As the sun sets on Edge of Eternities
San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) was last week, and along with a horde of general nerdy goodness for those attending, we also got a surprisingly large look at the upcoming MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man release. We weren’t expecting more than a handful of cards, given that we’ve only just had Edge of Eternities Prerelease, but we muster on.
We’re going to quickly go over some of the notable bits from the previews and talk about some mechanics, and then highlight some of the cards previewed. So, prepare your spandex and let’s get swinging.
The Mechanics and Themes of MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man
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There appear to be three new mechanics and themes in MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man. From a thematic sense, several cards mention villains as a card type. We’ve seen villains before in Unfinity; there are just loads of them in MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man, and it looks like they’re going to be a new “creature type” matter option for those who like teaming up against heroes. A great example of this is Tombstone, Career Criminal, which is a three-mana 2/2 that lets you get a villain from your graveyard back into your hand, but also makes your villain cards cost one less to cast.
Spider-Islanders
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Common
Outside of that, we’ve got two new keywords, and we’d be shocked to see one of them ever return. Mayhem is the one we’d expect to see back in future Magic: The Gathering sets, though. Mayhem is a lot like the Madness mechanic in that it lets you cast spells once you’ve discarded them; however, Mayhem doesn’t need you to do it straight away (as seen with Spider-Islanders). Instead, once you discard a card with Mayhem, you can then play that card later on that turn, but only with the normal timing rules, so you can’t cast creatures on other people’s turns. Discarding cards is pretty strong right now in multiple formats, so we’re expecting this to have an impact in various formats.
Spider-Man, Web-Slinger
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Common
The one we’re less likely to see return is Web-slinging. Web-slinging feels mechanically similar to Ninjutsu, but less limiting. Web-slinging allows you to cast a spell for a different amount of mana, but you also have to return a tapped creature you control to your hand. You basically swap the creatures, and this appears to be fine to happen at any time. Interestingly, the creature doesn’t look as though it’ll enter play tapped, and it also doesn’t note anything about timing, so you could have pseudo-vigilance. The simplest example here is Spider-Man, Web-Slinger, which even has the reminder text on it.
The Many Spider-Men in MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man
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Let’s go over some of the big cards, shall we? Peter Parker is a two-mana creature that enters play with a 2/1 Spider token with reach. You can pay one generic, one green, one white, and one blue mana to transform it into Amazing Spider-Man, which interestingly, has a casting cost of four-mana (despite being a transformation), which suggests we can cast it as either side, then transform it from Peter to Spider-Man if we want to (this is also true of Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales). Amazing Spider-Man comes with vigilance, reach, and gives all of your legendary spells that have one or more colors with Web-slinging for green, white, and blue mana. This also suggests you can Web-sling in something like Karn’s Temporal Sundering, which seems an odd flavor mix.
Gwen Stacy
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Mythic
Gwen Stacy exiles the top card of your library when it enters play, and you can play that card as long as you control this creature. You can also pay two generic, one blue, one red, and one, white mana to transform Gwen into Ghost-Spider, a 4/4 with flying, vigilance, and haste that allows you put a +1/+1 counter on it whenever you play a card from exile, and you can remove two counters from it to exile the top card of your library, and play it that turn. Gwen reads really well and might be the best Jeskai “Exile matters” Commander when the set comes out.
Miles Morales
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Mythic
Miles Morales is an incredible-looking card that puts +1/+1 counters on up to two target creatures, who can then transform into Ultimate Spider-Man. Upon transforming, Ultimate Spider-Man comes with first strike and haste, where you can pay mana to put a +1/+1 counter on it and give it hexproof until the end of the turn. Then, when the Ultimate Spider-Man attacks, you can double the number of each kind of counter on each Spider and legendary creature you control.
Spider-Punk
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Rare
There are some other really cool MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man cards amongst the SDCC previews, too. Spider-Punk comes with Riot and gives other Spiders you control Riot, prevents all spells and abilities from being countered, and stops all damage being prevented. Spider-Punk is a hyper-aggressive card, and we’re expecting to see it just about everywhere.
Doctor Octopus, Master Planner
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Mythic
Doctor Octopus, Master Planner is a seven-mana creature and gives villains +2/+2, makes your maximum hand size eight, and lets you draw cards until you have eight in your hand in your upkeep. Doctor Octopus is going to be a beast in Control decks (especially in Commander), and also a likely leader for the Villains archetype as well.
Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer
Marvel’s Spider-Man, Mythic
Finally, mono-white players will adore Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, who lets you put a creature back onto the battlefield from the graveyard when it enters the battlefield, but only if it was cast. Along with that, instead of taking damage, Anti-Venom gains that number of +1/+1 counters instead. This could be horrendous if mono-white decks start appearing in a few formats, so keep an eye out for it.
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Rounding out the SDCC reveals are the Full Art Spiderweb Basic Lands, which will be available in foil and non-foil in Play and Collector Boosters upon release. Additionally, Bundles each include one non-foil and one foil copy of each of the Spiderweb Basic Lands. Lastly, each MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man Welcome Deck will also include a Spiderweb Basic Land.
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MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man releases on September 26, where Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, Bundles, Prerelease Kits, and a Scene Box will be available to purchase upon release day and beyond.
If you’re new to Magic: The Gathering, MTG | Marvel’s Spider-Man also sees five incredible Welcome Decks, which will be available to collect at your local games store. If you want to see what’s in the Welcome Decks, you can read more here.