Mark Rosewater sure does wear a lot of superhero T-shirts. Magic: The Gathering’s head designer and lead on its Marvel Super Heroes expansion specifically is usually seen in interviews and on stage with a comic-book T under his flannel, and apparently called dibs on a Marvel set back when the Universes Beyond concept was first floated.
That level of love is apparent in this “Avengers and friends” set in a way it wasn’t in Spider-Man. Where that set had some individual cards that were fun to play if you were into the characters, it didn’t have the synergies or new mechanics that make a set really shine. Marvel Super Heroes does.
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
Image credit: Wizards of the Coast
One of those new mechanics is Plan, a kind of enchantment that needs to be advanced by stacking plan counters until it’s completed and you earn a reward. Doom Reigns Supreme, for example, is a plan that advances whenever you play a Villain card and eventually makes your opponent exile the top five cards on their deck, which you can then play two of for free. Every time one of those Villains enters under your control, you also take a life point from each opponent and gain one yourself.
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That synergizes with the Doctor Doom card, who is not only a Villain himself, but summons two Doombot tokens when played, each of which also counts as a Villain. That’s three life points from each opponent, three for yourself, and three counters advancing your Plan. This is how he got to be President of the United States that one time. (In Doom 2099 admittedly, but it still counts.)
While Plans are limited to Villains, everyone has access to the Teamwork ability, which is all about synergy. Teamwork, found on instants and sorcery cards, lets you tap creatures in addition to paying the regular cost for bonus effects. The HULK SMASH! card normally lets you either destroy an artifact or have one of your creatures deal damage equal to its power. Cast it with Teamwork and you can do both. Hulks stronger together.
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The other new mechanic available to everyone is Power-Up, which represents abilities that can only be used once. Nick Fury’s is the ability to recruit someone just like he used to do at the end of almost every Marvel movie. He gets two +1/+1 counters, then you look through the top seven cards of your deck for a Hero, Vehicle, or Equipment card, and play it for free. If it’s a double-faced card, you can play either face.
Which is useful because Marvel Super Heroes has a bunch of double-faced cards representing superheroes and their secret identities. Normally you’d play the weaker version first then flip them for an additional cost later. Using Nick Fury’s Power-Up, you can bring out Bruce Banner and flip him to the Hulk immediately.
And while Power-Ups can normally be used only once, if you flash a card out and then in again it recharges. Which is exactly what The Mind Stone, this set’s infinity stone, lets you do.
Even if you aren’t building a deck themed around superheroes, this set will provide a bunch of useful cards for existing decks. If you’ve got a merfolk deck you’ll want to add Namor to it, because his power is equal to the number of merfolk you’ve got on the board. Fin Fang Foom lets you copy instants and sorceries that target artifacts and land, perfect for those annoying blue/red decks.
Magic: The Gathering Marvel Super Heroes is out now both in tabletop magic, and digitally in Magic: The Gathering Arena.
