After seeing it out in the wild for nearly two weeks now, it’s safe to say that Spider Man hasn’t been the most impactful Magic: The Gathering set in recent memory. Some cards are seeing scattered play here and there, but overall it’s a low point playability-wise. That said, things may start to turn around soon. In recent events, for example, Spider-Punk has put in a surprising amount of work in a number of MTG formats.
This was a card that had a lot of players hyped from the get-go, but mainly for Commander. In practice, it turns out its unique suite of abilities actually has applications far beyond that. Whether you play Standard, Modern, or even Legacy, you could easily run into Spider-Punk at your next event. That’s an impressive feat for any rare, especially one from a low-power set like Spider Man.
Spider-Punk MTG
If you tuned into spoilers for MTG Spider Man at all, chances are you remember Spider-Punk. This is another entry in the ‘obvious power creep’ category, packing four relevant abilities on a single two-mana creature. Much like Frenzied Baloth, it’s a card that would absolutely blow some minds if you showed it to a Magic player from a decade ago.
The big draw here is that third ability. Preventing all spells and abilities from being countered is a pretty massive deal. Spider-Punk is the first card to feature such an ability. Most players’ first thought with it was high-level Commander play, and with good reason. Cards that deny opposing interaction, like Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory, are staples of the cEDH format. Spider-Punk is essentially a red version of this effect, and therefore quite exciting in its own right. If your deck is trying to win through a combo, dropping Spider-Punk first can stop your opponents from interrupting you.
Of course, the downside of the card in Commander is that it prevents anyone from countering anything. Even if you personally don’t run countermagic, and therefore don’t lose much from including it, you can easily open up the doors for another player to win by dropping it, since it drops everyone’s shields at once. This isn’t really an issue in one-on-one formats, however.
Spider-Punk’s other abilities are less radical, but still pretty interesting. Turning off all forms of damage prevention, combat and noncombat, can come in clutch in certain matchups. The One Ring is probably the most prolific card this hoses, but there are other examples too, like Nine Lives in Pioneer. ‘Other Spiders you control have Riot’ might as well be flavor text, but the card’s own Riot ability is very relevant. It takes Spider-Punk from an understatted tech card to a reasonable beater with a ton of upside.
Brewing Up A Storm
Spider-Punk certainly looked like a great Commander card during previews, but it’s actually seeing play far beyond that. According to MTG Decks data, it’s actually the third most played card in Spider Man. Only Multiversal Passage and Spectacular Spider-Man are beating it right now, and the former isn’t surprising in the least.
Spider-Punk’s most impressive achievement to date is undoubtedly its performance in Legacy. The card has actually shown up in the mainboard of several Storm decks, including TonyScapone’s The Epic Gamble list from today’s League. This inclusion makes a ton of sense. Storm is a Combo deck that relies on making a lot of consecutive plays to win, leaning heavily on ritual and wheel effects. Because of this, countering just one of its plays is often enough to ruin its combo turn.
With Spider-Punk, your opponent either needs two counterspells or removal and a counterspell to stop you from popping off. This makes you much more resilient against the likes of Dimir Reanimator and Izzet Delver. Additionally, the damage prevention helps out against the many decks in the format that run The One Ring, like Red Stompy and Mystic Forge Combo. Since Spider-Punk is on-color for the deck anyway, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to include a few copies as TonyScapone has done here.
On top of its use in Legacy, plenty of Duel Commander decks have adopted Spider-Punk as well. Looking at recent tournament results, pretty much every red deck that can run the card is running it. There’s no real archetypal through-line here, either. Everything from Deadpool, Trading Card to Slimefoot and Squee is trying it out, almost certainly because of the counter protection. The ‘letting other players win’ problem doesn’t exist in Duel Commander, so Spider-Punk is pure upside for non-blue decks.
A New Sideboard Superstar
The above is quite impressive already, but it’s only half the story when it comes to Spider-Punk. As good as it is in the main deck of certain archetypes, it’s an even better sideboard card. This is evident in the wide range of decks that are playing the card in their 15 right now.
In Standard, we’re seeing Spider-Punk in a number of places. Mono-Red Aggro, Izzet Cauldron, and even 4-Color Reanimator decks are all trying it out in the ‘board. Standard isn’t super-heavy on countermagic right now, hence the lack of mainboard copies. Azorius and Jeskai Control are still decks that exist, however, and Spider-Punk is fantastic against both of them.
It’s a similar story in Modern. Both Mono-Red Belcher and Eldrazi Ramp are testing copies of the card in the sideboard, to hedge against blue decks like Esper Goryo’s Vengeance. Belcher is a fairly obvious fit since it’s a Combo deck, but Eldrazi Ramp is more interesting. Like Mono-Red Aggro in Standard, the card is mainly here to ensure your threats come down on curve, so you can get under sweepers and the like.
In Legacy, combo decks like Ad Nauseum Tendrils have started sideboarding Spider-Punk. Even in one of Magic’s oldest formats, the advantage this card provides in interactive matchups is huge. As a sideboard piece, it’s really hard to fault the card. I expect we’ll see more of Spider-Punk as testing continues in the weeks to come, possibly in main decks as well, once people get a feel for how game-changing it can be.
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