5 best Crime payoffs in Magic: The Gathering's Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Crime payoffs in Magic: The Gathering occur when you have a card in play that rewards you for committing a crime. Crimes in MTG require you, as the player to cast a spell or activate an ability that targets an opponent, or cards they control. You cannot cast a spell on your own cards and count that as a crime unless your opponent currently controls it. Quite a few cards reward you for this, though many only trigger once per turn.

When considering the best Crime payoffs in Magic: The Gathering, I based it on a few factors. One was how these cards performed for me and others during the recent Outlaws of Thunder Junction streaming event. I wanted to include one of the green crime cards, but frankly, they all felt wildly underwhelming. These, however, always delivered results.

Let’s dive into some powerful cards that use this new mechanic.

Note: This list is based on the author's opinion.

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Which cards provide the best Crime payoffs in Magic: The Gathering?

1) Kaervek, the Punisher

Kaervek, the Punisher in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

This card haunts my dreams—only because I don’t have one. Magic: The Gathering’s Kaervek, the Punisher has one of the best crime payoffs in the entire game, that’s for certain. Whenever you commit a crime, exile up to one target black card from your graveyard, and copy it; you may then cast the copy. If you do, you lose 2 life.

Run this in a powerful control deck or even a self-mill deck for some devastating results. It doesn’t matter what the card type is, as long as it’s black. Cruel Ultimatum? Easily done. A powerful creature like Rakdos, the Muscle? No stress at all. This particular payoff isn’t once-per-turn, either, so keep that in mind.

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2) Gisa, the Hellraiser

Gisa, the Hellraiser in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

One of the best crime payoffs in Magic: The Gathering’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction, interestingly enough, is a Lord. Gisa, the Hellraiser gives all Skeletons and Zombies +1/+1 and menace, making her better than a great many other lords. Suddenly, even those tiny skeletons are a major threat.

However, whenever you commit a crime, you create two tapped 2/2 blue/black Zombie Rogue creature tokens. While it can only happen once a turn, it’s free creatures every turn in the right deck. It’s satisfying to blow up your opponent’s best creature and gain more zombies as a reward.

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3) Magda, the Hoardmaster

Magda, the Hoardmaster in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Magda, the Hoardmaster is going to fit nicely into red aggro decks that like to create treasure tokens. While it’s nice to use those treasures for generating mana, why not use them to generate damage instead?

For this crime payoff in Magic: The Gathering, you create a tapped treasure token anytime you commit a crime. Sadly, it only triggers once a turn, but this is Red. You can trigger it during your opponent’s turn, too. You can either use these for combos or sacrifice three to make a 4/4 Scorpion Dragon creature token with flying and haste (only activated as a Sorcery).

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4) Servant of the Stinger

Servant of the Stinger in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Servant of the Stinger works amazingly well with Kaervek the Punisher, at least once. It’s a little harder to get this crime payoff in Magic: The Gathering, since the Servant of the Stinger needs to deal combat damage to a player. However, if it did, and you’ve committed a crime this turn, it has a major bonus.

You can then sacrifice the Servant of the Stinger to search your deck for any card and put it into your hand. The ability to seek any card and slot it into your hand means this uncommon is incredibly strong. You can then exile it with Kaervek and potentially do it a second time.

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5) Duelist of the Mind

Duelist of the Mind in MTG (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Depending on how many cards you can get out in a turn, Duelist of the Mind can be a terrifying way to end games. With flying and Vigilance, a */3 is pretty incredible. Its power is the number of cards you’ve drawn this turn, so a minimum of 1, but the maximum is pretty high. Whenever you commit a crime, you can draw a card. If you do then you discard one.

While that only increases his power by one, this crime payoff in Magic: The Gathering is also an excellent discard engine. You can keep drawing to make him bigger, but I’m a really big fan of cards that can put particular combo pieces in the graveyard, and this one does it automatically once per turn.

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There are plenty of other ways to generate value from committing crimes in Magic: The Gathering, but these are a few of my favorite payoffs. The Outlaws of Thunder Junction expansion launches on April 19, 2024.