The five Marvel Secret Lairs introduced new mechanically unique Commanders representing characters from the Marvel universe. Anyone wanting to build a Commander deck around Captain America can finally do so. Considering how popular Marvel Superheroes are, there are likely lots of MTG players that want to give these characters a try.
Captain America, First Avenger offers one of the most unique themes among the Marvel superheroes. Equipping things for free, only to throw them at opposing creatures is incredibly flavorful. In fact, if you’re looking to build a Captain America deck, we have five budget recommendations for you to consider.
That said, if you’re looking at buying some of the stronger equipment that money can buy for your deck, the best potential equipment for Captain America has begun seeing a price spike that does not look to slow down any time soon. Ironically, that equipment comes from another crossover.
Excalibur, Sword of Eden
- Mana Value: 12
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Legendary Artifact – Equipment
- MTG Sets: Assassin’s Creed
- Card Text: This spell costs X less to cast, where X is the total mana value of historic permanents you control. Equipped creature gets +10/+0 and has vigilance. Equip Legendary Creature (2)
Excalibur, Sword of Eden from the Assassin’s Creed Universes Beyond set can do some absolutely stupid things alongside Captain America. As long as you have a decent amount of Historic permanents in play, Excalibur gets a decent mana value reduction. Getting this into play in a deck focused on equipment shouldn’t be too expensive since equipment are themselves Historic permanents.
Not only will Excalibur allow Captain America to hit like a truck, but his unattaching ability will deal 12 damage divided among three different targets. This should be enough to knock out any opposing threats across the table.
Captain America was only spoiled a couple days ago, so the spike to Excalibur isn’t too big yet. That said, we expect this card to continue to spike over the coming days. Since Captain America was spoiled, the market average for Excalibur rose from $10 to $17. Some sales are starting to approach $20 for the card. Looking at current sales for Excalibur, the prices are all over the place, which is generally indicative of some sellers not being aware that the card is spiking yet.
Considering how powerful this card is in a Captain America, First Avenger EDH deck, it’s unsurprising that Excalibur, Sword of Eden is spiking. Surprisingly, it’s not the only equipment from the Assassin’s Creed set spiking.
Mjolnir, Storm Hammer
- Mana Value: 4
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Legendary Artifact – Equipment
- MTG Sets: Assassin’s Creed
- Card Text: When Mjolnir enters the battlefield, attach it to target legendary creature you control. Whenever equipped creature attacks, tap target creature definding playe controls and put a stun counter on it. Then Mjolnir deals damage to each opponent equal to the number of tapped creatures that opponent controls.
Mjolnir, Storm Hammer isn’t as synergistic with Captain America as Excalibur is. It does, however, happen to look like, and even reference, a particular hammer that Captain America has the unexpected ability to wield…
As for what Mjolnir is actually capable of achieving, this equipment can attach itself to Captain America on entry, which allows the Cap’s free equip ability to grab something else. Unattaching it can help clean up some smaller threats, but what Mjolnir is really good at is clearing the way for Captain America to deal some damage to opponents. Mjolnir can tap creatures down and keep them tapped temporarily, allowing Captain America to continually force damage through while disabling blockers.
While Mjolnir may not be the most synergistic card in the world, its price spike is rather impressive. Jumping from $1 to $2.50 since the end of September, Mjolnir is climbing fast. A series of outlier sales for $10 each suggest that this particular spike could go further, but could also subject this card to market manipulation. It’s difficult to tell at this point, but the card does have some reasonable, albeit mediocre, synergies with Captain America, First Avenger.
Equipment is On the Rise
Expect a lot of equipment-related cards to spike in the near future. Captain America’s synergies are really obvious, so players will likely start picking up high-synergy cards for the deck as soon as possible. Captain America’s Secret Lair goes for sale on November 4, so anyone looking to build the deck will likely want cards to start shipping to them as soon as possible.
