Avengers assemble! With the sacred halls of Strixhaven still freshly in players’ minds, a new Magic: The Gathering Set is here – Marvel Super Heroes! No doubt if you’ve been around Magic over the last few years, the Marvel sets have been hot topic. Caught up in the Universes Beyond argument with long-term players being frustrated by the IP focus while newer players see them as a familiar bridge into the game. Marvel Super Heroes sees many familiar heroes and villains joining the game, from Captain America to Doctor Doom, squirrels and even another Infinity Stone! So do the Super Heroes ruin the magic, or is this set a worthy addition to the game?
I’ll start this off by saying I am a big Marvel fan. From eagerly hunting comic arcs to sitting back in cinemas waiting for after-credits scenes, it’s fair to say the Marvel sets have been on my radar since they were announced. Magic: The Gathering Marvel Super Heroes sees heroes and villains from the Marvel universe joining the game. This comes after the Marvel’s Spider-Man set last year which saw Peter Parker and just about every other spidey-hero joining the ranks.
Seeing some of my favourite heroes and even villains on MTG cards is truly something. Going into this set I had a list of characters I hoped would appear. Like the Spider-Man set here there is once again SO MANY legendary creatures! It can leave you feeling a little bit spoiled for choice, but no doubt that desire to build a deck with your favourite characters is very strong here.
The Art of Marvel Super Heroes
Right out the gate it’s worth noting that while there might be some cinematic parallels to the Marvel films, this set is inspired by the comics specifically. Being another Marvel set, the headliner card is none other than The Mind Stone, which leads the set. With three variants, following the lead of Marvel’s Spider-Man, it seems as though each Marvel set will carry its own infinity stone as the headliner.
It was a very pleasant surprise pulling one of these in the second booster I cracked. Once again, I find that standard treatment to be my favourite! There’s a simplicity there that feels unique. The Thanos edition of The Mind Stone features the same art as The Soul Stone Thanos variant, a cool or repetitive detail depending on where you stand.
As a comic book-inspired set, the iconic comic styling returns with the Classic Comic treatment. These feel like Secret Lairs and exactly the style I was hoping to see in this set. You’d be forgiven for thinking even mistaking these for actual comic books.
Source Material cards also return in this set. I’ve always had my reservations on these, especially after the Avatar: The Last Airbender Source Material cards. Here however, I’m largely into it. The reprints shine, with the special Legendary Creatures from that first Marvel Secret Lair.
Now my favourite design from this set is the borderless Logo Cards, each adorned with an iconic character. The Final Fantasy set really made these shine. For Marvel’s Super Heroes, this treatment is in it’s element. I’m very excited to collect more of these having already pulled The Scarlet Witch!
Scene cards are also a staple in this set with six separate scenes you can assemble via cards found in the set. The standout is the whopping 18-card scene showcasing a huge battle.
It also wouldn’t be a comic book set without some panel treatments. The set features some iconic moments brought to life from the comic pages straight onto MTG cards. These are a hit for me with the story spotlight moments feeling unique.
Borderless dual lands also appear, showing locations with special art featuring incidents between heroes and villians.
The set’s full-art lands also share that same focus on locations, with characters appearing within each colour. These feel very fun, and I look forward to using them in some character decks.
Marvel Super Heroes Mechanics
So what refreshing mechanics have the characters of Marvel Super Heroes brought with them? It’s actually a pretty tight list given how broad the set could go. From a set perspective and drafting this makes the most sense, yet I do wish there was some more lore-style stuff present in the deeper mechanics
It’s that exciting moment of anticipation when the hero unlocks their inner strength… or the villain becomes even more formidable. Power-Up sees players activating that ability for some added power. The trade-off with Power-Up is that it can only be activated once. To reactivate it, you’d need to recast the card. There are varying levels of value to this depending on the card but it does feel flavourful. Thanos being able to wipe out creatures based on their mana value for instance, is diabolical. I did however, find them a little expensive to get off. In mid/late game you can expedite that activation with a helpful discount casting.
There’s nothing like an iconic team-up! Teamwork makes the dream work, and here it runs somewhat like crew, only you must tap creatures to a total power level to gain further value from a card. While you don’t need to activate the ability, it does allow you to gain more value from a card.
Everything goes according to plan… or does it? Plan has you collecting plan counters after an ability is triggered, with the end goal being to collect enough counters to trigger the plan’s secondary ability. I liked this one a lot, especially once it’s consistently getting triggered.
Villains are known for their schemes and connive is that in MTG form. Upon activation players draw a card then discard a card, which if they discarded a nonland card means they may place a counter on the specified creature.
I had a lot of fun with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine thanks to her tap ability allowing her to target a controlled hero, make them connive and before receiving a +1/+1 counter. It’s a great way to buff some creatures but you’ll need to ensure you have heroes to activate it!
Playing Marvel Super Heroes Jumpstart
I’ll be the first to say I find drafting to be quite a stressful time building decks on the fly so I was very excited to see Jumpstart back on the roster for the set. With just two Jumpstart boosters, players have a deck ready to shuffle up and play. No building required, just crack, shuffle and jump in. Featuring over 51 themes, including some rarer and mythic builds, it’s a chaotic yet grounding approach that couples well with the set’s Beginner Box if you’re looking to branch out while learning.
I’m really eager to do some more games in that environment specifically for how easy it is to run. There’s also some really interesting builds in floating about. Whether they complement each other when you crack them though, that’s a whole other story. The majority of the packs contain one-colour builds at least. This is definitely a much kinda way to learn MTG than just getting thrown into commander… unless you’ve got a pod who’ll hold your hand.
The Fantastic Four Commander Deck:
I was so thankful for this Marvel set having preconstructed commander decks after feeling the lack of them in Marvel’s Spider-Man. With four decks to choose from built around iconic characters such as the Avengers, Doctor Doom, Black Panther and even The Fantastic Four available for the set. I was personally eager for Avengers Assemble, even before finding out it had a Scarlet Witch card!
In the PR kit we were sent a copy of The Fantastic Four deck, so clearly someone wants me to live a little and get into a spell-casting deck. While the deck is led by Invisible Woman, Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and The Thing are all capable of running the deck. Each is rewarded for casting noncreature spells and also has a separate ability requiring 4 coloured mana.
Invisible Woman is a three-mana-cost hero card that makes 0/3 wall tokens that have defender and reach. When attacking, players can pay the 4 colour mana and give a creature +1/+0 until the end of turn for every creature you control, and it can’t be blocked! At one point even had a whopping combo with The Thing, doubling the counters given by Invisible Woman. There’s a further combo there with Human Torch where you could damage every player.
The biggest thing to note with The Fantastic Four deck is that you NEED to be casting noncreature spells at least once a turn. In my first few games this was a brutal hurdle to the deck’s playability in my opinion. Sitting on spells in my hand that required more mana meant the deck wasn’t really alive and kicking before other players were swinging at me.
Invisible Woman does feel the most comfortable running the deck, with the walls boosting defenses, though Mister Fantastic does feel a bit nicer. His card draw gives you more chance of finding noncreature spells while his ability lets you copy a triggered ability twice. Being able to draw 3 cards is a boon, even if it takes 4-colour mana.
The thematics of the deck stood out to me as well. This isn’t just a Marvel Super Heroes commander with 99 other non-Marvel MTG cards. From Inhumans to Namor and even some intergalactic references, these decks are really on point. Silver Surfer, Galactus’s Herald and Galactus, Devourer of Worlds both appear in the deck with Silver Surfer having an ability to search your deck for Galactus. If you play Galactus before Silver Surfer, his ability “Insatiable Hunger” means he must attack each combat if able unless you have Silver Surfer played.
While I like what a lot of the deck had going on, it did feel like I was either waiting for mana to cast spells or waiting for spells to cast with my mana. This made getting the deck rolling a lot harder, especially against opponents stronger in the early game.
The Other Commander Decks
Having seen a few of the other Marvel Super Heroes in action, Avengers Assemble and Wakanda Forever are both wildely strong. Captain America getting to throw down counters while another card of his can untap tapped creatures leads to some brutal fights that I found difficult to survive for very long. Black Panther rewards attacking with colourless mana, perfect for a deck loaded with artifacts to summon.
What I did also note is how The Fantastic Four deck has four borderless art cards representing each of the heroes while the other decks only feature one borderless art commander card. After the changes to preconstructed decks, this feels like an oversight.
Final Thoughts
While it might be a contentious Universes Beyond theme, I have to say Marvel Super Heroes feels like an exceptional set full of familiar comic book characters. Even after Marvel’s Spider-Man, the set still proves the comic book style can go the distance. Featuring a pretty tight set of mechanics, the set still lets loose with Jumpstart and four commander decks featuring new art to choose from. As a Marvel fan, I’m happy and looking forward to building around some of my favourite characters while also enjoying the chaos of Jumpstart boosters further. Source material and comic book cover cards are the standout in the art department, while the hope of pulling The Mind Stone lingers for all. The strength here is that recognition for players unfamiliar with MTG, and I believe really strengthens that on-ramp. With more Marvel sets promised, I’ll be interested to see what’s next, and what characters we’ll see debut or return.
Magic: The Gathering – Marvel Super Heroes is available now at your local game store or TCG stockist.
NextPlay received a selection of Magic: The Gathering – Marvel Super Heroes products including 6 Play Boosters, 4 Jumpstart Boosters, 3 Collector Boosters, 1 Bundle Box, a scene box and a commander deck.
