Yesterday, after months of silence, Magic’s Spider-Man spoilers started to slowly appear on the internet. After getting nothing for so long, there is suddenly an overwhelming amount of new cards to look at. This is largely due to unique Spider-Man Welcome decks getting revealed out of nowhere, but a few other spoilers have also joined the fray.
Here, we’ll take a look at the most interesting main set Villain-themed Spider-Man cards that have been revealed so far. Notably, most of the cards that have been spoiled so far come from Welcome decks, which means that a majority of the cards currently on display are commons and uncommons.
Either way, for Spider-Man fans, there’s still a lot of exciting stuff to look at. There’s one card far ahead of the rest for the villain-themed cards. The rest are, admittedly, not great.
Unstable Experiment
Unstable Experiment is one of the better Spider-Man cards spoiled so far. It may just be a common, but this card could be surprisingly powerful. At instant speed, drawing a card and Looting is already premium. Having that Loot be a Connive effect on a creature is even better. This does mean that you need creatures to make Unstable Experiment worthwhile, so it won’t really see play in control decks, but the card can easily see Commander play, and could even see Standard play.
It’s important not to forget that Unstable Experiment is a common. That means this card is Pauper viable, but how viable it is there is a different question. Unstable Experiment seems good enough to warrant some discussion, however.
The downside for Unstable Experiment is, if you cannot Connive, the card is really bad. With Connive, however, the card is insane, so make sure you can get that value out of it if you can use it.
Tombstone, Career Criminal
Tombstone, Career Criminal is very reminiscent of a decent Outlaws of Thunder Junction uncommon that saw lots of competitive play. This creature is essentially an Honest Rutstein for Villains, and is very playable in that archetype. Honest Rutstein was infamous for creating infinite value loops thanks to doubling as both an Eternal Witness for creatures and a cost reduction spell.
Between the two, Rutstein is obviously better since it has no restrictions, but Tombstone should be easier to fit into Commander decks with different color identities, depending on what colors Villains are interested in. Outside of Villains, this card is not exciting, but there’s certainly some play to it.
Risky Research
Risky Research is nothing exciting, but for a three-mana draw two spell, it’s not that bad. Surveiling then drawing gives a lot of card selection, and can fuel graveyard strategies. The card is likely too slow for constructed, but it could be ok in Commander decks that really care about Surveil or graveyard strategies, especially in more restricted color identities.
Outside of that role, and Limited, Risky Research is unlikely to see any play. The card is simply too slow, and being a sorcery speed spell also makes it too high of a commitment in constructed.
Electro’s Bolt
At face value, Electro’s Bolt is not great. The card gets significantly better, however, when you factor in the new Mayhem mechanic. Mayhem is very similar to Madness, but there is a distinct difference: Madness completely ignores timing rules, while Mayhem is restricted by them. This means Electro’s Bolt is only usable as a Sorcery, but on the plus side, you don’t necessarily need to use it immediately. As long as you cast the Mayhem card within the turn you discard it, it’s fair game.
This could allow Electro’s Bolt to see some very niche play in specific strategies, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
Scorpion, Seething Striker
I hope you’re not a Scorpion fan. Scorpion, Seething Striker may be an iconic Spider-Man villain, but this card is not good in MTG. Even if you trigger this card on all of your turns, it’s not gonna make the cut in Commander, and certainly won’t be playable in any constructed formats. For two mana, Scorpion would be great, but he is unplayable past that point.
The good news for Scorpion fans is we’ve already seen multiple copies of the same character among the spoiled Spider-Man cards, which means there is a chance that a better Scorpion comes along at some point.
Sadly, this is also the case for many of the early Villain character spoilers we’ve seen. Shocker, Unshakeable, Beetle, Legacy Criminal, Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist, and Venom, Evil Unleashed are all stone-cold unplayable outside of Limited. We already know that some of these cards have multiple variants; however, which likely means that more will appear in the future.
A Mediocre Start
Considering that all of these cards are from the Spider-Man Welcome decks, it’s not surprising that they aren’t the most exciting cards we’ve ever seen. Unstable Experiment was a relatively nice surprise, however, and is likely one of the best commons in the main set, but the rest of these cards weren’t anything to write home about.
The more exciting Spider-Man previews are likely still to come. These spoilers have all occurred before the official announcement for the set, after all, which means we likely still have some very exciting cards coming.