Free your inner Deadpool, Trading Card with our Commander Bestiary all about the Merc with a Mouth.
Revealing a legitimate Secret Lair on April Fool’s Day is an unhinged business decision, and it has us wondering if the Merc with a Mouth actually infiltrated Wizards of the Coast… or maybe it’s just Ryan Reynolds. Either way, there’s a Deadpool Secret Lair now out in the world running around like the most chaotic baby, and it brings with it the incredibly cool Deadpool, Trading Card.
We’re pretty excited about the release as this particular Secret Lair actually going to be available later this month in WPN Stores, but also because the Deadpool card is incredibly cool. So, let’s dive into everything you need to know about the character and the card.
Lore Intro
Deadpool, Trading Card
Secret Lair Drop Series, Mythic
Deadpool, Trading Card was once a talkative mercenary who’d take on any paid job. However, Ryan Reynolds decided he wanted to play him in some films, and as a result, he was experimented on, learned the mighty art of breaking the fourth wall, and got the red suit… you know why.
Now, he’s an incredible fighter with an impossible fighting style and absurd regeneration abilities, and more recently, he teamed up with Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) for a hit third film. He’s an incredibly silly guy, and even though he’s had a few serious moments in the comics, most people know him as the idiot we see on-screen. Some of this might even be true, although people say that Ryan Reynolds isn’t actually real. Weird?!
Strengths
Market Price: $18.64
Deadpool, Trading Card is a four-mana black and red 5/3 that lets you exchange its text box with another creature’s as it enters. Basically, it copies the text of that creature, so it gets all of its abilities, which is extremely Deadpool. The card Deadpool swaps with then deals three damage to its owner that player’s upkeep, but they can pay three mana to sacrifice it and let everyone else at the table draw a card.
The strength of this card is that it gives you card draw, annoys another player, and comes in with the abilities of whatever creature you want as well, meaning you’re robbing someone of something strong and replacing it with this utter nonsense. You can also copy your own cards if you want for some more controlled shenanigans, but we’ll get to that a little bit later.
Weaknesses
The biggest drawback of Deadpool, Trading Card is its toughness. Three toughness makes Deadpool very easy to kill, and unfortunately, it doesn’t have any regeneration ability unless you copy a card with it (a bit of flavor fail if you ask us). It just means you’ve got to be wary of stray Lightning Bolts, along with a lot of combat in general. The good news is that you kind of want Deadpool to be dying here and there to make the most of its ability to punish players and steal their cards.
Recommended Archetypes
You can plonk Deadpool, Trading Card into a few different archetypes when it comes to Commander. You could slot him into Sacrifice-themed decks, ones where chaos is the main aim, or even go for something feeding into his mercenary creature type with an Outlaw theme. However, we’re basically just going to be building a Deadpool strategy, which means doing absolutely everything we can to get as many Deadpool triggers as we can to completely disrupt the game as much as possible.
Key Cards
If you want to make your very own Deadpool, Trading Card deck and just want a starting point, then we’d recommend going for these cards:
- The Master, Multiplied
- Conjurer’s Closet
- Blade of Selves
- Helm of the Host
- Saw in Half
- Delina, Wild Mage
Strategy
Market Price: $11.38
Market Price: $13.95
So, our primary strategy here is to create as many Deadpool copies as we possibly can. Blue would make this all a bit easier, but red actually has several ways to copy creatures as temporary tokens, and frankly, we’re not fussed about the tokens sticking around as we just want to take everyone’s text boxes. One of the most important cards for this is The Master, Multiplied, which stops the legend rule from applying to creature tokens you control. The Master also has Myriad, meaning it’ll create copies when it attacks and prevents you from having to sacrifice or exile creature tokens you control. Copy this thing with Deadpool will lead to an absurd number of Deadpools in play, each capable of stealing another card’s text box. Silly, right?
On that note, we’re also throwing in Blade of Selves, a two-mana equipment that gives the equipped creature Myriad, and Helm of the Host, a four-mana equipment that lets you make a token of the equipped creature. These just let us have more Deadpools, with up to five extra per turn just for attacking (assuming you have four opponents). We’ve then also got Saw in Half, which costs three-mana and reads, “Destroy target creature. If that creature dies this way, its controller creates two tokens that are copies of that creature, except their power is half that creature’s power and their toughness is half that creature’s toughness. Round up each time.” That means two more Deadpools, and at instant speed!
Market Price: $13.72
Conjurer’s Closet is a five-mana artifact that lets you exile a creature in your end step and then have that creature come back into play. With Closet in play, it grants you another chance to grant Deadpool’s standard text box to another creature in play. Remember, our aim isn’t to win through conventional means but to just Deadpool everyone to death. Finally, we’re definitely going to be rocking Delina, Wild Mage, a four-mana red 3/2 that lets you create copies of a creature when it attacks. You roll a d20 when it attacks (and you’ll always make one) but if you roll a 15-20, you get to create one and roll again.
With all of the above in mind, when you copy Deadpool, it comes in as an original version of the card, so it doesn’t come in with the text it stole the first time around. This lets you steal text boxes every time you copy it and should allow us to flood the board with this little weirdo and basically remove opponents off in their upkeep.
Commander
Deadpool, Trading Card
Market Price:$409.61
Maindeck, 99 cards
Sortsort deckCommander (1)
- 1Deadpool, Trading Card
Creature (23)
- 1The Master, Multiplied
- 1Delina, Wild Mage
- 1Stormsplitter
- 1Sandstorm Crasher
- 1Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink
- 1Mirage Phalanx
- 1Life of the Party
- 1Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
- 1Humble Defector
- 1Jaxis, the Troublemaker
- 1Genasi Enforcers
- 1Firbolg Flutist
- 1Felhide Spiritbinder
- 1Rionya, Fire Dancer
- 1Mayhem Devil
- 1Gonti, Night Minister
- 1Kardur, Doomscourge
- 1Sangromancer
- 1Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
- 1Solemn Simulacrum
- 1Bothersome Quasit
- 1Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
- 1The Lord of Pain
Planeswalker (1)
- 1Chandra, Flameshaper
Sorcery (12)
- 1Twinflame
- 1Molten Duplication
- 1Heat Shimmer
- 1Blasphemous Act
- 1Vandalblast
- 1Disrupt Decorum
- 1Prisoner’s Dilemma
- 1Claim // Fame//
- 1Full Throttle
- 1Glimpse of Tomorrow
- 1Dreadbore
- 1Spectacular Showdown
Instant (6)
- 1Saw in Half
- 1Deadly Rollick
- 1Chaos Warp
- 1Terminate
- 1Bedevil
- 1Wild Ricochet
Artifact (13)
- 1Blade of Selves
- 1Helm of the Host
- 1Conjurer’s Closet
- 1Cursed Mirror
- 1Golden Argosy
- 1Sol Ring
- 1Arcane Signet
- 1Swiftfoot Boots
- 1Lightning Greaves
- 1Whispersilk Cloak
- 1Wishclaw Talisman
- 1Bucknard’s Everfull Purse
- 1Crawlspace
Enchantment (7)
- 1Splinter Twin
- 1Flameshadow Conjuring
- 1Echoing Assault
- 1Maddening Hex
- 1Black Market
- 1Curse of Opulence
- 1Curse of Hospitality
Land (37)
- 1Bojuka Bog
- 1Rogue’s Passage
- 1Reliquary Tower
- 1Arena of Glory
- 1Homeward Path
- 1Temple of the False God
- 1Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
- 1Command Beacon
- 1Maze of Ith
- 1The Black Gate
- 1Command Tower
- 1Smoldering Marsh
- 1Dragonskull Summit
- 1Rakdos Carnarium
- 1Foreboding Ruins
- 1Temple of Malice
- 1Luxury Suite
- 1Blood Crypt
- 1Haunted Ridge
- 1Myriad Landscape
- 1Bloodstained Mire
- 1Blazemire Verge
- 1Terramorphic Expanse
- 1Raucous Theater
- 1Fabled Passage
- 1Tramway Station
- 1Blackcleave Cliffs
- 5Swamp
- 5Mountain
- Secret Lair Drop Series
So yeah, Deadpool for life. If you want something a little more normal though, you’ll be able to find that in one of our other Commander Bestiary articles, or you can sign up to the Commander Bestiary newsletter for free to receive content straight to your inbox!