MTG Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s crossover with Cowboy Bebop is perfect, inspired, no notes.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the new cowboys and cacti set from Magic: The Gathering will incorporate a different type of outlaw in its official crossover with beloved anime series Cowboy Bebop. A new trailer remixes the original opening, substituting the main cast with MTG characters Oko, Rakdos, Vraska and Tinybones in a genuinely incredible and hilarious reproduction. The near one-to-one mirroring of Cowboy Bebop’s intro, still scored to Tank! by the Seatbelts, isn’t just a fun homage but promotional material for a collaboration with anime production studio Sunrise. Players in Japan only (sorry, rest of the world) can earn the chance to snag neoprene playmats and card sleeves featuring the four aforementioned heist members, illustrated in Cowboy Bebop’s signature style. Each member stands in for one of the main crew aboard the Bebop: Oko fills in for Spike Spiegel, Rakdos for Jet Black, Vraska for Faye Valentine and chaotic skeleton Tinybones is a fantastic fill-in for Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, aka Ed. Oko’s lost son Kellan even shows up briefly. The collaboration will take part across three campaigns, the first of which runs from April 26th, 2024 and March 31st, 2025. Any player who purchases more than ¥3,000 (nearly $20) of unopened MTG cards will receive one of five postcards featuring the new artwork (the fifth piece is a shot from the trailer replacing Spike’s gun with one of Thunder Junction’s totally-not-a-gun light blades wielded by Kellan). One thousand postcards will instead be a winning ticket that awards playmats and sleeves, instead. Read more