So MTG decided to explore cowboys in their set and brand new plane Thunder Junction. This, however, is not the first time something Magic related has attempted to explore the Wild West: the fan made plane Jakkard has been a community darling for years now.
So a comparison is worth being made.
Perhaps the most distinguishing aspect between both planes is the story and thematic focus. Thunder Junction is secondarily a villain world, the premise being that, due to omenpaths, outlaws from all over the Multiverse have targetted this pristine world and its abundant resources. By contrast, Jakkard is about the theme of scarcity, an once vibrant world dealing with the aftermath of some event in the past that depleted its mana, and so the people venturing into the wilderness are not (only) outlaws but pioneers.
Perhaps the most interesting theme is how both sets explore colonalism. Thunder Junction alledgedly had Native consultants and depicts an off world tribe, the Atiin, based on the Navajo, who are as alien to the plane as the outlaws. This kind of plays into terra nulis myths that the Wild West was a pristine landscape without people in it, which historically has justified the murder of Amerindian tribes. I suppose the consultants decided that playing into this narrative was the lesser of two evils, as the other option would be outright invasion and genocide.
Jakkard, however, has true Native analogues, the Viashino, Snakes and implicitly some human cultures. These were dealt a rough hand: Viashino and humans were forced to abandon their traditional culture while the snakes are hibernating in the wilds. While somber, I find this to be very thematically relevant to the themes of the plane, and paints an otherwise “cowboys yeah pew pew” setting with a much heavier light and historical dignity. I would seriously like to hear your thoughts on this.
Overall, I think Jakkard is a better world if you want a meatier story, as I’m not into guilt-free spectacles.
Ichthyoconodon 
I think there is a whole lot of issues in of itself of having non-human species being analogues to human cultures in this way.
True. In Jakkard’s case this is lessened somewhat in that some humans are also Native American analogues.
This is a reply from one of Jakkard’s designers at No Goblins Allowed: “Well, I can’t say I’m not biased in general.
That said, in response to the individual that commented, I want to point at that it would be one thing if all the native allegories were non-human, then they’d have a point. But quite frankly, it’s equally problematic if there was NO fantastical representation in those allegories, because it still draws a distinction that ‘others’ from the general world at large.
Combining both fantastic and humans in the native allegory provides that they are no different than the full extent of the rest of the world. It makes them a natural part of the world that IS defined by its fantastic diversity.”
(Late reply, had life in the way) A link to a “planeswalkers guide to Jakkard” would be great to full look at it but just going by what is here and to reply to the designer, that idea would be fine in a world with all things are equal. They are not. People and characters of color are still struggling to have good representation and (in USA focused media) Native American peoples have been proven to be the least represented. While it seems “equal”, having a viashino native stand in, even mixed with other humans, means that is one less chance to show a native human, which does a lot more for representation than a lizard person. And with the history of how non-white people have been represented as animals to to symbolize being lesser, anytime you try to mix non-human with human in this genre like this, it still runs the risk as giving that white supremacist subtext.
To end this I will note that this is an issue deeply ingrained into the genre and people are still trying to figure out how to navigate this. This is a hard things to balance with the most well meaning and most educated people in the issues of representation still will trip up over the trickyness of how this can worked out in a non-earth setting. And ultimately while I think this is an issue that is too complex and too tricky for Magic: The Gathering of all things to try and figure out and I do think with how the story and lore are set up for the card game and the resources given, would be a lose/lose no matter the route they do.
I largely agree, but again some humans in Jakkard also stand in for Native peoples. This to me helps to add diversity, since pre-colonial America had many cultures