Laughing Jasper Flint first released inMagic: The Gathering’sOutlaws of Thunder Junction set, and is one of the best commanders if you want to build a deck around outlaws. This Rakdos (black/red) commander offers a hybrid kind of playstyle, with half of it outlaw typal, and the other half a theft deck.
No game with Laughing Jasper Flint is quite the same, because what you can play depends on what your opponents are playing. Technically, it could even be a mill deck if you have enough outlaws. It’s a varied deck, so if you like unexpected outcomes and playing your opponents' cards, Laughing Jasper Flint is perfect for you.
Plargg and Nassari
x10 Mountain
x12 Swamp
Tainted Peak
Temple of the False God
The decklistcontains 30 creatures, four sorceries, five instants, 14 artifacts, 12 enchantments,and34 lands. Nearly the entire creature lineup are outlaws, with a higher-than-average number of mana rocks to make sure you can cast a ton of spells from Laughing Jasper Flint.
Key Cards
Laughing Jasper Flint
The commander of the deck does a whole lot. Laughing Jasper Flintmakesall creatures you control outlaws, so long as you don’t own them(meaning they didn’t start the game in your deck). This feeds into its other effect to exile cards from a player’s library to cast them.
Outlaws are any creatures that have the any of the following types: Assassins, Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks.
Something notable isLaughing Jasper Flint’s effect commits a crime since it targets a player. This triggers various other effects in the deck that build up value in the form of either creatures or Treasure tokens, both of which give you more mana to work with and more outlaws on the battlefield.
Mari, The Killing Quill
Mari, the Killing Quillgiveshalf of your outlaws deathtouch, including any of the creatures you don’t own you played with Laughing Jasper Flint. It alsoturns off any graveyard strategies,as it exiles your opponents' creatures when they die.
If a lot of creatures are exiled, you canramp quickly with two Treasure tokens while drawing cards. Mari provides a ton of value for the deck, giving you a ton of mana and cards in your hand to work with in the later stages of the game.
Gisa, The Hellraiser
Gisa, the Hellraiser is the easiest way to build up a battlefield of outlaws.Whenever you commit your first crime in a turn, you’ll get two Zombie Rogue tokens. The tokens themselves aren’t anything special on their own, but it’s mixed with Laughing Jasper Flint, it provides you with even more cards from libraries.
Committing a crime is when you target anything of your opponents, including your opponents themselves. This includes targeting their permanents, graveyards, spells, and libraries.
Thetokens make for greatchump blockers in combat. You don’t need them to stick around since they’re only 2/2 creatures (or 3/3 for as long as Gisa is on the battlefield). They do help to close out games though if life totals are looking low since Gisa also gives the tokens menace.
Goblin Bombardment
Goblin Bombardment may not appear to make too much sense in the deck at first. However,it is one of the best combo enablersthat can deal infinite amounts of damage with the right cards on the battlefield.
There are two different ways to achieve this. One iswith Pitiless Plunderer and Forsaken Miner, and the other involvesGev, Scaled Scorch with Murderous Redcap.
Here is the Pitiless Plunderer and Forskaen Miner Combo.
Prerequisites: Forsaken Miner, Pitiless Plunderer, and Goblin Bombardment are on the battlefield.
Step 1: Activate Goblin Bombardment to sacrifice Forsaken Miner, dealing one damage to any target.
Step 2: Pitiless Plunderer and Forsaken Miner both trigger. Stack it so Forsaken Miner resolves last.
Step 3: Pitiless Plunderer creates a Treasure token. Use this Treasure token to pay the black mana required to return Forsaken Miner to the battlefield for committing a crime.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3.
This loop will give you infinite damage that can used on both permanents and players.
This is the combo with Gev and Murderous Redcap.
Prerequisites: Gev, Scaled Scorch, Murderous Redcap, and Goblin Bombardment are on the battlefield. Murderous Redcapdoes nothave any -1/-1 counters on it. An opponent must have lost at least one life the turn you use this combo.
Step 1: Active Goblin Bombardment, sacrificing Murderous Redcap.
Step 2: Murderous Redcap’s persist ability triggers, returning it to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter.
Step 3: Gev, Scaled Scorch causes Murderous Redcap to enter with a +1/+1 since an opponent lost life this turn. This negates the -1/-1 counter.
Step 4: Murderous Redcap enters the battlefield without any counters on it, allowing it to use its persist ability again.
Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4.
This loop will give you infinite damage that can be used on both permanents and players.
How To Play The Deck
A Laughing Jasper Flint Commander deck isall about casting your opponents' cards while committing crimes and playing outlaws. At the start of your turn, so long as Laughing Jasper Flint is on the battlefield,you can commit a crime every turn. There aren’t too many payoffs for committing a crime, but the ones included in the deck offer big boosts to the deck’s strategy.
Youneed to be flexible when piloting the deck. Since most of the cards you’ll play are going to be an opponent’s, you never know what might get exiled (especially if you’re not playing with a playgroup you’re familiar with). Youwant to target the opponent who is the biggest threat to steal from, as you might exile one of the key cards they need to win the game.
Cards exiled with Laughing Jasper Flint still need to be cast, but mana of any color can be used to cast them. As such,make sure to get as many mana rocks on the battlefield as possible. Thieving Varmint also helps to produce extra mana for casting cards you don’t own.
There aremultiple win conditions of the deck. One of them is through traditional combat, amassing a giant battlefield of outlaws (made easier with Gisa, the Hellraiser’s effect). You canalso win with burn damage.
This can be achieved through Goblin Bombardment loops, or with Passionate Archaeologist and Brainstealer Dragon. Descent into Avernus can also snowball into a ton of burn damage (but this can burn you too, so be careful with it). In very rare cases, youcan win through millif Laughing Jasper Flint exiles enough cards from libraries.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is how much mana it needs. Rakdos is not a color pairing known for ramping, so you have to heavily rely on mana rocks to make sure you have excess mana to work with. As such,you will be low on defenses in the early stages of the game, and will often whiff on cards you’re able to cast with Laughing Jasper Flint until you’re more stabilized on mana.
