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Wizards of the Coast has revealed the first of many crossovers betweenMagic: The Gatheringand Marvel, with a full Secret Lair superdrop dedicated to five of its biggest heroes.
The Magic: The Gathering X Marvel Superdrop will include a mix of mechanically unique cards and skinned reprints, with the intention of each drop being the foundation for a Commander deck build around that character.
Each drop will cost $39.99 for a regular edition, and $49.99 for a foil when they launch onthe Secret Lair siteon November 4. Like other recent drops,such as Monty Python, it will be a limited-time release only available for as long as stocks last, meaning it could sell out very quickly.
You can play with these cards in Commander, Vintage, and Legacy alongside any other Magic cards, including ones from other Universes Beyond crossovers like Lord of the Rings and Doctor Who.
Shield Of War And Peace (Sword Of War And Peace)
Flawless Maneuver
In The Trenches
The first drop is Captain America, a white/blue/red commander that cares about Equipment artifacts. He’s unique among Equipment commanders in that he cares less about building up a huge pile of them and smashing face, and more about tactically unequipping them with the Throw ability.
A neat touch is that his casting cost of one red, one white, and one blue mana is formatted differently to normal‘Jeskai’cards, which traditionally order them blue, white, and then red.
In the drop you’ll find a collection of cards perfect forany Voltron deck, and a heck of a lot of reprint equity. Flawless Maneuver is one of a cycle of spells you can cast for free if you control your commander, and Sigarda’s Aid gives you a cheap way to put Equipment on Cap ready for him to lob them. And, of course, Cap’s shield is here as a reskin of Sword Of War And Peace, a great go-to card in Voltron decks.
These drops aren’t specifically tied to either the comics or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so have an interesting blend of the two. The best example of this is Captain America’s Aid, which has both the Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson incarnations of Captain America, with Sam baring a resemblance to actor Anthony Mackie.
Secure The Wastes
Warrior Token
The King of Wakanda is the star of the second drop, and his ability is an impressive mix of two of green and white’s most common deck types: +1/+1 counters, and lifegain.
Creatures entering will build up +1/+1 counters on a land, which you’re able to then pay to move them onto a creature and gain that much life. Alternatively, you could use any of the green land animation cards printed in green to skip moving them, which feels fitting for Black Panther.
Black Panther doesn’t have black in his casting cost. This is because, in Magic, black is seen asa selfish colourthat will sacrifice anything in the pursuit of power, completely contrary to Black Panther’s character.
The reprints for this drop include some of best green cards in the Commander format, with Heroic Intervention and Primal Vigor. You’ve also got Karn’s Bastion, a colourless land that can proliferate the counters on your lands or creatures as a much-needed reprint.
Secure The Wastes might not seen like as exciting a reprint when stacked up next to Primal Vigor, but it’s an easy way to trigger Black Panther’s ability potentially dozens of times. The drop also comes with a Dora Milaje Warrior token.
Commander’s Plate
Galvanic Blast
Pod decksare very popular in Commander. Named after the card Birthing Pod, they sacrifice creatures to go and find progressively more expensive ones and put them into play, and Iron Man introduces a similar tactic to artifacts.
Sacrifice an artifact, and you can go and put another artifact that costs one more than the one you sacrificed straight into play. This means a Treasure token can become a Sol Ring, or a Thran Dynamo could become a Coat Of Arms with ease.
The art on Commander’s Plate evokes vibes of Iron Man’s slicker ‘Bleeding Edge’ suit.
The reprints on offer here include the most-played card in all of Commander, a Sol Ring in the style of Iron Man’s Arc Reactor. Commander’s Plate and Inventor’s Fair add a huge amount of reprint value to the drop (and are excellent cards), and while Galvanic Blast isn’t a big-dollar card, it’s certainly on-flavour for Iron Man.
Lightning Bolt
Ice Storm
The first of two X-Men-themed drops is Ororo Monroe, also known as Storm. There’s no prizes for guessing what her card does: she wants you to deal combat damage to cast your next spell with storm.
If a spell hasstorm, you copy it for each spell previously cast that turn.
Just a few of the terrifying ways Storm’s storm could be used in the included reprints. Lightning Bolt is a staple that could, with the right deck, build up enough storm copies to just blast someone out of the game. Alternatively, Storm’s Will is a reskinned Jeska’s Will, one of the best mono-red cards in the game for the mana and card advantage it can give you.
Ice Storm is a fascinating inclusion here. Land destruction is sometimes frowned upon in Commander, and Ice Storm being cast with storm to potentially wipe a board of all of its lands could be slightly spicier than people are anticipating.
The final card is a reskinned version of a storm deck classic, Manamorphose. Amusingly named Ororo Borealis now, it gives you mana and draws you enough cards to storm away with the game and have the mana to do it.
Reskinned cards are treated as if they are the same as their non-skinned version. A deck can only have one copy of either Manamorphose or Ororo Borealis in it, as they are the same card.
Rite Of Passage
Adamantium Bonding Tank (The Ozolith)
The final drop is personally one of my favourite Marvel characters, Wolverine. Like Storm, he brings back an underused older mechanic in regenerate, to reflect his healing factor ability. Elsewhere, he’s a fantastic smashy commander, dealing damage and rewarding you with +1/+1 counters if he hits a creature.
His reprints include staples stompy players will love, like Rhythm of the Wild and Berserk, but also +1/+1 counter staples in Rite of Passage and The Ozolith, skinned here as the Adamantium Bonding Tank. Unsurprisingly, most of the reprint value in this drop lies in Berserk and The Ozolith, which are rarely made this easily available.
You could put three of these cards in a deck with Black Panther and go all-in on +1/+1 counters if you wanted to.
The art is interesting here, showing off different eras of Wolverine. Berserk has the brown John Byrne uniform, while Rite of Passage has his more famous blue and yellow costume and a surprise cameo by X-23, Wolverine’s Prodigy.
Earth’s Mightiest Emblem (Arcane Signet) Promo
Capping off the Marvel superdrop is an exclusive promo version of the Commander staple Arcane Signet. This is only available# by buying the bundle that includes every drop.
This version of Arcane Signet is none other than the Avenger’s Tower, which has become one of the most memorable buildings in the entire Marvel canon. Although promo Arcane Signets are rarely all that valuable, Universes Beyond ones like this can spike in cost, making it worth picking up if you’re planning on building a Marvel-centric deck.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
