MTG Thunder Junction: How to upgrade Grand Larceny Commander Deck 

Upgrade MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Grand Larceny deck to turn your opponent’s best cards against them. 

Gonti, Canny Acquisitor heads up MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Grand Larceny Commander deck, discounting the cost of stealing your opponents’ spells, as well as providing you with the means to do so. We’ll show you how to build a better deck around Gonti, cutting out some duds and streamlining what Grand Larceny does best. 

Must-haves: Tasha, the Witch-Queen & Hoarding Broodlord 

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Tasha, the Witch-Queen 

Tasha works so well with Gonti’s game plan that it becomes an absolute cornerstone of the deck. Filling up your board with fliers that can block or chip away at your opponents is a brilliant passive effect, and Tasha’s loyalty abilities will make opponents think twice about casting any Instant or Sorceries, as they’ll quickly become tools for you to use as well. 

Hoarding Broodlord 

The value that this card can add to Grand Larceny is twofold. For starters, you can tutor up any card of your choice and send it into exile, to be cast at a time of your choosing. Secondly, any spell you cast from exile gains convoke.  

This Creature not only gives you access to your key cards, it makes the rest of the game that much cheaper, allowing your Creatures to heavily discount most of your big plays. 

Budget cards to upgrade your deck 

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Rogue’s Passage 

4 mana can be a hefty cost for this ability, but it’s worth it to turn a Creature of your choice unblockable exactly when you need it the most. 

Court of Locthwain 

Court of Locthwain gives you the ability to skim cards from an opponent’s deck in each of your upkeeps, casting them as long as you retain the monarch status. 

What’s more, the monarch token is easier for you to keep or reclaim thanks to several of your Creatures being unblockable, allowing you to deal damage to any player who takes the monarch token from you. 

Rogue Class 

Rogue Class does a little bit of everything you want in Grand Larceny, getting progressively better as you unlock its higher levels. With evasion and the ability to exile and cast your opponents’ cards, this card is perfect for Gonti’s game plan. 

Toski, Bearer of Secrets 

This Creature works in tandem with Gonti, doubling up on the value you get from dealing damage to opponents. With these two cards in play, you’ll have a wealth of choice each turn, thanks to a full hand and a selection of opponents’ cards to cast. 

Assassin’s Trophy 

Simple, straightforward removal in Golgari colors (green and black mana.) Few threats can’t be dealt with through a well-time casting of this Instant. 

Premium cards to upgrade your deck 

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Dauthi Voidwalker 

Dauthi Voidwalker is a creature with incredible value, preventing opponents’ graveyard recursion and working as a targeted theft at the right time for just two black mana. 

Praetor’s Grasp 

This Sorcery is essentially a tutor that just so happens to search another player’s deck for a card instead of your own, getting rid of a real threat and placing it under your control at the same time. 

Agent of Treachery 

Stealing a target permanent of your choice is a versatile ability, but this card really works as a value engine, drawing cards reliably thanks to the ease with which Grand Larceny players have three permanents belonging to opponents under their control. 

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor 

Gix works as both a social tool and a reliable method of card draw in the early game, and an incredible payoff once you’ve accrued enough mana. While its free casting may not benefit from Gonti’s cost reduction, it’s powerful enough to be well worth inclusion here regardless. 

Cards to cut 

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Void Attendant 

This unusual Eldrazi, unfortunately, has little place in this deck, requiring a fiddly process to produce minor advantages. The colorless mana token payoff is rarely worth the initial investment it took to produce the Creature in the first place. 

Prismatic Lens 

You have better methods of ramp and mana fixing available to you than this rock. 

The Mimeoplasm 

While it can make a fun enough Commander in its own right, you’re better off stealing opponents’ resources than investing in this costly Creature that lacks inherent combat evasion. 

Plasm Capture 

Unique counterspells are always worth exploring, but it’s especially difficult to justify the mana cost of this one when Mana Drain has finally seen a reprint in Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Breaking News bonus sheet. 

Chaos Wand 

With an initial mana value of 3 and a further activation cost of 4, this card is simply too expensive turn-by-turn to justify keeping here. 

Whirler Rogue 

You’re better off relying on Creatures that are inherently unblockable and effects like Rogue’s Passage than this potentially one-time use sacrifice ability. 

Bladegriff prototype 

Leaving the choice of destruction here to an opponent drags down this otherwise useful flying Creature. 

Curse of the Swine 

You’ll likely have the mana available for a big payoff with this card’s X-cost, but considering that you want to be dealing damage unblocked as much as possible, this removal leaving behind Creatures is less than ideal.