After a week of Commander spoilers, Wizards revealed the final Marvel Super Heroes precon, Wakanda Forever, earlier today. While it lacks the obvious powerhouses of Doom Prevails!, this deck still has plenty to offer for Selesnya fans. Alongside some solid new staples for different MTG archetypes, Wakanda Forever also includes a tasty combo enabler that can go infinite with ease.
Panther Habit
As protective Equipment in Magic goes, Panther Habit is up there with the best. Converting damage into +1/+1 counters, Panther Habit both protects and grows its wearer. This is particularly effective with creatures that benefit from having counters placed on them, like Fathom Mage and Emperor of Bones.
You’ll naturally amass counters on your creature with Panther Habit just by attacking or blocking, but you can accelerate that process with big damage sources like Blasphemous Act. For a serious blowout, you can have Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought to blast the equipped creature to over 100/100 in stats, then swing in. On the other end of the spectrum, it pairs beautifully with Pestilence and Pyrohemia, keeping the board clear while growing a big threat.
If you want to take it even further, Panther Habit also enables an instant win combo with Hardened Scales and Walking Ballista. Equip Ballista with Habit, then have it ping itself for one with its own ability. This will place two counters on Ballista, letting you rinse and repeat for infinite counters and infinite damage. For a more defensive combo option, you can kit a creature out with Pariah’s Shield and Habit to make yourself effectively immune to damage.
As powerful as Panther Habit is, its initial casting cost is fairly steep, so it’ll shine brightest in Equipment decks where you can cheat it out with Stoneforge Mystic. Artifact decks, with mana cheating tools like Goblin Welder, should also be able to find a place for it.
Wakanda Forever!
While it’s definitely become more common in recent years, it’s still rare to find a card that can grant any permanent Indestructible. Wakanda Forever! does just that, provided the permanent in question is within the top six cards of your deck.
Though this sounds restrictive, you can easily set it up using cards like Scroll Rack and Sylvan Library. At higher brackets, topdeck tutors like Vampiric Tutor and Worldly Tutor can do the trick, or you can sink a ton of life into Lim-Dul’s Vault. In graveyard-based decks, you can also use cards like Haunted Crossroads and Academy Ruins to fish your best fallen permanents out for a second run.
In terms of which permanents you’ll want to pick to receive Wakanda’s blessing, the sky really is the limit. You can go defensive and choose something like Guardian of the Gateless to ward off all damage, or secure a huge value creature like Archon of Cruelty. Alternatively, you can move beyond creatures and make engines like Rhystic Study, or even combo pieces like Pitiless Plunderer, Indestructible, too.
T’Chaka, Venerable King
As far as new MTG staple cards for the 99 from Wakanda Forever go, T’Chaka, Venerable King might be the most widely applicable of them. It’s essentially a better Satyr Wayfinder, letting you grab lands and artifacts. Being attached to a cheap legendary creature gives T’Chaka extra synergy with cards like Mox Amber and Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, too.
T’Chaka really shines in artifact or graveyard decks, however, where you can lean harder into its enters trigger. It can help fuel your graveyard in Karador, Ghost Chieftain, for instance, or nab you mana or Equipment as needed in Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER. Wherever you play T’Chaka, it’s especially good with blink effects like Teleportation Circle for extra ‘draw’ each turn.
To top it all off, T’Chaka’s Monarch ability is also universally useful, giving you at least one free draw and adding a disruptive political element to the game. It also lets you tap into Monarch-specific synergy pieces like Regal Behemoth and Court of Grace, if you want to commit to the royal theme.
More To Explore
Those are the highlights from Wakanda Forever, but this MTG deck still has plenty of subtler gems to offer, too. Bast, Panther Goddess is a great new Tokens card, for example, both as a Commander and in the 99. Converting your board size into damage is a great way to land surprise wins with Infect creatures like Glistener Elf, or even just your Commander. It also makes a nice alternative win condition for infinite token combos, such as Midnight Guard/Presence of Gond.
On the removal front, Wakanda Forever packs a couple of great four-mana options in Hatut Zeraze Strike Force and King Solomon’s Frogs. Strike Force feels like the next Druid of Purification, offering rapidly-scaling artifact and enchantment removal. It’s particularly good with cheap Commanders like Rhys the Redeemed, and it can even make infinite bodies in Dargo/Tymna as an additional payoff.
King Solomon’s Frogs is even more interesting, representing an instant-speed answer to the majority of Commander problems. While it can’t hit really cheap stuff, it takes out most Commanders, as well as key engines like The One Ring and Phyrexian Altar. Since opponents don’t get their exiled cards back when it leaves, bouncing it with cards like Fear of Isolation is a great way to get extra value here.
All in all, while it’s not the most exciting of the Marvel Super Heroes precons, Wakanda Forever still packs plenty of interesting new tools.
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