Magic: the Gathering – Marvel’s Spider-Man Review, Part 2 of 2: Monocolor Cards

Magic’s newest expansion takes us to the bustling streets of New York City, home to a multiverse worth of Spider-Men. A new set means new cards, and we’re finishing off our review with the monocolor cards.

Marvel’s Spider-Man will release to Magic: the Gathering Online and Arena on September 23rd, 2025 as “Through the Omenpaths”, and to the tabletop on September 26th.

As usual we won’t be looking at everything, but what we will be looking at we’ll be looking at primarily but not exclusively with an eye for Commander play.

 

Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer

Saffgor: The best White Devotion Commander of all time, niche a list as that is, and he even makes all of the damage dealing White removal double as pump spells. Works well with Pariah effects, loops with Cloudstone, an altar, and any Devotion token producer, etc. It’s no wonder this is the most popular option on EDHREC from the set so far, and as a Monowhite card, no less!

Loxi: Somehow the most and least white weenie card ever printed. Reanimation, a good body, and built in protection makes this a really powerful bomb. If you can handle the casting cost, I can see this being aces in Boros Reanimator, but even just either at the helm of a white deck doing damage shenanigans as Saffgor mentioned above or in the 99 of a mono white Commander that wants to do some real beatdown gameplay.

BPhillipYork:  Well it’s a 5/5 that’s really tough to kill and will reanimate something if you hard cast it.  5 White mana is obviously a lot.  I can imagine throwing this into some kind of Boros deck that keeps dealing damage to all creatures and Anti-Venom will just keep getting bigger and bigger.

FromTheShire: As someone playing primarily aggro in Standard, I am not looking forward to seeing this card at all. Not only does it basically blank your deck by itself, it can also bring back things like Summon: Knights of the Round or any of the Overlords since it has no restrictions on the reanimate at all. The casting cost is obviously a real hoop to jump through, but it feels like there’s a pretty solid chance it’s worth it if you do. Horrifying is right.

 

Arachne, Psionic Weaver

Saffgor: As a brief aside, this should have been Carpenter as Madame Web, as the red trench coat is too iconic. Regardless, gonna plant my flag and declare this is my favorite card from the entire set. Sweet piece in premier format Death & Taxes, and I have a lot to say about this card as a Commander, given it provides incredible information and Web-Slinging for 1 does silly things in White. Stem to stern, this design speaks to everything I love about Magic, mechanically. Expect a Commander Focus soon.

Loxi: The only thing I have to add is that she’s a human yet again, and human hatebears also gain a bit of value for having some specific synergy for those archetypes. Big fan of this.

BPhillipYork:  It’s an annoying stax effect that can pop out really quickly, which is solid.

FromTheShire: Pretty well covered, it’s not splashy but it has a ton of uses and can be a real thorn in the side.

 

Aunt May

Saffgor: If being Legendary matters for decks that want a Soul Sister effect, this will see play there. Otherwise unremarkable, but White does have a tendency to gravitate towards Legends.

Loxi: Soul Sisters is an archetype where redundancy is pretty much always handy, and as of writing both the sisters are a good few bucks to pick up. This likely will be a great budget option that has a bit of set synergy, but realistically will most often be seen as a way to stack up even more of those effects for decks that want the individual lifegain triggers.

BPhillipYork:  Well it’s another one of these triggers, and counters on top if they’re Spiders, so that’s fine?

FromTheShire: The Spiders thing is rarely going to matter, really great piece to have access to for the lifegain decks, though with them already running Hinterland Sanctifier, Haliya, Guided by Light, and Case of the Uneaten Feast I question if they actually need it.

 

City Pigeon

Loxi: More than anything, this art absolutely rocks and the flavor is spot on. It might not be a constructed piece we see all the time, but I love this card fundamentally.

BPhillipYork:  Finally my bird typal deck has what it needs.

FromTheShire: Birb. I have an actual fistful of Bird decks that probably need this just for the bit.

 

Flash Thompson, Spider-Fan

Saffgor: I feel as though Flash is underrated, providing a well-costed reset to Tap abilities at Instant Speed, and even blanking a big attacker or problematic blocker. If you can draw cards or make mana by tapping, Flash might be worth your time.

Loxi: Cards like this just scream “combo with blink decks!” to me, and being a cheap and easy to time card makes it a good pick for decks that blink but also rely on tap triggers, like Roon of the Hidden Realm can often be built out even though this doesn’t explicitly combo with him. It’s not an all star but I can see him fitting nicely into a few decks.

BPhillipYork:  Well, there’s probably something abusive you can do by untapping but other than that specific combo it’s pretty meaningless.

FromTheShire: 100% a combo piece, but also just a really solid blink piece if played “fairly”.

 

Friendly Neighborhood

Saffgor: I don’t mind this as a win condition in something like Brago, but it feels too slow for 4 mana with functionally a 2 mana investment, given the land can’t be used for mana that turn.

Loxi: This does a whole bunch of stuff for go-wide archetypes to both help juice up the board and cash in on your big board state. Pretty solid pick for most token decks, as 3 tokens and a big buff is handy – realistically the main drawback is that the cost is effectively two mana since you have to tap the land to use that too.

FromTheShire: It’s neat and I expect a bunch of people will try it but being sorcery speed means this isn’t great actually, especially since it costs 4 to cast in the first place. You want to be surprising people with this effect on unblocked creatures, not telegraphing it before blockers.

 

Origin of Spider-Man

Saffgor: Bad in multiples, not powerful enough for Commander, and downright mediocre. The worst of the sagas in this set.

BPhillipYork:  I can’t think of anything you’d actually do with this.  Maybe in Standard but I’m doubtful.  It’s a cheap saga, that’s about the only upside.

FromTheShire: Even more so in Standard you can’t afford slots for cards that don’t really impact the game, and this doesn’t. Bad.

 

Rent Is Due

Saffgor: Is a Phyrexian Arena good enough for cEDH at 1 mana? I think the answer might be yes, actually, and this card is an insane draw engine for White where it otherwise lacks them.

Loxi: I think this is an insane card, frankly. At the “typical” rate of card draw, if you use this twice you can sac this happily and not really care. In decks that have plenty of Treasures and tokens to spare, this is a great way to cash in and convert your resources into cards in hand for a really low entry cost, and in the worst case it’s basically a cantrip that has an enchantment LTB trigger. It’s also a good way to keep things tapped if you have creatures that want to stay tapped but don’t want to swing in, maybe like Pain Seer if you’re a sicko like me.

BPhillipYork:  Why isn’t this a saga.  Anyway it’s an okay draw engine for decks that are likely to have little creatures around for various reasons.  I can’t see it being particularly impactful though, because where it would really shine would be a turn 1 play, but of course you almost certainly can’t upkeep it.  It also seems like rent would have something to do with land, not card draw, but that’s just me.

FromTheShire: Definitely expect to be seeing this a bunch. Most decks either have a couple of utility creatures or incidental tokens or accidental Treasures laying around. It doesn’t come down as early as the 1 mana would indicate since you need fodder so as not to sacrifice it immediately, and I could also see it being too big of an ask in Standard to go fully shields down on turn 3 in order to draw a card. Depends a lot on how good aggro stays moving forward there I think.

 

Spectacular Spider-Man

Saffgor: For 3 mana you get a worse Heroic Intervention. I’m good, thanks.

Loxi: Creatures that have this effect tagged onto them can be really helpful for decks that want a syngeristic way to protect their board without needing to waste a slot on an instant if their deck doesn’t need one as much. Having flash gets around the biggest drawback of being a creature here, so I think this is a pretty great option. At worst, it’s a conditionally evasive creature with decent stats – not to be a broken record, but this set is really handing some good cards to Humans. I can see him earning a slot in my Trynn and Silvar deck since he can also be his own death trigger as well.

BPhillipYork:  The second ability is super great for protecting your board state, and for 2 mana and flash on top of that it’s super solid.

FromTheShire: I’m with Loxi on this one, at the very least having an on-type body that comes with an effect you want anyway is great. I frequently play things like Rootborn Defenses because of how vulnerable creature based decks are to boardwipes anyway, and I could easily see this standing in or supplementing.

 

With Great Power…

Saffgor: Convenient they print this in the same set as Anti-Venom, as this is fantastic for exactly our inverted friend. Likely a bit costly outside of that, though.

BPhillipYork:  There’s definitely ways where this could cause strange loops.  Reminds me of the old Personal Incarnation.  That wasn’t really any good either.  WotC loves these “put all your eggs in one basket” cards and they just, aren’t good.

FromTheShire: It’s neat that it can also protect your life total, but effects like Ancestral Mask slap in Voltron decks. It counts itself so it’s a minimum of +2, but this can easily be +8 or 10 and into one hit KO territory before you know it.

 

Chameleon, Master of Disguise

Saffgor: In a deck that discards as part of its core game plan, this is analogous to something like Flesh Duplicate, trading 1 additional mana in its cost for not using a card in your hand. I get the bad feeling this will be played in decks it ought not to, though, especially given it’s only castable at Sorcery speed.

Loxi: A three mana clone isn’t bad if you can Mayhem it, and Mayhem has the advantage of effectively letting you cast it while (ideally) using it as part of a discard cost to get the most value from it. Sure, it’s pretty good if you have discard synergies (reminder that also means things like Wheels which could use this pretty well) or you’re going all in on cloning up some big things on your side of the board.

BPhillipYork:  Well it’s a slightly pushed clone, which is, fine.

FromTheShire: Always nice to get more copies of clone effects that let you copy Legendary creatures since they retain their own name. Big fan.

 

Hide on the Ceiling

Saffgor: The best 2 mana blink, a fine 3 mana blink, and then the sky’s the limit. Blank attackers, reset Enters effects, dunk on Cauldron, etc. Tremendous multiformat card, but its floor is only okay.

Loxi: Flexible & powerful blink spells are great for things that target your own board, but being able to hit things on any players board is really helpful when you need to temporarily get rid of a key piece, especially at instant speed.

BPhillipYork:  This is decently strong, tokens won’t return, generates ETBs, can protect from various things.  A solid interaction card.

 

Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon

Saffgor: Guy is washed. In a literal sense, given he doesn’t stack counters, so you’re likely stuck with a spare 2/2 and occasional middling mana rock.

Loxi: It’s a fun idea but I’m not super sold on the whole “can’t attack half the time” scenario if you want this as a commander.

Hear me out though – it’s not awful in a storm deck as a ramp piece. If you can plan around which form he’s in, you can either have a decent prowess creature if you need more damage or an extra mana to play with. I don’t think it’s ideal because it’s super clunky to play around, but it’s not particularly expensive and I think can make his value back if you’re making good use of the turns where he’s extra mana for your pool (pun intended).

BPhillipYork:  That’s super weird card design.  I hate it.  Why would WotC want to enable the blue counterspell archetype of just shut everything down even more I can’t imagine.  This lets you swing and then it turns into a land to enable interaction, that’s such a weird card.

FromTheShire: A weird pseudo prowess creature that dodges removal on their turn and gives you an extra mana for Opt or whatever else, I dig it. I don’t know how consistently you are actually making him big enough to attack with with no evasion but he’s neat!

 

Imposter Syndrome

Saffgor: This not cascading value with itself makes the mana cost untenable as an option. Timmy card, but not even a good one.

Loxi: It’s a neat way to grow your board, as I feel like getting 2-3 copies off this is pretty worth the 6 mana cost in terms of making token copies. The issue is more that I’m not 100% sure where to put this, as I feel like it’s ideal in a situation where you have creatures with big ETB triggers (or death triggers if you’re trying to sacrifice the tokens so you can make new ones next turn), since this is pretty much asking to eat removal after you connect with a player.

BPhillipYork:  Oh, they did the meme.  Well, even more ways of creating hordes of copies of legendaries, there’s some that are deeply problematic if they get copied, but 6 mana is so much to invest.

FromTheShire: If you think all the people jamming Doubling Season aren’t also windmill slamming this card you’re wrong. 6 mana is completely fine for a splashy effect, and you can trigger this right away rather than being do nothing that first turn like Season.

 

Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor

Saffgor: For 1 fewer mana compared to Jhoira, Ageless Innovator you receive: 1 fewer color, 1 fewer counter, and losing to on-stack interaction. Trade deal declined.

Loxi: Getting this out early in a deck that wants to start cantripping pretty quickly can make this pretty terrifying. While mono blue artifacts are an archetype that doesn’t really need ramp, cheating in artifacts is always a recipe to do some real malarkey. I don’t think I’d want her as a Commander unless you have a specific plan to get her out turn one and start going off to get counters on her fast, but I can see her fitting well into an artifact deck that wants to play more at instant speed to make use of getting a bunch of ingenuity counters on other folks’ turns.

BPhillipYork:  Getting around timing restrictions with artifacts is pretty neat, and there’s ways to make everything an artifact, I wouldn’t build around this, but it could be a slow value play or a way to dump out a combo piece right before your turn.

FromTheShire: Solid piece for artifact decks that can turn into a menace if left to sit unchecked.

 

Madame Web, Clairvoyant

Saffgor: Art is everything I wanted from a Madame Web card, look at that Ben Reilly Jackal and Julia Carpenter Web, just gorgeous. The mill being optional and separate triggers makes this a wildly crunchy card, holding priority and filtering through options as you parse a complex stack of triggers. If this were 4 mana, I’d be singing from the rooftops, but at 6 with no protection she doesn’t cut it.

Loxi: A conditional Future Sight like card with some neat mill bonuses. I like her a bit but I do agree that 6 mana feels like a hefty cost for this, even if it does give you the ability to have some crazy pop off turns if you can setup the top of your deck well.

BPhillipYork:  One of these huge mana, play more cards, see everything blue cards.

FromTheShire: While I will fervently defend 6 mana spells as still being completely fine in your average Commander game, this has a very real getting blown out by removal fail case. If it sticks it does a lot though.

 

Mysterio, Master of Illusion

Saffgor: If you want a Blue option to combo off with an altar and Nim Deathmantle, this is it. I wish this didn’t say non-token, as stacking Enters triggers or stifling exits could have been far more dynamic than what we got.

Loxi: I think my issue with this is still that the Villains have like negative synergy and, at this current time, is a parasitic mechanic that won’t be great if you aren’t going pretty deep on cards from this set. He brings a lot of stats on the board, but at the current moment I’m not sure what you do with them.

BPhillipYork:  I guess if you have a lot of Villains this could be strong.  Seems very situational, then you’re just getting a bunch of 3/3s, which is kind of meh.  Most of the Villains have tons of wacky abilities, so this seems sort of meaningless unless you have some way to use the tokens immediately to fuel something to win the game.

 

Secret Identity

Saffgor: The art being an excellent homage to Unmask is a great touch, but the card’s just a worse Shore Up in most cases.

Loxi: I think my favorite use case for this is using this as effectively a burn spell to get an extra 3 damage over the top for 1 mana – it’s a goofy way to Lightning Bolt someone as blue in a draft.

BPhillipYork:  It’s okay for trying to protect something via hexproof, but pretty dangerous to make it a 1/1.

FromTheShire: Not a bad protection spell, with occasional upside by handing out flying.

 

Spider-Sense

Saffgor: This is a profoundly potent piece of interaction, and being a riff on Miscast already puts it in contention for a strong piece in cEDH. It’s not all gravy, as you won’t always be casting this for its single pip, but I feel this has more teeth than a card like Escape Detection, which plays in a similar space but fell flat on release. This stopping Thoracle wins is going to feel so good.

Loxi: Yeah this is pretty bonkers. Most two mana counterspells can find a home, and often 1 mana ones will always be a staple somewhere – this has the flexibility of being both, and has some pretty powerful targets. I think this does get relegated to higher power pods where doing this sort of thing has more bearing than brackets 1-3, but it’s likely going to see a lot of play in a similar scenario to Swan Song.

BPhillipYork:  Well, it’s really a solid 2 cost counterspell that also hits triggered abilities, and a cheaper alternate cost, so a pushed counterspell.

FromTheShire: Extremely powerful and I expect we will be seeing a lot of it.

 

The Clone Saga

BPhillipYork:  This is alright if you really want to copy your high cost Commander, other than that it seems to unpredictable.

Loxi: Yeah agreed, I think getting to fix the top of your deck and potentially set up a cool copy is a bit funky, and it being even cost even gets it out of the way of things like Yenett, Cryptic Sovereign that might make use of this pretty well.

FromTheShire: The non-legendary clone is cool, having to wait 2 turns for it less so.

 

Agent Venom

Saffgor: The correct comparison here is Midnight Reaper, but you’ll quickly notice this doesn’t proc on itself dying, meaning there’s worlds where this eats removal and goes card negative. I’m bearish on this card, but in dedicated aristocrats it will likely find a slot, in spite of that downside.

Loxi: This type of “draw when your things die” effect is often very good, even with the conditions this sets. Having flash and a reasonable cost of three makes this a pretty solid aristocrats enabler that you can drop in a pinch to get some value off someone else removing some of your creatures as well.

BPhillipYork:  This is super strong card draw with flash and menace and it’s a 2/3, that’s just so much good stuff.  It’s not Opposition Agent but super strong card.

FromTheShire: Very powerful draw engine for aristocrats or midrange value decks.

 

Behold the Sinister Six!

Loxi: This is a fun reanimator card, it’s big and splashy and likely will be pretty solid in Rakdos Reanimator decks that can cash in on some big ETB triggers from massive creatures hitting the board.

BPhillipYork:  Neat but way too expensive.

FromTheShire: I’m probably holding off for the 2 extra mana for Rise of the Dark Realms unless I can cheat it out somehow/

 

Black Cat, Cunning Thief

Saffgor: For one more mana, you get the OG Gonti, Lord of Luxury for 1 more card, and a helluva increase in options. Anyone playing Gonti is should swap to Felicia here, which does sadden me.

Loxi: Yeah definitely, it’s a more expensive version of Gonti without deathtouch but with a better effect. I really enjoy this archetype in Commander, as mono-black blink/Panharmonicon is a cool way to play that uses a lot of unique cards and synergies to make the best use of that entry trigger. I do agree that I think Black Cat does do the job a bit better, but it’s a niche enough archetype that a slightly more powerful effect might make that deck gain a little more traction.

BPhillipYork:  This is a decent way to grab cards out of your opponents deck, it’s templated so it’s all a linked ability and losing Black Cat won’t cause you to be unable to cast them, which also means you could sacrifice and reanimate her repeatedly to keep getting more cards.  So really you could build a whole deck relying on your opponents to grab wincons, if that appeals to you.

FromTheShire: I’m mad that they power crept my Gonti deck and now I will either have to play this dumb Spider-Man card or get asked why I haven’t switched constantly. Maybe I will proxy in the Arena version, what’s that look like? Wrench, Speedway Saboteur? That’s actually better anyway, and it’s a fun deck.

 

Gwenom, Remorseless

Saffgor: People desperately want this to be the next big Monoblack Commander, and it will be—in Bracket 3/4. Everyone is aware how strong Bolas’s Citadel is, but in the Command Zone it’s likely to draw hate, on top of needing a Haste enabler to compete with the likes of Krrik and having substantial potential to fizzle with lands on top. When this is played, even if it gets to swing out, you had better not have played a land for turn yet. This leaves Gwenom as a card likely to be favored more by players who believe themselves good, than actual good players.

Loxi: She’s big and scary, but she enables some really good pop-off turns. I think she’s going to be a great piece to enable a black combo deck in a slightly different way to some of the existing options, but she’s going to be feast or famine. I like that she has room for some interaction though and isn’t just going to pop out and win the game without some setup, but if you can untap and connect with her, be ready to drop some bombs.

BPhillipYork:  Potentially really powerful, basically just a Bolas’s Citadel that you put into the command zone if you want.  The ability to see your opponents libraries tops is pretty interesting.  I’d definitely consider throwing this into a deck that just gains an absurd amount of life, some kind of Orzhov shell.

 

Morlun, Devourer of Spiders

Saffgor: This isn’t even a good mana outlet given it only hits a single player, and does a cool nothing if removed in response. Makes sense to be a Leech Totem because this guy sucks.

Loxi: I almost wish he was a bit more expensive and hit every opponent, as he’d be a fun way to be a mana sink to blow players out of the game that way. As is, he’s a fine option for a decent beatstick in vampire decks.

BPhillipYork:  It’s a fine way to get counters out or just dump out your mana. A nuke off the bat isn’t likely to be hugely impactful unless you’ve got a way to generate infinite mana, then he becomes a win con in the Command Zone (sort of, you’ve got to figure out a way to get him back to the Command Zone).

FromTheShire: Flickering or reanimating doing nothing for you here is a huge downside.

 

Parker Luck

Saffgor: The actual comparison is Keen Duelist, and it’s a fine sidegrade. You get to pick two opponents if the game is coming close and could be won via burn, and it’s harder to remove, at the cost of an extra mana. Important distinctions, but not exciting.

Loxi: Dark Confidant, but an enchantment and requires tapping someone else too. A neat thing is that you can choose to just target other people if your health hits a sketchy level (assuming there’s more than two players left in the game), which can be a nice safety net. Rowan, Scion of War likes this style of card, but I would probably not just jam this as a regular draw piece. It also goes off on your end step, which may matter differently from other draw enchantments in black like Phyrexian Arena.

BPhillipYork:  In theory you’re choosing yourself an one opponent, and it ends up being a kind of “fair” card draw with a political aspect.  It’s just not a Black Market Connections by any means

 

Sandman’s Quicksand

Saffgor: Being 4 mana on the mayhem means this is a sweeper that comes down too late, on top of most actual threats in the game starting at 3 toughness in a world where Shock is ever-present in Standard.

Loxi: Pretty solid board sweeper for black decks with discard synergy. I understand that the Mayhem cost is higher because it’s more powerful, but I do wish it wasn’t more expensive than the regular cost in this case. Regardless it’s pretty sweet and can even be a boon if you want to kill a bunch of your own tokens.

BPhillipYork:  This is a super nice one way board clear potentially, and fine if you need to just hard cast it as well.

FromTheShire: Seems more likely to be hard cast than mayhem cast, and be potentially ruinous when it is in Standard.

 

The Death of Gwen Stacy

Saffgor: I just don’t see this doing anything beyond it being a lukewarm, Sorcery-speed Murder.

BPhillipYork:  This is just another low cost saga that doesn’t do much.

 

The Soul Stone

Saffgor: This is a card design that shouldn’t really exist in its current state. If more color-reliant, it might help buoy decks in Commander paying the opportunity cost of using only a single color, but here it’s easy enough to cast. It can’t be removed by artifact sweepers, which we see is totally cool and fine with The One Ring, and worst case it represents inevitability on top of untapped mana ramp at 2, the best one could ask for. For your troubles, it’s also going to cost you an arm and a leg, being a Mythic Rare chase card that’s, let me remind you, a mana rock. It will see play, and I will own one, but believe me when I say it won’t have been printed by Wizards.

Loxi: A lot of hype around this card, but I do think this is justified. The opportunity cost for this is just…literally the floor. An indestructible mana rock for 2 that enters untapped and makes colored mana (even if it’s just one specific color) is genuinely great in a most decks that have black, let alone that it lets you potentially accelerate this into a high value engine late game.

I don’t really like to say this because I don’t enjoy this type of card design, but frankly I think the limitation of seeing this in decks will be more accessibility than anything, because most Black decks with at most three colors can really leverage this well. It feels a bit more forced than I like to see and I do frankly thing this will be a very expensive card, both because it’s a significant collector piece and a great game piece. It feels like The One Ring all over again, but to a lesser caliber. It’s not going to be nearly as powerful on it’s own, but it’s just so easy to include with such a small – if nonexistent against other 2-drop mana rocks – downside.

If you read my Rock review articles, this would be a coveted S tier, which is saying something.

BPhillipYork:  This is basically just a mana rock with upside.  I’m assuming there’ll be all 5 of these and something thing you can do.  But an indestructible mana rock that taps for colorless at 2 mana is solid, and to have an ability you can use to generate recursion if the game goes long is pure upside.  Given it’s the Soul Stone it seems like you should have to exile a nontoken creature, but this really seems like a set nobody at WotC really cared about.

FromTheShire: The only thing keeping this from being more of an auto-include than Arcane Signet is the colored mana, and that just means it only goes in literally every deck running black. That sucks, actually, and is exactly the kind of card people can point to when they say no see this is the kind of thing that I’m talking about when I say I can’t actually functionally just ignore UB cards if I don’t like them.

 

The Spot’s Portal

Saffgor: This is a Dimir design shifted to Black, and I think it’s solid enough for casual Commander, as an answer to Indestructible threats. 3 mana to kill one thing, and one card type, isn’t where you want to be though.

Loxi: Black can struggle with dealing with indestructible creatures at times, and this is a fantastic answer to that. I will absolutely be including this card in mono black decks as that’s a weakness of many decks in Black or Golgari/Rakdos colors.

BPhillipYork:  Solid removal, slightly costly, but also useful for some weird tricks, cards that play off the bottom of your deck so you want to put a creature there to generate another ETB or something like that.

FromTheShire: This feels like it should see a decent amount of Commander play since it deals with indestructible creatures, but in reality black also has access to Toxic Deluge and other -1/-1 cards that are probably more deserving of the spot. That likely won’t deter people, especially based on local metas or budget concerns.

 

Villainous Wrath

Saffgor: This design is too safe. One opponent loses life, not even for all opposing Creatures period, and from there it’s just a wipe. Does functionally nothing against players not swarming with bodies.

Loxi: I think cheaper, more efficient wraths tend to be the more favorable options nowadays, but this is a great answer when you want to wipe the board and one person is really out of control. I don’t think this will end up being a popular sweeper as it’s a bit more niche, but some decks that intentionally are making tokens for players like Grismold, the Dreadsower can use this as a contingency plan that will likely smack someone for a lot of extra damage.

BPhillipYork:  Wow, this is a wrath with upside in black, but slightly more expensive.  Still pretty dangerous since the occasional go-wide deck will be there and you’ll just blow them out of the water.

FromTheShire: I’m perfectly fine with paying 1 extra mana for my wrath to potentially dome someone for 5-10 on top of it. If you’re losing on turn 5 because you didn’t wrath on 4, you probably don’t even want wraths in the deck, you want counterspells and spot removal.

 

Electro, Assaulting Battery

Saffgor: I’ve actually seen Leyline Tyrant crop up in a few ‘what non-Legendary Creatures do you wish could be Commanders’ posts, so good for the folks asking that. Melding Tyrant with Birgi, this is a fairly electrifying storm enabler, even if the best things to be doing with Birgi-style generation are Artifacts or Creatures. The ability to spite someone who removes him is hilarious though.

Loxi: Lightning dude enables storm decks, yeah that checks out. I do really enjoy that he’s a built in mana sink as a way to hang on to all of the mana he generates to make sure it doesn’t ever go to waste, and three mana for this effect is a solid cost. It’s a great mono red storm/spellslinger Commander as well as a great enabler for Izzet storm decks, I really enjoy this one.

Also, I’m not a Marvel person so I don’t know if “Assaulting Battery” is a term used to describe him previously, but what a great villain tagline. I love it.

BPhillipYork:  Welp, the 3rd ability is probably the only one that matters, and yet another source of red mana whenever you cast a (instant or sorcery) spell just makes those decks that much more consistent, and consistently easy to go infinite.  It’s also pretty nuts to build up a store of red and then blow someone out, but more useful for just banking mana to go off.  You could easily build a deck this with as a Commander, or just include it in various decks.

 

Hobgoblin, Mantled Marauder

Saffgor: This is my favorite Uncommon Commander from the set, and there’s many worlds where you dunk someone into the sun.  Cheap, evasive, hasty, and works well with wheels of all sorts. Discard 5, give Ned here Double Strike, and kill someone—people are underestimating how quickly this goes. If you want to give someone a simple aggro Commander to learn with, why not Hobgoblin?

BPhillipYork:  Obviously works well with the mayhem mechanic but pretty unimpactful in commander.

Loxi: Yeah for sure, although fast, evasive, and scalable is an A+ limited tempo card.

FromTheShire: The flying really pushes this over the line into Problem territory when things line up right.

 

J. Jonah Jameson

Saffgor: This is a flavor win from several angles, but it helps that JJ here can also play with the big boys alongside a card like Aggravated Assault, because boy those Treasures sure do enter untapped. It is doubly funny you’re often giving JJ the suspect on an empty board, maybe the real Spider-Man was the friends we made along the way. Ultimately this and Knuckles (can’t believe I’m saying this sentence) jockey for the role of Monored aggro-midrange, and I’d like to believe the Daily Bugle hits the front page.

Loxi: Menace typal is a rocking design, and I actually think one of the best cases for this is at the helm of a deck like that and using suspect to make opponents unable to block with key creatures. Things like Professional Face Breaker and other Treasure/artifact payoffs like Reckless Fireweaver can help win games over the top, and overall this makes a really solid mono red aggro shell. It’s not a fancy or unpredictable gameplan, but I think it’s a fun one that makes use of some neat cards while still providing a nice variety of ways to close out games. He might be one of the commanders I build out from the set.

That art is also hysterical, and I will read every card I cast like J.K. Simmons.

BPhillipYork:  I like this card design. It’s not amazingly good, though actually menace creatures generating creatures could be pretty fun.  A lot of menace creatures are in black, and just dumping that onto evasion onto an important hitter or trigger on combat damage creature is also super useful upside.

FromTheShire: This is the best card in the set and I don’t care what anyone says. I will fight you. Absolutely crushing the flavor game. Also it’s like pretty good or whatever, shut up and bring me pictures of Spider-Man!

 

Maximum Carnage

Saffgor: They’re allergic to printing good Sagas in this set.

Loxi: Not bad in group slug as a way to get the damage rolling and setup for a power turn. Real sweet art here too.

BPhillipYork:  For 5 mana goad all creatures for 2 turns is okay, but then it’s just generate 3 mana and deal damage, which is pretty mid.

FromTheShire: You could have stopped at they’re allergic to printing good Sagas.

 

Molten Man, Inferno Incarnate

Saffgor: Alpine Guide in the Command Zone? This is better in a Mountains-matter deck led by someone else, but I appreciate the redundancy.

Loxi: Mooolten man, take me by the hand, lead me to the land…

Koth Red type decks that want to do mountain shenanigans will probably like this, and Gruul Lands decks will make use of an extra landfall trigger reasonably well, but yeah I’m not super stoked (ha!) about this guy in general.

BPhillipYork:  It’s sort of land ramp but dangerous since they can just kill it for a 2-for-1 and other than that doesn’t really do anything.

 

Shadow of the Goblin

Saffgor: This is a sidegrade/redundant piece for Unstable Amulet, a card which sees play all the way up to cEDH as part of an infinite damage wincon. Is a rummage each turn better than a single spare card? Really depends, you probably play both.

Loxi: It’s a really simple discard enabler, which sometimes is exactly what you need for discard decks. It’s not optional so be prepared for that when you cast this. That being said, it’s usually something you want to be doing in these archetypes anyway, so getting a nice bonus payoff isn’t too bad. It also works pretty well if you’re also casting a bunch of stuff from exile/your graveyard, so this could be good for Flashback decks as well since it “mills” you and gives you a payoff.

BPhillipYork:  Works really well with mayhem and madness decks, but the second ability is neat for all kinds of decks that work off of casting from other than the hand.  This will be an auto consider for red and black decks, generally speaking going forward.

FromTheShire: A classic not splashy but very powerful card as you start reading, completely turbocharged by the second ability. Big-time combo enabler.

 

Spider-Punk

Saffgor: This is going to lose you so many games because you’ve secured the stack for a better combo pilot than you. If this comes down on your popoff, you likely win, but it lives past you being disrupted…that’s also probably game. Hobie gives, Hobie takes.

Loxi: Riot is very good, and really the only restriction is being tied exclusively to Spiders here. It’s a powerful tech piece on its own though, and I can see (sorry) this being a great piece for Naya humans just so you can keep your board protected, especially if you throw a few other spider-heroes in the mix.

BPhillipYork:  Spells and abilities can’t be countered is a super powerful ability, and I’m sure there are combo cEDH decks that are considering playing off this to force through an early win.  It’s also just 2 mana sort of almost anti-hatebear, I suppose it’s still really a hatebear, but it disables counterspells and damage prevention.  Really solid utility card, not my style to build as a Commander since it’s pretty one track type of card to make a mono color deck.

FromTheShire: Do you want a Grand Abolisher effect to secure the bag for you as you combo off, except in an actual storm color? Here you go.

 

Spider-Verse

Saffgor: This is a fun scramble target in a deck that can cast a means to clone Spider-Verse from exile, graveyard, etc. Will play around with it, but this is a fun card.

BPhillipYork:  For 5 mana this doesn’t really seem worth it unless you have a specific combo with a commander, which, it’s great for, since you’re automatically casting from the Command Zone not your hand.  Given it’s once per turn I don’t think it’s going to slot that well into “not your hand” decks.

FromTheShire: Once per turn makes this a potentially fun build around rather than an all star.

 

Spinneret and Spiderling

Saffgor: Ragavan sees this and laughs. Getting to 4 before you start seeing cards is so, so rough.

Loxi: I don’t think this is really great for Commander, but I can see this being a pretty nice turn one play in Limited. When in doubt, aggro it out!

BPhillipYork:  Just a card for the Spiders deck I guess.  It’s 1 for a 1/2 that’ll probably grow, which is solid just kind of slow and not that interesting.

FromTheShire: More for Limited than Standard for sure I think, needing another Spider to get the counters rolling is too much of an ask.

 

Kraven’s Last Hunt

Saffgor: This is, again, a pretty rubbish saga. Blinking/recurring it in Anikthea, Hand of Erebos is something at least, but beyond exactly that it’s not seeing play.

Loxi: This is a pretty alright card for Dredge actually. Milling 5, dealing some damage, and then getting to replace itself is pretty neat. Really the only drawback for me is the second effect as it feels pretty underwhelming.

BPhillipYork:  This Saga (really none of these Sagas) seem to have much to do with the Kraven the Hunter card, it’s so dissonant to me.  This is too expensive as a source of mill, so it’s kind of whatever.

 

Lizard, Connors’s Curse

Saffgor: Green staxy blink option ala Oko or Deadpool, I could see it. Where this really matters is Commander, where it forces opponents to reset their Commanders in some way to get access to their abilities again. In something that can bounce or blink this, Lizard is going to be dirty.

Loxi: A creature based “removal” spell in green to stuff a powerful piece with very good stats? I like this, and while I think 4 mana for sorcery speed removal isn’t something I’m jumping for, this is in a similar headspace to things like Kenrith’s Transformation which I’m super fond of as a way to deal with things that you can’t kill with raw stats in Gruul or Mono Green. If you have more synergy with creatures than enchantments and you’re in those colors, I can see an inclusion here, especially in traditional stompy decks where an extra 5/5 trampler will help go the distance.

BPhillipYork:  Okay this guy has one of the most amazing memes to come out of Marvel comics (I don’t want to cure cancer…) and this is deeply disappointing to me.

FromTheShire: Note that this doesn’t say it becomes a Lizard until he leaves or anything, it just is that now. Savage. I love it.

 

Radioactive Spider

Saffgor: A potential piece for the Web-Slinging combo deck in Pioneer/Modern that makes use of Relic of Legends and Arachne/Spider-Man Web-Slinger. Beyond that, it can get Ben Reilly in a deck more keen on finding Bard Class. I’ll never turn my nose up at a reasonably costed tutor, especially one you can recur easily.

Loxi: Funny enough I think this is very good for Regular Spider Typal if you have at least one or two Spider Heroes on hand as well.

BPhillipYork:  Well it’s a tutor for Spider-Man, so it makes sense.  Pretty pushed at 1 for a 1/1 with reach and deathtouch.

FromTheShire: Great little rattlesnake card even if you never use the ability.

 

Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel

Saffgor: I really wanted this not to be worse Lumra…but it’s worse Lumra. I think Sandman is extremely cool but there’s few scenarios you’d not rather have the big Green Bear.

BPhillipYork:  Sort of a neat card to mill away and return or discard for value various ways but for 5 mana it’s really too much, if it had forestcycling or land cycling that would make it a decent enough tutor to ramp out late game for double value.

FromTheShire: It’s nice that it can get any land out of the graveyard at least. I have a gimmicky number of lands matters deck this will slot right in, though there’s no chance at him becoming the Commander.

 

Spider-Ham, Peter Porker

Saffgor: This card is needlessly wordy and requires you to skim his text every time you play a Creature. Absolutely designed to trip up new players, not a fan.

Loxi: I hope you liked Bloomburrow, because this is the Bloomburrow set lord. It’s fine, I’d throw him in Ygra, Eater of All as he can do double duty buffing your Commander and giving you extra food.

BPhillipYork:  Okay.

FromTheShire: He’s not even the right colors to fit in a deck with like 1/3 of those creature types, and a bunch of the other ones he can’t be the Commander for without missing a bunch of cards. Why.

 

Strength of Will

Saffgor: This allows you to bounce damage triggers back onto a creature and grow it infinitely, before flinging it, etc. I don’t think this is good unless you’re doing something unfair with it, and the ‘unfair thing’ is fairly lukewarm.

BPhillipYork:  If you know your pod this can be a solid card, but mostly things get exiled or destroyed without taking that much damage.  So the various versions of this that have hexproof remain superior as their upside of consistency outweighs the upside of potentially a lot of +1/+1 counters, aside from some crazy loop you’re setting up (like using Stuffy Doll with the enchantment that makes it take all damage for you, then nuking your own Stuffy Doll, but the problem is that will result in an infinite loop)

Loxi: Yeah I definitely second a lot of BPY’s thoughts here, the reality of current Commander is that people are leaning towards removal that doesn’t just care about damage, which is why hexproof + indestructible is the golden combo. That being said I do think this is still excellent, but it’s more of a very good answer to a specific type of removal rather than a catch all protection piece, so keep that in mind when including this in your deck.

 

Supportive Parents

Saffgor: Hey this goes infinite with uh…a lot. Reasonable when played fairly, but this is one of those cards where someone can assemble enough fine value pieces to accidentally combo off. Love it.

Loxi: Humans are really eating well from this set, unsurprisingly. Humans who make your other humans mana dorks? Perfecto. Also, very sweet flavor on this one, it’s quite cute conceptually.

BPhillipYork:  Well, that’s solid.  Just super duper solid if you’re generating tons of tokens or something like that they all become half a mana dork, and that can get out of control really quickly.

FromTheShire: That’s certainly very supportive.

 

Web of Life and Destiny

Saffgor: If this milled the cards, we’d be talking. This is a Timmy Enchantment through and through, and it’s only really as good as a random Creature in your deck, so long as you’re on enough to consistently get ≥1 (the number is 36 Creatures, to hit that in 90% of top 5 cards). Even in a Creature-based deck, 36 is more than I’d normally play, but I’m also not the target audience for this card.

Loxi: Isn’t that the guy responsible for melting my PC in all those Marvel Rivals games? If you know, you know.

This is really strong, if you get this out first main phase you can easily make its value back in spades. For decks that want to just cheat fatties onto the board and swing in but still have enough things to help eat the convoke cost, this is great. It’s the most Timmy green card in the set, and I’m not complaining.

BPhillipYork:  This is neat, and obviously if you’re just swimming in tokens then sure you can convoke it out, and then it’s like free. But are you cheating out big enough creatures this way to make it worth bothering, and if so your deck is kind of incoherent.

FromTheShire: Seems like a fun include in big creature decks like Eldrazi, which also just so happen to make a bunch of little guys to help you convoke this out. Do note that you can’t both tap them for convoke and sacrifice them. Is it great? No. But is it fun for you and terrifying for the table, or the other way ’round when you whiff? Absolutely.

 

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