
3.5: Strong enough, but not necessarily a first pick
3.0: Above average (you will really want it in your final deck)
2.5: Average, maybe around a 6th or 7th pick in the draft
2.0 to 1.0: Below average (you would rather not play it than play this card)
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable (basically never play it, doing so will only help you lose)

White

Egavas: 1.5

When you pick this in Limited, you will definitely want to cast it with a relatively high X, hoping for a big play with X of 2 or more. But even at X=2, the overall value of enters effects, which are mostly on commons and uncommons in Limited, is not high. For this card to perform well, you need creatures on the board with high-value or numerous enters effects, and the requirement to make it really pay off is too high.

Egavas: 4.0

A four-mana 3/5 flyer, a very high-quality bomb. The only issue is that the three white mana symbols put relatively high demands on your mana base. If your deck is a two-color or mono-colored deck that is mainly white, this pick is even higher.

Egavas: 2.0

A one-mana early blocker. Each of the five colors in this set has a one-mana common creature, and this one is relatively the weakest, but if your one- and two-drop curve is poor, it is still an option worth considering.

Egavas: 3.5

A three-mana 2/2 flash flyer. Its ability is equivalent to a soft counterspell, and with the many plot cards in this set, its last ability is an effective deterrent. Casting it early is no loss, and late in the game you can use it at the right moment to stop your opponent’s winning play or even turn the game around.

Egavas: 3.5

As long as you have enough creatures spread across the board, it is a high-quality, high-reward creature. Its attack trigger plus lifegain can swing the advantage in the mid to late game.

Egavas: 3.0

Basically a white catch-all removal spell, but its drawback makes it perform worse against faster decks.

Egavas: 3.0

In terms of stats it is an excellent vigilance creature, and the later ability can extend your lead when you are ahead.

Egavas: 3.0

A three-mana 3/3 with vigilance is a decent creature, but the enters ability needs a fourth turn to show its value, which is relatively slow, and this set has no utility lands with the right type, so the ability can be treated as a freebie when it happens.

Egavas: 4.5

A two-mana 2/3 flyer, an extremely high-quality creature. Early on, when you are short on creatures, you can cast it for two mana, and when you are not short on creatures, you can plot it. On turn five it brings along an extra 4/5 flying lifelink creature. A very flexible card that can carry you to victory.

Egavas: 3.0

A removal spell with lifegain. Against aggro decks it is a card that can establish an early advantage.

Egavas: 4.5

An instant that combines protection, a combat trick, and a board wipe. The first mode, as a trick, can strip an evasive creature of its abilities, turning it into a dummy that you can block easily; the second gives a creature indestructible, occasionally saving your best creature; the third wipes the board at instant speed, so after sweeping on your opponent’s turn you can immediately redeploy creatures on the backswing. Extremely flexible.

Egavas: 4.0

It has a high-quality enters effect. As long as it survives when it attacks, it scrys 2 every turn, and it can even come back standing alongside another creature. A good card that combines filtering and defense.

Egavas: 2.5

A two-mana curve creature. There are seventeen Mounts in this set in total, so if you get one when it enters, it is a bonus.

Egavas: 3.0

A card with decent flexibility. When you are ahead and have excellent enters effects, it can be a way to gain resources, and when your opponent has a powerful bomb on the board, it is a three-mana removal spell. Although for four mana you can Cloudshift your biggest creature and kill the second-highest power creature, a three-mana removal spell that can’t target a specific creature still occasionally has awkward timing.

Egavas: 1.0

A two-mana Rule of Law effect, which is awkward in Limited, especially since the red-white and black-white pairs in this set are both go-wide themes where it is easy to do multiple things in a single turn. Even used as removal it is seven mana to hit for five, which is especially poor in a set where removal quality is generally high.

Egavas: 3.5

Another three-mana 2/2 flash flyer, and the enters effect is a very nice bonus.

I always shout its name out loud when I cast it!

Egavas: 2.5

If you can give it flying, it is a passable creature. You can try plotting it to get around its check condition.

Egavas: 3.0

An Oblivion Ring that comes with a 1/1 on entering. The only issue is that compared with the three-mana enchantment below, which has the same Oblivion Ring effect, so far this set’s Limited format looks fairly fast, and one extra mana versus a 1/1 still makes a difference. On top of that, this card is an uncommon while the one below is a common.

Egavas: 3.5

For two more mana it becomes a Thopter Arrest with flash. A flexible card.

Egavas: 2.5

Just a one-mana 1/1 flying creature. Drawn in the mid to late game it can be used to get value from enters effects, and its strength depends on how strong the enters-effect creatures you want to re-trigger are.

Egavas: 2.5

A two-mana curve creature. If you have cards that let you commit a crime at instant speed, this card can make good trades.

Egavas: 2.5

White graveyard recursion. If you can dig up multiple cards, it is a great bonus.

Egavas: 2.5

A two-mana curve creature that draws a card when it dies, but a 1/3 is relatively poor on offense. Still, in a long game, blocking a 1- or 2-power creature every turn while steadily gaining life is pretty good.

Egavas: 3.0

A two-mana 2/2 with lifelink is already a quality creature, and in a mid to late game standoff it keeps growing, but white has only three plot cards, so it relies on cards from other colors to support it.

Egavas: 1.5

Poor stats: it needs two mana plus a token, and the ability is not easy to turn on. As a 4/2 body it leans toward offense, but its abilities perform better on defense overall, making it a very awkward card, and 2 toughness makes it hard to gain an advantage in trades.

Egavas: 2.0

Unless something unexpected happens, it is destined for the sideboard.

Egavas: 2.0

A flexible combat trick.

Egavas: 3.0

Since this set has only 17 Mounts, most of the time you will be returning a card to hand, and with high probability it is a small creature traded away early, which is a bit plain. Still, as a five-mana 4/3 flying vigilance creature, its overall quality is not bad.

Egavas: 3.0

Plotting it is very cheap, and it works well with the token-based black-white or red-white decks, or with a plot theme. A very flexible card.

Egavas: 2.5

It can pair with the token-based black-white or red-white decks, or with a plot theme. With a plot ability you can also catch the right timing to push a wave of damage. Decent flexibility.

Egavas: 2.5

Common burn-style removal. There are 66 creatures with toughness 1 or 2 in this set, more than a third, though it must be used at specific times, so its flexibility is lower.

Egavas: 2.5

The two-mana tap cost is slightly inflexible, but as a two-mana 2/2 with a positive ability it still has its uses. Drawn early it can disrupt your opponent’s tempo, and drawn late it can hold the board. Not bad flexibility.

Egavas: 2.0

Basically a five-mana 3/4 creature. The evasion of flying keeps it from performing too poorly, but the average-strength ability and average stats still make it a lower-priority option.

Egavas: 2.0

A combat trick with lifelink. Lifelink performs extra well in Limited.

Egavas: 3.5

It attaches for free when it enters and grows, and tapping down a creature when it attacks is a strong help on offense. Equipping it is cheap, too. Very strong. Although it is hard to make it your first pick, if it is passed to you as a 3rd or 4th pick in the first pack, it will be a reason to move into white.

Egavas: 2.0

An attacking creature, but among this set’s two-mana common creatures it is the worse one. Basically it needs to enter right on turn two to perform well enough, and if your deck has a fast early tempo, the pick priority is better.

Egavas: 2.5

A creature with a good curve and slightly better stats. Since it is not restricted to nontoken creatures, it is a creature that gradually grows. The one thing to note is that in a round of creature trades, even if multiple creatures die at the same time, it puts at most one counter on itself, but it still forces your opponent to remove it first before dealing with other creatures.

Egavas: 1.5

This set has quite a lot of flying creatures with two power, so it can’t get an advantage in trades.

Conclusion

White’s cards perform adequately. Although there are a few bombs rated 4 or above such as Final Showdown, there is no 5.0 card that can easily win the game after sticking around for a few turns. White creatures’ overall stats and curve are not bad, though, and there are quite a few low-rarity cheap removal spells such as Mystical Tether and Eriette’s Lullaby. Overall, white is well suited as a base to fill out your mana curve and the value of your small cards, then add bombs from other colors depending on the situation. Rather than a color decided by a first-pick bomb, white’s role in this set is more of a color pair you commit to in the middle of the draft after you see or take enough quality small cards.

There are 38 white cards in total this time

• The average score is 2.7
• The highest score is 4.5
• The lowest score is 1.0