After players have had plenty of time to figure it out, Marvel Super Heroes Limited is shaping up to be a much worse format than expected. Bizarrely, current results for the set are comparable to those of terrible sets like Spider-Man. On top of some extremely poor color imbalance, Marvel Super Heroes has some of the most egregious unbeatable bombs we’ve ever seen.
Good Luck Beating These
It’s not uncommon for a Limited set to have one unassailable bomb in the format, but the sheer number of bombs in Marvel Super Heroes is ridiculous. According to 17Lands, there were only four cards in Secrets of Strixhaven Limited that had over a 63% win rate, while Marvel Super Heroes has 17. The most powerful cards in the format even eclipse a 70% win rate, something rarely ever seen.
Of all the cards in Marvel Super Heroes, The Super Hero Civil War is the most powerful, boasting a ridiculous 70.2% win rate. Stealing two creatures, buffing your board, and acting as removal, this card wins any game where the caster isn’t extremely behind. Captain Marvel, Earth’s Protector is just as powerful, offering an Indestructible Lifelink Flier at a 70.1% win rate.
While these are the strongest cards in Marvel Super Heroes, there are plenty of other bombs that are stronger than every card in other MTG sets. Doctor Doom, for example, offers an indestructible Phyrexian Arena on a stick, while Leader, Super-Genius can easily run away with card draw. Even an uncommon, Justice, Vance Astrovik, has a higher win rate than all but one of Secrets of Strixhaven’s cards.
With so many bombs available, Marvel Super Heroes’ gameplay revolves extremely heavily around them. This is particularly problematic in Sealed, where the decks both have more rares in them and a weaker synergistic game plan. Without your commons and uncommons working together, you’ll often be stopped in your tracks by one card. Sadly, however, Marvel Super Heroes’ problems don’t just end with bombs.
Major Color Imbalance
While there are tons of overpowered bomb rares in Marvel Super Heroes, their ridiculous win rates aren’t just based on their power level. The color imbalance is so bad that it’s comparable to MTG Spider-Man, one of the most imbalanced MTG sets ever.
This is easily observable in the win rates of commons across colors. Five white commons, for example, have a higher win rate than all of red’s commons, uncommons, and rares. While black isn’t nearly as bad, 13 white and 12 blue commons are above a 59.5% win rate compared to black’s four, showing a massive discrepancy.
Comparisons like this quickly reveal that white and blue are, by far, the best colors in Marvel Super Heroes. Green is perfectly medium, while black is poor and red is almost unplayable outside of some bomb mythics. While the color may support one drafter at a table, if two end up in red, they’re both in for a bad time.
Thanks to this, MTG Marvel Super Heroes is offering a much worse Limited experience than many players would have expected. Considering how there are multiple major tournaments this month focusing on the format, this is extremely disappointing.
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