While the contents of Marvel Super Heroes is mostly inoffensive, there are a few powerful cards that players have quickly noticed. Impacting Eternal formats like Pauper, Legacy, and Vintage, Marvel Super Heroes has shown early signs of format upheaval. While this creates cause for worry, there is a silver lining thanks to a very timely solution.
Scheduled for June 29th after a last-second change, Magic’s next big announcement is now only a few days away. That said, because this ban is occurring only a week after Marvel Super Heroes was made legal, players may be given more time to adapt to any new problematic cards. Given how strong these outliers look, however, immediate bans may be the only option.
MTG Pauper
Of all the MTG formats affected by Marvel Super Heroes, Pauper is the most likely to see a ban this coming Monday. A new combo utilizing Hawkeye’s Bow has taken over the format, dealing infinite damage when equipped to Seeker of Skybreak. This new combo has won every major Pauper event over the past week, raising concerns for the Pauper Format Panel.
Due to this, the MTG Pauper Format Panel has been asking for feedback on the Hawkeye’s Bow combo, making it clear that banning it is under discussion. While many players have clearly identified the combo as a power outlier, the Pauper format has not had an opportunity to adapt to it either. In theory, this combo could be totally fine if players are given enough time to adjust.
That said, while some Pauper players want the combo to stick around, it truly does seem like the combo is too much for Pauper. A similar combo using Basking Broodscale recently led to the ban of Sadistic Glee, and this combo is debatably even stronger. While the previous combo needed to attack to win, this combo just requires Seeker of Skybreak to shrug off Summoning Sickness.
Thanks to this, the combo’s ban doesn’t seem like a matter of if, but of when. With massive Pauper tournaments, including Paupergeddon and Paupergenesis, threatening to be ruined by this combo, it makes the most sense to get rid of something now.
Between the two offending cards, banning Seeker of Skybreak makes the most sense. Thanks to its ability to untap itself, Seeker of Skybreak has always been an infinite enabler without a payoff. With MTG designer Gavin Verhey specifically stating that there are no plans to make any more cards like this, banning it now to prevent future problems makes sense.
MTG Vintage
Among all of Marvel Super Heroes’ new cards, The Fantasticar was, by far, considered the best constructed MTG card in the set. Offering 16 Flying Haste Power as early as turn one, it’s easy to see why this card could become an issue in Vintage.
With tons of ways to power it out quickly, The Fantasticar already has proven problematic. Finishing in seven of the top eight decks in a recent Vintage Challenge and putting up multiple league wins, The Fantasticar offers a particularly ridiculous buff to Colorless Shops decks.
With such an absurd number of results so quickly, The Fantasticar’s Restriction in Vintage almost seems predetermined. While Wizards could choose to wait for potential metagame adaptation, it’s almost certain that the card will be addressed at some point. Thanks to this, The Fantasticar has a strong chance of being Restricted this coming Monday.
MTG Legacy
On top of absolutely dominating Vintage, The Fantasticar is also showing very strong Legacy results. Winning a recent Challenge and offering some 5-0 League results, The Fantasticar will certainly be a part of the Legacy metagame moving forward.
Unlike Vintage, however, The Fantasticar doesn’t seem to be absolutely dominating the format yet. The card is commonly appearing in Storm, Doomsday, and artifact lists right now, but has not yet ironed out a consistent home. This could mean that The Fantasticar won’t be banned in Legacy right away, but that is unlikely to last.
Even if it happens a lot less consistently in the opening turns, beating 16 Trample Haste Power is extremely difficult for fair decks in Legacy. This gives The Fantasticar the potential to turn Legacy into a combo hellscape over time, restricting the metagame in an unhealthy way. Thanks to this, we wouldn’t be surprised if The Fantasticar gets banned this coming Monday in Legacy.
MTG Standard
While banning action is almost guaranteed elsewhere, Standard is the wild card going into this MTG ban announcement. Despite some speed problems, Standard is in a relatively balanced state now, making action seem unlikely. That said, if Wizards of the Coast wants to fix the speed problem, this might be the ban announcement to do it.
Lining up with the massive eight-card rotation ban that occurred last year, banning a large portion of Standard cards in this window makes sense. With all of the format’s major tournaments concluded for some time, any change to the format now wouldn’t impact competitive preparation.
That said, considering how deep the speed problem goes, a subset of bannings might not be enough to fix the issue. If that weren’t enough, a fair few slower decks, like Jeskai Lessons and Four-Color Control have also become more popular in the format. Add on that Standard Rotation has been moved to the first set of 2027, and there are a lot of reasons for nothing to happen.
Thanks to this, it seems most likely that no changes will be announced for MTG Standard this coming Monday. While it may not be for everyone, Standard’s balance is difficult to refute.
MTG Historic
While there were some concerns about MTG Historic after a massive influx of cards from Secrets of Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive, the format naturally adapted to everything. Despite tons of explosive combo potential entering Historic, existing anti-combo decks like Azorius High Noon worked to balance things out.
Marvel Super Heroes also has some powerful cards coming to Historic; they also don’t look too problematic. Thanks to existing bans, most of Doomsday‘s best cards, like Dark Ritual and Thassa’s Oracle, have already left Historic. While the archetype could be competitively viable, there’s no sign of it being a power outlier. Thanks to this, we would be surprised if MTG Historic saw any bans this coming Monday.
MTG Modern
Of all MTG’s formats, Modern has the smallest chance of being affected this coming Monday. A few new cards have seen some play, but show absolutely no signs of being problematic from a power level perspective. Loki, God of Mischief, for example, has seen a fair amount of league success, but has not done anything major in Modern Challenges.
If a lack of breakout cards weren’t enough, there’s also a massive Modern tournament on the horizon. Occurring on July 17th-19th, the next MTG Pro Tour in Amsterdam is a Modern event. Thanks to this, banning cards now would mess up the testing of multiple competitive teams. Throw in Modern’s massive shake-up last month, and changes for this format seem extremely unlikely.
MTG Pioneer
After the shocking ban of Cori-Steel Cutter in Pioneer back in May, the format seems pretty stable. With all kinds of different archetypes constantly seeing success, Pioneer feels like a brewer’s paradise right now. Without a visible outlier, changes to Pioneer seem incredibly unlikely, but not impossible.
As the May 18th ban announcements proved, it is truly impossible to predict the future in MTG. Despite a rather mundane ‘no changes’ announcement seeming rather likely, multiple formats saw bannings. With such a short turnaround time, this Monday’s ban announcement could end up doing the opposite, citing no changes despite many potential issues. For now, all we can do is wait and see.
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