To celebrate its ongoing partnership with MTG, Marvel is releasing a range of variant comic book covers this June. As we’ve seen already, through official reveals and leaks, some of these covers will take the form of cards from the upcoming Marvel Super Heroes set. Today, another variant cover has been revealed, featuring Iron Man, Bleeding Edge from the MTG Marvel Super Heroes Commander decks. Though not as flashy as the hero’s Secret Lair variant, this is still a very promising new blue legend for Commander.
Iron Man, Bleeding Edge MTG
As you’d expect from eternal tinkerer Tony Stark, this new Iron Man card is all about artifacts. Copying the first artifact you cast each turn is a pretty powerful ability, letting you double down on mana rocks and cantrips in the early game. Later on, you can create copies of more serious threats, such as Simulacrum Synthesizer and Portal to Phyrexia, to really swing a game in your favor.
What’s really interesting about this ability is that it also works with legendary artifacts. Typically, you can’t duplicate powerhouses like The One Ring or The Great Henge, but Iron Man lets you do so with no problem. You can then copy the nonlegendary version with cards like Mirrormade or Sculpting Steel, to stack up a huge advantage in a short space of time.
While Iron Man’s ability does come with a pesky ‘once each turn’ clause, you can get around that somewhat by casting artifacts on opponents’ turns. Flash granters, like High Fae Trickster and Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter, let you cast and copy multiple artifacts per turn cycle. Paired with Unwinding Clock and an ample supply of mana rocks, this can let Iron Man play a unique kind of ‘Artifact Control’ game.
Iron Man, Bleeding Edge is undoubtedly a powerful new MTG card, and a nice Commander option for blue artifact players. If this is the caliber of card we can expect from the Marvel Super Heroes Commander precons, then June 26th really can’t come soon enough.
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