As Magic: The Gathering sets go, Spider Man has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start. Last weekend’s Prerelease was a lowlight for many, with low attendance numbers and high prices souring the occasion. Thankfully, now that the cards are out in the wild, things seem to be on the up. In Pauper, in particular, many Spider Man commons are already seeing serious play.
This set’s quality in the common slot was evident during spoiler season. The true test always comes with the first rounds of Leagues and Challenges, however. In that respect, Spider Man is putting on a great performance so far. Several commons have shown up in good numbers, in a range of popular Pauper decks. If these cards stick around, Spider Man could well redeem itself on Pauper impact alone.
Masked Meower In Madness Burn
Masked Meower was one of the clear standout Pauper commons from Spider Man during preview season. Now that the set is out, it’s already putting in work in Madness Burn, one of the format’s very best decks. In yesterday’s MTGO Pauper League, GilbertoAntunes took a list running a full playset of the card to a 5-0 finish.
The advantages this card offers to Madness Burn are numerous. Simply being a Hasty 1/1 attacker early in the game is great for such an aggressive deck, for a start. On top of that, it offers easy instant-speed rummaging, which can enable all sorts of synergies. You can pitch Fiery Temper to this on either player’s turn to unlock extra copies of Lightning Bolt, or you can pitch Sneaky Snacker to reanimate it later. Because the discard is part of the cost here, it happens before the draw. This means you can even bring it back at instant speed, which can be huge against decks like Mono-Blue Terror to get in the way of Delvers.
The card is a great addition, then, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch. To make room for it, GilbertoAntunes has made a few notable cuts, coming down on other threats like Guttersnipe and heavier burn spells like Fireblast and Fiery Temper. While these cuts are controversial, since these cards have long been staples of the archetype, I think they make a lot of sense. Meower is effectively a burn spell in itself thanks to Haste, and it furthers your discard plan to boot. Slimming down the deck’s curve to include it is a nice way of keeping up with the rapid pace of current Pauper.
Skyward Spider In Mono-White Heroic
While Masked Meower was a fairly obvious hit, most of the other new Spider Man commons generated far less buzz for Pauper. Skyward Spider was one of these cards, but despite this, it’s already landed a League 5-0 as well. In the same League as GilbertoAntunes above, the card put in a stellar performance in a Mono-White Heroic list from Wolf777.
While it lacks the built-in scaling of the usual creatures in this deck, Skyward Spider still has a lot to offer. Ward 2 is pretty much Hexproof in the early game, so it’s very likely to stick around if you drop it on turn two. From there, you can suit it up with any given Aura, and it’ll gain Flying, making it hard for many decks to stop. The usual Heroic tools are excellent here, like Ethereal Armor and Hyena Umbra. Since Skyward Spider is a hybrid Azorius card, it can also make great use of Steel of the Godhead.
This is a fairly spicy inclusion from Wolf777, and one you really don’t see in the usual builds of this deck. Curving Skyward Spider into this gets you a 4/4 Unblockable Lifelinker with Ward 2 on turn three, which is tough for a lot of Pauper decks to stop. Things only get scarier from there as you stack up more Auras, too.
This new version of the deck sacrifices a few of the usual Heroic creatures, like Akroan Skyguard and Armored Armadillo. While the Skyward Spider/Godhead package is less explosive than these cards, it’s much more resilient. I could easily see Skyward Spider becoming a new staple in the deck for this reason, though Godhead may prove too clunky in the long run.
Spider-Man, Web-Slinger In Mono-White Aggro
From one Mono-White deck to another, let’s dive into something a bit more aggressive. While it has a slightly larger meta share than Heroic, Mono-White Aggro is still a niche deck in Pauper. It’s also one of the oldest lists in the format, still running classics like Kor Skyfisher and Prismatic Strands to this day. Into this well-established deck, Spider-Man, Web-Slinger fits like a tailored super-suit.
Mitsuyasa Takehiro took a list running a pair of this new legend to a 3-0 finish in a Hareruya in-store tournament last Saturday. As long as you can attack with a creature, this new Spider-Man is the most efficient self-bounce creature in Pauper. Getting to bounce one of your value creatures and nab a 3/3 body for a single white is fantastic. This is great with early creatures like Thraben Inspector, as well as bigger threats like Choco/Mog. Getting two +1/+0 buffs on a board of Battle Screech tokens is often enough to close out a game.
The ability to present a hugely undercosted threat while also generating grindy value is a strong combination. The main downsides of this card are its legendary status, which can cause problems for Aggro curves, and its clunky full-price cost. This explains why Takehiro only opted for two copies in their list, but this could also just be a conservative figure for early testing. As more players try the card in Challenges and Leagues, I think they’ll ultimately settle on three copies instead. Spider-Man, Web-Slinger is an ideal card for the deck, and one with plenty of room to grow as Pauper adjusts to the new set.
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