Summary
Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format has been shaken up by the recent bans on Mana Crypt, Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Nadu as well as the controversy that followed, but Wizards of the Coast is looking ahead. With the news of a new Commander Rules Committee being formed and the imminent release of a major Marvel Superdrop forMagic: The Gathering, fans can look forward to plenty of new or reprinted cards to add to their decks. As for the Marvel Superdrop from Secret Lair, it includes several sets, each dedicated to one of five heroes, all having unique abilities. The heroes included are:
Each of theseMTGLegendary creatureshas its own color identity, and each set comes with four or five additional cards within that color identity. The only new cards in these drops are the Marvel heroes themselves, whereas the accompanying cards for each character are reprints that are supposed to go well together.Magic: The GatheringSecret Lair drops with all-new Legendary creatures or cards are usually very well received, and with Marvel’s popularity it’s no wonder that these kits will likely be sold out pretty fast. For players interested in Commander, all of the drops are interesting ones, but the Storm kit is likely the best of them.
Magic: The Gathering’s Marvel Secret Lair Superdrop Adds a Great Commander
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While cards like Black Panther and Arbor Dryad can pair excellently together for infinite combos and Iron Man can easily lend itself to an artifact deck, not all these potential commanders are equally good. Or rather, they can be, but it depends on the context.Magic: The Gathering’s Commanderformat is divided into two subformats - EDH and cEDH, with the latter being the competitive version of the former. In cEDH (competitive Elder Dragon Highlander), the Marvel collab can see some play, specifically in the form of Storm.
Storm is a Temur commander, meaning her color identity is comprised of Blue, Red, and Green. This alone is not bad at all forMTG’s Commander format, be it casual or competitive, as Blue comes with a lot of good tools to counter opponents' spells, draw cards, and generally control the battlefield. Red also has plenty of great cards, like Jeska’s Will, which is also being reprinted with a new name in the Storm drop. Storm’s ability pairs nicely with these colors, as it allows any spell to aptly have the storm keyword, which creates a copy of that spell for each other spell played that turn.
This can be quite powerful, as seen with other popular storm spells like Brain Freeze, Grapeshot, and Flutterstorm, and while storm is a strong keyword to have, it’s not readily available on many cards. WithMarvel’s Storm inMagic: The Gathering, releasing on November 4, players can set up a board state where any spell they cast can have storm, and a great candidate for this is precisely Jeska’s Will. This card allows players to choose one of two modes or use both if they have a commander on the battlefield:
Storm’s ability reads as follows: “Whenever Storm deals combat damage to a player, the next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn has storm.”
How MTG x Marvel’s Storm Can Go Infinite in Commander Explained
Storm’s ability makes it so that players can easily find ways to cast multiple spells per turn and then copy a big one to finish their opponents. A good card for this strategy would be a cEDH staple called Underworld Breach, which makes each nonland card in the user’s graveyard have escape, with the escape cost being equal to that card’s mana cost plus exiling three cards from the user’s graveyard. This can create infinite combos with 0-mana cards, such as some of the most valuable orrarestMagic: The Gatheringcards, like Mox Diamond.
Players can then cast multiple cantrips to build storm stacks for later on, with 0-mana or 1-mana cards doing minor tricks. Still, Storm needs to deal combat damage to a player to activate its ability, but this can be done with other cards, like the Rogue’s Passage land or the Aqueous Form aura enchantment. Then, players can cast a big spell to either finish their opponents or prepare for a finisher, which can be done withMagic: The Gatheringdecksthat run extra turn cards, as they too would gain storm from Storm’s ability, granting several additional turns to the user with a single cast.
Magic: The Gathering x Marvel Secret Lair Drop - Why Storm is Worth Picking Up For Commander
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Storm’s color identity doesn’t featureMagic: The Gathering’s Black color, which would have granted the card even wider access to powerful combos (like Thassa’s Oracle plus Tainted Pact or Demonic Consultation). However, Storm’s Temur identity is still pretty good for Commander, as it gets access to other amazing cards like Hermit Druid, Twinflame, Spellseeker, Dualcaster Mage, and more.
Still, even for non-competitive EDH, Storm is likely one of the best Temur commanders to date, and its Secret Lair drop comes with a few good cards that make it worth grabbing, especially since they are all Marvel/Storm-themed cards. These include:
Scalpers may purchase theMarvel x MTG Secret Lair Superdropin bulk to later resell them at higher prices, as has happened before. Seeing how popular Marvel content is, fans should try and get their favorite sets on day one if they don’t want to miss out.
Magic The Gathering
Magic the Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield and released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Players take on the role of a Planeswalker and use various cards to battle other players by casting spells, summoning creatures, or utilizing artifacts. It features two main rule categories, constructed or limited, and can be played by two or more players at a time.
