For the most part, the Marvel Super Heroes set seems just okay. While there are a few compelling commanders and some constructed gems, too, the set might not be too metabreaking. While this may be disappointing for some, the Marvel Super Heroes set does look like a ton of fun.
Not only will it be enjoyable to play with iconic Marvel characters in MTG, but they can cause some serious shenanigans, too. Not only is there a new combo in Pauper that could be potentially ban-worthy, but there are new Standard combos, too. While one of these can create infinite mana on turn three, you can also create infinite squirrels, albeit somewhat slower.
New Infinite Squirrel Combo in Standard
Not only is The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl one of the best Commanders in Marvel Super Heroes, but she’s potentially competitive, too. While it’s no secret that she has huge combo potential thanks to cards like Cryptolith Rite, a similar effect exists in Standard. Alongside Enduring Vitality, it’s entirely possible to double your board every turn.
As powerful as this could be, however, a Haste enabler, like the new Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu pushes this into overdrive. When new squirrels can instantly tap to create mana, you can easily spiral into infinite Squirrel Girl activations. Since this nets you infinite mana and token creatures, you only need to drop Enduring Courage and swing to win.
While creating infinite squirrels with just three cards does sound rather exciting, admittedly, it is rather slow. Even if you add in Llanowar Elves to speed things up, the fastest you can get going is turn four. There, thanks to Shang-Chi’s ability, you can pay for Squirrel Girl’s ability by also tapping Elves and Enduring Vitality.
With Squirrel Girl and the token she creates untapped, alongside the two new ones, you can now pay for a new activation. Since this will create six Squirrel Tokens, you can then go infinite with ease. Saying that, needing four cards is a bit of a stretch, even with Formidable Speaker providing redundancy.
Even with perfect draws, however, a turn four win isn’t even fast in Standard nowadays. On top of this, while building this combo, you’re incredibly vulnerable to removal, especially if your opponent knows it’s coming.
Doubtful but Delightful
As much as this deck’s optimistic brewer, Blammazoids, has included some removal and a sideboard, this deck is rather dubious. Dedicating almost your entire game plan to a combo is a very all-or-nothing approach that could easily leave you stranded. Considering how efficient Standard decks are nowadays, it really feels like this deck will struggle.
That being said, it’s still incredibly early days right now, as Marvel Super Heroes isn’t even out yet. Not only is its true power unknown because of that, but players haven’t really been able to toy around with this combo. Potentially, a version of it could exist in a different shell or with different support pieces.
Ultimately, as always, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens when Marvel Super Heroes is released. On paper, this happens as Prerelease events go live on June 19th, with the MTG Arena launch following on June 23rd. Given the wonderfully janky combos that have been created so far, these dates should be seriously exciting for MTG players.
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