The Best Magic Cards for the New Crime Mechanic

So you want to be an outlaw, do you? Don’t let me get in the way, but there's a few things you should know before diving into a life of crime. Crime of course being the devious new mechanic from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, which is defined as “whenever you cast a spell or activate an ability that targets an opponent or their stuff.” There’s a plethora of ways to take advantage of this, however it seems they’re primarily once per turn at the time of this writing.

If you still want to get your hands dirty though, here are some cards that might help you on your path of lawlessness. Who knows, utilize some of these and maybe one day your wanted poster could be hung next to Oko’s. 

Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura

One of the easiest, most straightforward ways to interact with your opponent and commit a crime is through the use of pingers. They’re simple - every time you tap them you get a trigger, and they may even help take out some pesky hatebears or other small bodies along the way. Their only problem is they each can only be activated once per turn, and while some cards like Gelectrode and Goblin Sharpshooter can untap situationally, there’s a handful of cards you can use to ensure you’re getting in one ping each turn during a standard four-player game of Commander. 

Freed from the Real and Pemmin’s Aura are solid choices, both of which equate to basically “pay one blue mana to commit a crime” when attached to a pinger. They’re just under $4 and $6, respectively, with the latter at its lowest in almost four years, down from an all-time high of $20. Pemmin’s Aura even has the added bonus of giving your creature shroud at instant speed if need be. And since it's only been printed in Scourge and The List, it might be a good idea to pick one up sooner rather than later if you’re thinking of giving this particular approach a try.

Freed from the Real	CardKingdom $3.49	TCGPlayer $3.75
Freed from the Real (Neon Yellow)	CardKingdom	TCGPlayer $10.00
Pemmin's Aura	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $5.50
Pemmin's Aura	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $5.09

Seedborn Muse and Drumbellower

Maybe you don’t want to use your resources each turn to get this result - crime’s supposed to pay you after all, not the other way around. Well here are two incredible options you can use to untap your pingers on each of your opponents’ turns.

The first and most obvious choice is Seedborn Muse, an all-time classic that's more than earned the minimum $10 price tag despite many printings. That being said, Seedborn Muse is so ubiquitously good that I don’t believe the introduction of crime as a mechanic will affect its price as much as Drumbellower, whose time in the sun is long overdue. Trailing behind at $5, this creature from Commander: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty can achieve the same effect crime-wise as Seedborn Muse for just three mana, albeit at the risk of dying from a single ping itself. And while they aren’t in the traditional colors for pingers per se, there are other types of creatures that can target in different ways, and in multicolor decks they'll more than get the job done. Bottom line, you want these two as your partners in crime.

Seedborn Muse	CardKingdom $23.99	TCGPlayer $25.61
Seedborn Muse	CardKingdom $19.99	TCGPlayer $17.87
Drumbellower	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $5.06
Drumbellower (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $6.49	TCGPlayer $5.19

Glare of Subdual, Diversionary Tactics, and Opposition

Paired with the last two cards, or perhaps even without them if you’ve got the bodies, these three enchantments can also help guarantee you get that crime trigger every turn. By simply tapping two creatures (or one in the case of Opposition) you can target one of your opponent’s permanents without paying any mana whatsoever, letting you save your precious resources for counterspells or other responses in case of emergency.

Glare of Subdual will do the trick, and Opposition clearly has the most utility out of the three, but my sleeper pick would have to be for Diversionary Tactics - particularly the foil treatment. LP versions can be found at the time of writing for around $3, which I think is a steal. Old border foils look breathtaking in person, and this coupled with the fact that the card is highly splashable and has only been printed in Apocalypse makes for a solid pickup.

Glare of Subdual	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $0.66
Diversionary Tactics	CardKingdom $0.39	TCGPlayer $0.33
Opposition	CardKingdom $3.99	TCGPlayer $3.68
Opposition	CardKingdom $1.29	TCGPlayer $1.22

Soltari Guerrillas

Soltari Guerillas commit crimes in their sleep; once this card hits the field, if you so much as glare in its direction, it'll pull a fast one on you. It's sneaky too - one would think by looking at the rules text on a quick, surface level that it doesn't have any activated abilities, when in reality the opposite is true. Take a look at the wording on the actual card compared to the updated oracle text.

“If Soltari Guerillas assigns combat damage to any opponent, you may redirect that damage to target creature.”

VS

“Pay 0: The next time Soltari Guerrillas would deal combat damage to an opponent this turn, it deals that damage to target creature instead.”

Upon initial reading of the card as it exists, it seems like you have to deal combat damage to a player to activate Soltari Guerillas’ ability, but you can actually activate it at will. This is the only card that allows you to commit crimes, in this case by targeting one of your opponents’ creatures to no effect, for zero resources, arbitrarily, at instant speed, as many times as you want. The only other card that comes close is Eater of the Dead, which is arguably harder to set up and over twenty times the price, albeit more splashable and still incredibly powerful. The only requirement for Soltari Guerillas is that there's one creature on the field between all your opponents, which is bound to happen in Commander, and even if not, you can use something like Forbidden Orchard, (which itself seems to have held steady for around $8, its cheapest price in four years) to set yourself up.

Soltari Guerillas isn’t quite versatile, being in both red and white, but for the decks in those colors that want to commit crimes, I'd consider this a snap pickup. Like Drumbellower and Diversionary Tactics, this card only has one printing, and is currently sitting at half a dollar - a small price to pay for a card that can not only provide your crime triggers each turn like the other recommendations, but can also do it as many times as you want for free.

Soltari Guerrillas

CardKingdom $0.59

TCGPlayer $0.59

In Conclusion

While I do slightly worry about the more intricate interactions of committing a crime being overly convoluted for some newer players (how many times have you forgot to target on cast?), I think the direction it takes the game in is exciting, and if you see yourself wanting to try it out, you could do worse than to check out these picks. 

Further Reading:

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