We’re deep in the trenches with Universes Beyond and Marvel Super Heroes, a set that was announced years in advance and has some lofty expectations to clear with so long a wait for it.
Everyone Loves a Comback
I’m not gonna lie, the initial reception for Marvel’s Spider-Man from last year kneecapped the rollout for Marvel Super Heroes. Spider-Man felt gratuitously overstuffed with filler cards, many of which didn’t make sense from a flavor or design standpoint. It was a set that probably should have been just a commander deck or two, instead of the full set release it was. Marvel Super Heroes didn’t let a speed bump like that stop it, though, as it comes roaring with a set full of cards that are really fun to play and full of wonderful flavor.
There was one thing that was really important for me when it came to this set, and it was whether or not the cards would stay true to the characters they represented. I’ve been reading Marvel comics since I was a kid, so there’s a lot of love for the history of these characters and wanting to see them represented properly. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast did a phenomenal job translating the characters into Magic cards. One of my favorites, Hawkeye Master Marksman, is a 2/2 with first strike and reach, and has a trick shot ability that lets you either stop a creature from blocking (with Hawkeye’s net arrow), deal damage to a player (explosive arrow), or discard then draw a card (boomerang arrow). There’s a lot of really good design flavor in this set, like The Incredible Hulk, which is an 8/8 with reach and trample, and has the enrage ability that makes it so when he’s dealt damage you put a +1/+1 counter on him. On top of that, if he’s dealt damage when he’s attacking, you get to untap him and have another combat phase. It’s a really mean card that plays perfectly into the Hulk’s character of getting angrier as he fights.
It was also fun just finding really neat combos when drafting with friends. One of my favorites was using Captain America’s Shield with Captain America Wings of Freedom. Equip the shield on Cap to bump him from a 3/1 to a 3/9, and thanks to Cap’s ability, when you attack with him, all other creatures you control get +9/+9. It’s a nasty combo to have on a go-wide deck if you fill your board with weak creatures that are suddenly massive scary threats thanks to the boost.
If there’s one glaring stain on this set, it’s the massive blow it’ll deal to the modern standard format. Marvel Super Heroes features 128 legendary creatures, the most ever for a set. Magic has already been suffering from a bit of fatigue from the increasing amounts of legendary creatures in sets, but this takes it to a drastic level. If you’re not familiar with standard, it’s a 60-card format that (unlike commander) allows you to have up to four of the same card in your deck.
Now, because legendary creatures tend to be more powerful than regular creatures, there’s a “legendary rule” wherein you can’t have two of the same legendary creatures on the field at the same time. Now, part of the appeal of this format is being able to have multiples of the same card out on the field, doubling, if not quadrupling, its effect. With almost every card in Marvel Super Heroes being a legendary creature, this completely destroys that form of play because of the legendary rule.
I don’t really tend to play standard much anymore, besides on the occasion when I log into Arena for a bit, but just because I don’t play a format doesn’t mean I like seeing Magic sets that kneecap another format. Imagine a set coming out with zero playability in Commander? It’s just a slippery slope that I hope Wizards corrects in the future.
Precons Assemble
Avengers Assemble is the first precon I’ll talk about, and it’s perhaps the best one even if what it does is pretty simple and to the point. Captain America Team Leader is the commander for this deck, and he simply cares about Hero creature types entering the battlefield. When one does, that creature gets vigilance and haste until the end of turn. Additionally, that creature and Captain America will both get a +1/+1 counter. This is what we call a “signpost”; all Cap is doing is tapping the signpost, telling you to fill his deck with heroes and letting them get to work. It’s a deck that starts fast (especially with Cap’s cheap three mana cost) and gets to swinging at your opponents immediately. If there were one thing I’d fix with the deck, it’s adding more protection for Cap because it all relies pretty heavily on him being on the field to boost your heroes. There’s a lot of really cool, powerful cards, like Professor Hulk, who (when you deal combat damage to a player) lets you draw that many cards. The issue, though, is that not many cards care about the hero archetype, so there’s not much synergy happening without Captain America out on the field. Anyone looking to upgrade the deck should definitely look into cards that care about heroes and adding more protection spells so that Cap never leaves the battlefield.
Anytime Wizards releases a set with more than four commander precons, it always feels like one or two of them are meant to be used as starting blocks for an eventual upgrade deck. Wakanda Forever feels like that to me. It features T’Challa the Black Panther who looooves artifact spells. Anytime you play an artifact spell with mana value 4 or greater, you’ll be able to put two +1/+1 counters on T’Challa. Not only that, but when he enters or attacks, he’ll create a vibranium token that‘s indestructible and can be tapped to create colorless mana. This deck has a whopping TWENTY-FOUR artifacts, which is a lot of opportunities to buff up T’Challa.
The backup commander, Shuri the Black Panther, also loves having artifacts. If you have three or more when she attacks, you’ll be able to draw a card. Have six or more and all your creatures get +2/+2 till end of turn. Two cards that, like Cap in the Avengers Assemble precon, are screaming at you to have artifacts in your deck. Tell me why, then, does half the deck care about monarch? Monarch is a mechanic in Magic where, when a player is made the monarch, they’ll be able to draw a card on their end step. You can take the monarch status from a player by simply dealing combat damage to them. Flavor-wise, I get why it’s here; Black Panther is the king of Wakanda, so it would make sense that monarch would be part of his precon. The issue here is that neither he nor the backup commander care, and you really shouldn’t be caring about anything your commander doesn’t care about. I’m of course not saying that this means the deck plays terribly; it’s a perfectly competitive bracket 2 deck, it’s just that it feels like Wizards wants you to remove the monarch cards and upgrade the deck into a nastier bracket 3 one.
It makes sense that if you’re going to make a Marvel precon, that Marvel’s first family be given one. Aptly titled “The Fantastic Four, this precon features all four members of the team each as a potential commander: Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Human Torch. Each potential commander cares about playing noncreature spells, and will give you some sort of benefit for doing so. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are on the support side of things, letting you draw a card for playing noncreature spells or making 0/3 wall tokens. Meanwhile, Human Torch and The Thing are combat-focused, with Torch gaining flying, double strike, and haste or The Thing gaining four +1/+1 counters. On top of this, they all feature a powerful four-mana secondary ability like Mister Fantastic letting you copy a triggered ability twice, or Human Torch dealing damage to the entire table. Whenever a precon features this many commanders, I’m always a bit worried about it not knowing what it wants to do, but this was honestly a really fun one to play. Invisible Woman and Council of Reeds in particular can really start snowballing things and filling your board with creature tokens. I love the flavor work in this deck; however, with Galactus Devourer of Worlds being a 12/12 creature whose main ability makes it so that you’re forced to always attack the player with the most life unless you have Silver Surfer Galactus’s Herald, out on the field with him. On the flipside, when Silver Surfer enters the battlefield, he allows you to search your deck for that Galactus card and put it straight into your hand. It’s just a really fun deck with a lot of neat interaction across the board.
Doom Prevails is probably the precon I was most hesitant about after its commander card reveal, and unfortunately it plays as unsurely as I expected it to. The commander, Doctor Doom King of Latveria, wants you doing one thing: discarding. Its main ability is that it deals two damage to each opponent anytime you discard a land. To fuel this, you can make a villain card connive at the beginning of combat on your turn to keep the discard engine running. The backup commander, Loki the Deceiver, on the other hand, is all about attacking with Loki to create copies of villains you control, and whenever you deal combat damage you’ll draw a card.
Herein lies the issue. The entire deck feels split in half into either doing what Doom wants you to do, or what Loki wants you to be doing. Cards like Living Laser fuel Doom’s gameplan, where it’ll create a token copy for every card you discarded this turn, but does nothing to help Loki. Red Ghost, also a fantastic card for Doom, creates a 3/3 creature token every time you draw your second card each turn, which will happen all the time with Doom, flooding your board with ape tokens.
Then you have a card like Tri-Sentinel Act of Vengeance, which (when it enters) deals three damage to a target creature an opponent controls. A great card for Loki to copy, but does absolutely nothing for Doom. Then you have cards like Molecule Man or The Frightful Four, while powerful, don’t synergize with either commander strategy.
There are two really solid decks in Doom Prevails; it just requires you to take this deck apart and build it for either Doom or Loki, which is a project I plan to do. Doom Prevails just kind of stumbles a bit, especially compared to a hyper-focused deck like Avengers Assemble, which has a singular strategy and sticks to it.
Final Word
Marvel Super Heroes rose from the ashes, which was Spider-Man, and completely redeemed itself. The set is full of really fun cards, many of which are making homes in decks I’ve made or getting decks of their own like Squirrel Girl or Invincible Iron Man. The commander decks are a bit of a hit-or-miss experience, however, with two needing some decent to heavy reworking on your end. If you’re willing to put in the work to overhaul two of the decks, then you’ll have a blast playing with all four. The one glaring flaw is the issues this set brings to the standard format, which I’m hoping doesn’t become a trend in future sets.
