Hello and welcome back! We have just begun getting our first glimpse of the cards from the upcoming Marvel Super Heroes magic set, and a lot of the cards are very on theme for the characters revealed so far. Also, there was a deluge of said cards, with a good amount of characters getting multiple cards.
This also means some of the cards have simple effective and simple designs that get the flavor done and the mechanics and build around potential across succinctly. With that in mind, some cards are going to be fairly straight forward so I wont go too deep on any one card and for the moment I’ll only be covering legendary creatures.
We do need to cover the Power-Up mechanic before we dive in here. Power-Up can only be used once. If you’re familiar with the Exhaust mechanic from Aether Drift, it’s the same idea and can be reset with a blink or reanimation. It is different from exhaust in that the power-up cost is reduced by the mana cost of the creature if the creature enters on the SAME TURN. So, Thanos’ ability costs Red/White/Black less to use the same turn he comes into play. Otherwise, you have to pay for the whole thing. Again though, mechanics article, blinking the creature should work to also reduce that cost for more uses.
Another mechanic is Teamwork, which allows you to pay for the teamwork cost by tapping enough creatures with power equal to the number of the teamwork ability as an additional cost. It’s like Crew and Convoke had a baby and the godparent was Kicker.
Two more things I want to mention is that spoilers are coming in fast and ongoing. At the time of writing, I’m bound to miss some cards that get spoiled after I submit this article, so be sure to check out any legendary creatures I missed! The majority of the cards are pretty interesting and have unique quirks to build around!
The second is that I’m not going to cover legends I have cover before and have been spoiled for a while already.
All of that out of the way, it’s time to assemble!
ULTRON, ARTIFICIAL MALEVOLENCE
A low to the ground colorless commander for a small investment lets you double up on artifacts, and makes them 2/2 robots if that artifact isn’t a creature. The ability triggers on enter, so being able to blink or recur the artifacts you want can get you some extra mileage.
I do see this being more useful in other decks than its own, but being able to double up on effects is powerful enough that a deck led by Ultron here isn’t something to easily ignore as artifact decks are already something to be cautious around at the table.
BLACK WIDOW, DARING OPERATIVE
This is a legend that I like because you don’t have to have it out for the deck to function, in this case likely a reanimator deck. The deck can do what it is going to do and do it well without her, but having her on the field just makes it better. Keep in mind that she has to damage to player to get the effect of life loss, so something like Dauthi Embrace might be a good inclusion in the deck if her native Menace isn’t getting the job done.
JENNIFER WALTERS // THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK
A legendary creature that will protect you on your turn, as a good lawyer would. The backside of the card does as much and more, allowing you to also retaliate against aggressors with a good defensive and offensive ability tied to punishment for obstruction. Her last ability applies across your whole team too, though it only triggers once a turn.
The first ability is largely something we’ve seen before on cards in these color identities. The backside’s retaliator clause is something we rarely see, and often on Red/White cards, but Green/White has also had some of these, like Phytohydra. Overall I dig the card design a lot.
BLACK PANTHER, CLAWS OF BAST
A simple design with this legend, he gets stronger when he attacks alone and can gain you some life points. However, the strength will be what you put behind the legend if you build him, and White has long ago had the problem of payoffs for counters and life gain solved, so synergies for those are abound.
IRON MAN, MODERN MARVEL
Another simple legend with a “lord” effect (gives a subset of cards +1/+1 as a static ability) and some card advantage. Nothing too powerful here but a good support card for some strategies. I don’t think we’ll see much of this version of Iron Man in the front of decks.
SPIDER-MAN, WEB-SPINNER
A simple design continues this line up from Marvel Commander, and it’s a Spidey that can simply hit hard quickly.
HULK, BRUTAL BRAWLER
A good and easy way to get counters and every creature you control when he attacks, which he will, because he has too. Again, a simple design but one with a lot of build-around payoffs.
THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
Coming to the seasoning of the meat and potatoes of the main set, we have our next Iron Man, who allows the sneak attack of an artifact into play, with the bonus of Iron Man equipping himself if the artifact is an equipment. Being a six drop, you can easily sculpt part of your hand and grab powerful equipment with the tutor available to Blue. This is going to be as feared as RGW Cloud if built that way.
However, you could build him for value or a mix of either. You could make him Thopter typal. It’s a decently open design as long as you prefer artifacts.
KING T’CHALLA // BLACK PANTHER, HOPE ENDURING
We have a good early legend here that can be played in response to another player being a bit greedy with their card draw. Always like that kind of design, but it gets better because this is a dual-face legend. If we want to be less passive and take action, Black Panther, Hope Enduring gives us another option to not only draw cards, but to go on the defense with a surprise block and offense with a nigh-combat-invincible king. Note that all damage is prevented to Black Panther, so using damage based board wipes from Red wont harm him.
THOR, GOD OF THUNDER
Spellslinger decks are yeeting good with Thor. Not only does he offer to get you back something you lost earlier in the game to use again, if you do get something back and cast it he’ll deal damage to any target based on the spell’s mana value. This continues with every new noncreature spell you cast which can close out a game as a ceiling or be repeatable removal on against creatures and planeswalker as a floor until you reach for that ceiling.
He also has flying.
M.O.D.O.K.
The real meat here is the ability to Connive, making MODOK larger and making the native flying and lifelink more problematic for your opponents. MODOK’s static effect otherwise does keep weaker creatures from the board, and some have already made the connection between this legend and Maha, Its Feathers Night as a potential best friend (which might lose your friends).
KANG, THE CONQUEROR
I don’t remember if we’ve gotten an extra turn effect on a creature before besides Medomai the Ageless. This legend allows you to pay 8 mana to get one (either same turn of casting the creature or later), but the trade off is you can’t chain multiple turns together because it stops its own ability from being used that extra turn. It also stops ALL power-up abilities, so there is some potential extra downside there.
The potency of that ability will depend on what you can do prior and during that extra turn. That said, extra turns can be annoying if they come to nothing so be mindful using the ability. I don’t think this card is overpowered otherwise.
CAPTAIN MARVEL, EARTH’S PROTECTOR
A champion to protect you, Captain Marvel has flash for a surprise block or to get her down before your turn so she can attack and power-up on your next turn. Powering her up, makes her larger with a+1/+1 and indestructible with an indestructible counter. That counter is redundant, but might be shared over to other creatures with certain abilities.
MONICA RAMBEAU // PHOTON, LIVING LIGHT
The front of the card has evasion and a way to give a buff via prowess, so casting noncreature spells is the direction you want to go with this card. The back of the card is a bit better though.
Photon on the backside is harder to interact with by gaining hexproof and they keep prowess but gain a way to permanently give your other creatures a version of it. This allows you to go wide with some creatures with the added support of those +1/+1 counters.
THANOS, THE MAD TITAN
This five color legend (in Commander) does the meme. With a built in mass removal, you get to for five colors of mana plus specifically colorless wipe potentially half of the creatures from the board. While powerful, it is limited by the single use of power-up and that very specific colorless pip. While this Thanos should be feared on the table, I’m not sure it’s all that bad.
WINTER SOLDIER, ICY ASSASSIN
An efficient legend with a focus on equipment, specifically the flavor says utility over power since he gets buff for each equipment attached to him. The built in self recursion to dodge commander tax is a nice touch on flavor and mechanics. There are a few ways to remove that Finality counter in White and Black as well, and other ways to recur him. Not much to worry about there.
THE RUINOUS WRECKING CREW
A scaling legend isn’t something we get in a casting cost often, so this is always a bit of interesting design space when it’s used for multiple effects rather than just counters or something similar. This card stops giving back at X equals 4, but includes some cards rummaging, removal, and advances the game slightly. Overall I like the design, but I think it’s a bit clunky on effects.
DAREDEVIL, MAN WITHOUT FEAR
Impulse draw on a quick to attack legend, it gives you a bonus for having hero-typed cards in your deck to give Daredevil here an extra boost to his power and toughness.
Being able to look at the top card of your library helps a lot when deciding if you want to remove a card to cast or just to avoid something you don’t need. There aren’t too many ways in these colors to manipulate the top of the deck, so old standbys like Sensei’s Divining Top help with that.
THE VISION
A bit of a pacifist here, a bit of a 1-2 there, and if you want, a little bit of knowledge. It all depends on how many noncreature spells you cast and which trigger you choose to resolve. Largely at the front of a deck this means a lot of artifacts, but this flying vigilant legend might pull some decent support in other decks as well.
WOLVERINE, FIERCE FIGHTER
This is the first time (or second?) we’ve seen damage healed from a creature before the clean up step. That’s essentially what his last ability does, which means if you want him gone, you need to commit damage wise to the full amount in a single go. Tough [redacted].
Otherwise he enters as essentially removal and can attack that turn with haste, which means combined with his last ability he can remove something AND attack with less fear of you losing him to combat since he will heal up the fight damage. It’s an interesting design I hope we don’t see repeated too often but makes this specific card ooze flavor.
THE SCARLET WITCH
Someone will start thinking this set is secretly meant for spellsling players. The Crimson Witch here gives a reduction to instant and sorcery spells equal to her power if they cost 4 or more mana. This can escalate quickly, and while not quite a storm specific legend I could see a dedicated deck to something similar. Even at the reduction of 2 mana this is pretty good.
MOLE MAN, MOLOID MASTER
Not too much new with this legend, though another redundant way to get lands back from the graveyard is nice. The more novel part of the card comes from the token it makes, which you get for every land you play and helps you fill your graveyard for more lands.
Unfortunately I think the single color identity make this a support piece more than a face legend, but the potential is there for the imaginative builder.
STORM, WINDRIDER
Now this is an interesting ability. I definitely see Storm just knocking opponents out of her way while she flies over the battlefield. It definitely takes away players’ agency if they are depending on flyers, which is still a powerful way to attack and defend in Commander. Dragons, angels and demons need not bother you.
She then gives flying temporarily if you target a creature with a spell, which in these colors usually will mean some kind of buff or protection, make it perfect for some aggro beatdown.
MS. MARVEL, KAMALA KHAN
This is one of two mono-Blue cards to have Reach, the other somewhat ironically being another card in this set. Paired with vigilance and a high toughness at cost this is very much a defensive card. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t hit like a truck. It has built in card draw via spells targeting your creatures, turning a lot of spells you could cast into cantrips, or spells that also draw you a card and replace themselves. When this happens, her power changes to equal the number of cards in your hand, which can be decently large depending on the deck.
Outside of the legend herself, the deck that she could lead or support as an enabler is even better. Cantrips are a good way to power Storm (the mechanic, and the Green/Blue/Red creature Storm, but not the Green/White one).
NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
A five color transform-matters-a-bit legend. You have to power him up to dig for a card and possibly transform it, but the dig is seven cards deep so not too shabby. The legend itself lends to some flexibility, and even powers up a few older cards like Ormendhal the Corrupter or
Overall the creature itself doesn’t do much, but the stuff you can put behind it in the deck is going to make it stronger than he first appears.
FIN FANG FOOM
Yet another card that cares about instants and sorceries (there is a theme here, just a hunch) but this time if you care about artifacts and lands. You get to copy the spell targeting one of these and choose new targets. Foom also gains some counters, which along with the evasion he has can get out of hand fairly quickly.
THE SERPENT SOCIETY
This is an interesting deathtouch focused legend, allowing you to trade a bit no matter whats going on creature wise with your opponents. We have to address that Ward though. In order to target it you receive 5 poison counters, which is half way to losing the game. There are ways around this, like uncounterable spells like Void Rend or board wipes, but that is an interesting Ward ability nonetheless.
ELEKTRA, DAUGHTER OF THE HAND
I’m not sure what to think of this legend. From the perspective of being a Commander it seems quite limited, though you could loop it with reanimation. Then the limitation on the removal is a bit odd as well since most of the power-up creatures wont be touched by the ability if they need to power up in the first place.
Sneak does help a bit with the cost by lowering a mana, but this is definitely a limited card in my opinion.
LEADER, SUPER-GENIUS
Some decent card draw here, if you can get some creatures to Connive, which this card also allows at the beginning of combat. You get to choose which creatures Connives too, which can trigger other abilities like Evolve.
Getting the extra card is a nice bonus every turn, essentially allowing you three cards to draw per turn, netting you two at a minimum. There is a lot you can do with triggers here plus the extra resources.
LOKI, GOD OF MISCHIEF
Some nice card draw here as long as you interact with your own board. Low on the curve, so getting that reward early should be easy to do.
AGENT PHIL COULSON
A support legend the set itself, the agent gives +1/+1 counters to other heroes you control. A decent drop at two, but I doubt this will be leading any Commander decks between the amount of heroes in mono-White. Probably good in limited though.
THE KINGPIN OF CRIME
I like the extort mechanic, and here it just adds flavor. It also isn’t as confusing, but I’m glad the reminder text is there.
The first effect helps fuel the second. Paying two life on attack allows you to change the math on the field, much like Doran, and uses toughness to deal damage rather than power. Orzhov/Silverquill has a new toughness commander.
THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL
Do you like squirrels? I hope so, because that’s what you’re getting with this legend. On enter or attack you get one, but you can pay for more and essentially double the number of squirrels you have.
AGENT MARIA HILL
White cooperative card draw here, along with the semi-usual counter support. However, you only get the ability triggered when Maria is used to pay a teamwork cost.
RONIN, SHADOW STALKER
This is an interesting ability, and a rare one. While Black has had the ability to trade life for mana before, we haven’t seen it in I think literal decades. Don’t quote me on that though. Still, the mana is narrowed to only using it on equipment or equipping, and only once each turn.
If there is equipment attached to Ronin, you tap him and sacrifice one to potentially remove a creature from the board by giving -4/-4, which is a nice way to get around indestructible. It can also just change the math in combat, especially if you can get First Strike or Double Strike onto Ronin or a creature you have attacking or blocking.
FALCON, WINGED WONDER
A legend that comes with a legendary friend that helps you surveil. Both fly and evasion is nice, but not much else is happening here.
ABOMINATION, TERRIFYING TITAN
Stompy and fighty. Essentially a big beater than can be removal if you use the power-up ability.
TITANIA, RUGGED RUMBLER
A 5/5 body for cheap that has some protection. The ward is decent, and matches the additional cost you have to pay to get Titania to the table.
I suppose I’ll put in notice here that many of the uncommon legends are more for support or limited than I think can actually lead Commander decks as build arounds. That said, if you have a fave don’t let it stop you.
JESSICA JONES, PRIVATE EYE
Some impulse draw here with the trade of a tap and a stun counter. The ability isn’t limited to once per turn and sorcery speed though, so some untap shenanigans could be put to work. The amount of cards you exile also scales to her power, so you can dig deeper by increasing that stat.
JUST A PROLOGUE
We’re a bit into only the legends of this set already, and I’ve not covered them all. At the time of writing, spoilers are ongoing so make sure to go catch all the heroes and villains I’ve missed!
We’ve quite the menagerie with this set and I feel like at least mechanically there is something for everyone. I hope whoever your favorite character might be that you get a card for them.
Until next time, rest hero.
