With a staggering 128 legendary creatures in the set, Marvel Super Heroes is the most legend-packed expansion Magic has ever seen. This means it’s also its most Commander-packed expansion, bringing a ton of new candidates for the leadership position in your next deck. Picking between these icons is a tricky business, so to help you out we’ve whittled them down to the best new MTG Commanders in Marvel Super Heroes.
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that we’ll only be considering legends from the main Marvel Super Heroes set here. While the Commander and Jumpstart products certainly have their own share of powerful Commanders, like Doctor Doom, Unrivaled, we won’t be including them on this list.
Honorable Mention | Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
At just a single white mana, Nick Fury is the cheapest five-color Commander we’ve ever seen. This makes it a pretty terrifying prospect in cEDH, where efficiency and color identity are king. Fury can come down on turn one and immediately turn on all sorts of effects, from Fierce Guardianship to Mox Amber. With access to all five colors, you can run all of the best tutors and win conditions in the format, too, to capitalize on this early tempo.
Despite this potential, Nick Fury is relegated to an honorable mention here because it’s very unexciting outside of cEDH. Its Power-up ability, while flashy, does very little outside of dedicated Hero Typal decks.
5 | Thanos, The Mad Titan
Speaking of strong five-color Commanders, Thanos, the Mad Titan gives us another excellent option in this arena. Getting a board wipe stapled to your Commander, even a situational one like this, is a massive deal. This lets Thanos control the pace of play, buying you time to build up to any kind of win condition you choose.
While it seems limited at first, there are plenty of ways you can push Thanos’s Power-up ability further. Since you don’t choose odd or even until the ability resolves, copying it with Illusionist’s Bracers will let you pick both for a full clear. You can also blink Thanos with cards like Teleportation Circle to re-use it repeatedly, and use it alongside protection spells like Heroic Intervention to keep your own board safe.
Though Thanos doesn’t offer any additional build-around utility beyond this, with how effective board wipes are in Commander, it doesn’t really need to. If you’re looking to build any kind of slower five-color deck, Thanos is undeniably one of the best new MTG Commanders from Marvel Super Heroes.
4 | Baron Helmut Zemo
Mono-colored Commanders tend to have a tough time competing thanks to their limited options, but Baron Helmut Zemo offers enough utility to buck that trend. Adding Connive to the bulk of your spells lets Zemo fill your graveyard fast, fueling their second ability nicely.
Stacking up 15 total black mana pips in your graveyard can be tricky, but self-mill like Stitcher’s Supplier and Overlord of the Balemurk can accelerate that. Heck, you can even bring in Buried Alive to set it up immediately. Happily, these cards also support a general Reanimator plan nicely, which gives you something to pursue when Zemo is offline.
If you want to get spicier, Zemo also opens up some nice combo lines as well. You can exile a packed graveyard with one Boast trigger for a Syr Konrad, the Grim kill, for instance. Alternatively, you can re-cast any established Mono-Black combo, like Chain of Smog/Professor Onyx, right from your graveyard with Zemo’s ability. However you use it, Baron Zemo is one of the best Commanders Mono-Black has seen in some time.
3 | Ultron, Artificial Malevolence
While there isn’t tons of competition in the category, Ultron, Artificial Malevolence is one of the best colorless Commanders out there. Colorless decks are naturally heavy on artifacts anyway, and Ultron lets you double down on any of them if you have the spare mana.
Copying rocks like Sol Ring in the early game will let you ramp before you copy serious threats like Wurmcoil Engine later on. Since the tokens are creatures, you can go wild with Myriad granters like Blade of Selves and Cyberman Squadron for a ton of extra copies, too. This works particularly well with the various powerhouse artifact finishers we’ve seen recently, like Portal to Phyrexia.
You can play a fair midrange game with Ultron quite easily this way, but there’s infinite combo potential here, too. For example, you can loop Myr Retriever with Krark-Clan Ironworks for an easy Altar of the Brood win. While being locked to colorless is still rough, Ultron’s ability is flexible enough to give you a ton of options.
2 | Super-Skrull
Super-Skrull feels like a new take on Kenrith, the Returned King, offering a suite of varied abilities to support a range of five-color playstyles. While they’re all fairly expensive, these abilities let you build a board, buff your Commander, remove problem creatures, and draw cards as you need. With activated ability discounters like Training Grounds and Biomancer’s Familiar, you can do each for as little as one mana, too.
Super-Skrull’s abilities are general enough to support pretty much any kind of game plan, but it’s particularly good as a Wall Typal Commander. Access to all five colors is unprecedented for the type, and having access to unlimited Walls on tap is huge. While Commanders like Arcades, the Strategist offer more direct Wall synergy, you can always just run them in Super-Skrull and tutor them up.
Alternatively, you can lean into Super-Skrull’s infinite combo potential for some speedy wins. Alongside Mana Echoes and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, for example, it can make you infinite Wall tokens and colorless mana. You can do the same with Axebane Guardian and Intruder Alarm, allowing for dedicated Combo brews if you’re so inclined. However you build it, Super-Skrull is a powerful, flexible new five-color legend.
1 | The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl is an incredibly exciting new Mono-Green Commander, essentially serving as a Krenko, Mob Boss but for Squirrels instead of Goblins. Krenko is one of the most-played Commanders of all time for good reason, and this new take is arguably even more busted.
Creating tokens on entry and attack is a great start for Squirrel Girl, since it lets her set up her activated ability herself if necessary. Alternatively, Squirrel Typal cards like Deranged Hermit will get you there instead. Once you’ve got a decent Squirrel army going, her activated ability becomes a repeatable ‘double your creatures’ button, which can go even harder with cards like Parallel Lives.
This is plenty strong as a straightforward Aggro plan, but Squirrel Girl also packs a dazzling array of infinite combos, too. With enough Squirrels in play, either Earthcraft or Cryptolith Rite/Concordant Crossroads can let you make infinite Squirrels in one turn. You can then overwhelm your opponents with attacks from cute critters, or use Altar of Dementia or Altar of the Brood to mill them out.
Though it seems simple on the surface, Squirrel Girl is very, very effective. Not only is it the best new Commander from Marvel Super Heroes, but it’s also one of the best Mono-Green Commanders MTG has seen in a while.
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