Whether you love or hate Universes Beyond, it’s always exciting seeing new Magic: The Gathering cards. Arguably, this is doubly true for Universes Beyond, as we get to see how Wizards reimagined iconic characters. Usually, Wizards nails this flavorful transformation, as cards like Peter Parker // Amazing Spider-Man demonstrate.
Unsurprisingly, the newly revealed J. Jonah Jameson card is yet another fantastic flavor win. Turning creatures with Menace into Treasure-making machines, this MTG card feels especially poignant. As an actual MTG card, however, J. Jonah Jameson leaves a little bit to be desired.
J. Jonah Jameson
To be specific, J. Jonah Jameson makes your creatures with Menace create a Treasure Token when they attack. In red, which is the primary color for Menace, this is a pretty swell ability. No matter which format you’re playing, Treasure Tokens are always great to have, and this is especially true in Commander.
Speaking of Commander, this is where we expect J. Jonah Jameson to see the most play. Not only is the format often very mana hungry, but attacking is a lot safer when you’ve got three opponents to pick between. Unfortunately, attacking isn’t actually the hard part here, as Menace is surprisingly unpopular in the format.
While there are almost 350 cards in MTG with the Menace keyword, there’s no dedicated Menace Typal archetype. Instead, Menace is often just found on cards to give them a competitive edge and advantage when attacking. Sadly, while it could be fun, it’s unlikely that J. Jonah Jameson is going to conjure such a deck into existence.
That said, J. Jonah Jameson isn’t without some compelling synergy. Alongside Professional Face-Breaker, you can essentially double up on Treasures while also turning them into impulse draw. As if this wasn’t good enough, J. Jonah Jameson also offers a bit of extra support thanks to their first ability.
When J. Jonah Jameson enters, you can Suspect another creature. This means it’ll gain Menace and lose the ability to block. Potentially, this enters effect could prove rather useful, by taking an annoying blocker off the field for a game-ending swing. The more likely scenario, however, is that you’ll Suspect one of your own creatures to get the Treasure train rolling.
Fun Flavor, Bad Card
While J. Jonah Jameson definitely isn’t going to be leading any MTG decks in Commander, he could fit in the 99. If a deck does have a decent amount of creatures with Menace, then he’s potentially a useful value engine. Since a dedicated archetype doesn’t exist, however, he’s definitely not going to be a staple.
The same is true in competitive formats, where it’s even more unlikely he sees play. Currently, very few creatures in the Standard metagame have Menace, and fewer still could dream of competing with Vivi Ornitier. Even with the Suspect ability creating a potential token-generator J. Jonah Jameson seems very awkward to use.
If we’re really really optimistic, there’s a chance J. Jonah Jameson could see play in a Gruul Midrange Standard deck. Empowering a big creature with Menace and getting Treasures at the same time is an enticing prospect. As fun as this sounds, Gruul decks have better options at the moment, so I wouldn’t hold out hope for this strategy.
Thankfully, even if J. Jonah Jameson is a bit bad as an MTG card, he’s undeniably got great flavor. As MTG players quickly pointed out on Reddit, J. Jonah Jameson is the perfect unscrupulous journalist. Of course, calling Spider-Man a menace is just very on brand for J. Jonah Jameson, too.
“Notice how he never investigates, just profits off of accusing someone of being a menace.”
Chaddiction
A Pricy Promo?
Even if J. Jonah Jameson never sees much play anywhere, this MTG card does have one trick up its sleeve. When revealing this card via email, Wizards confirmed this promo would be available to attendees at MagicCon: Atlanta. Even if this promo is given out to literally everyone in attendance, this still means the promo will be somewhat exclusive.
On top of being physically somewhat scarce, J. Jonah Jameson is available early, which is always extra enticing. There’s no doubt that some players are bound to try and flip this card as soon as they’re home. Potentially, initial sales could be seriously expensive; however, we doubt any high prices would last long.
As mentioned, J. Jonah Jameson is simply not a good MTG card, and this promo isn’t that special. While we don’t know for sure, there’s a good chance this promo is just a main-set card with new art. Since this card has such a generic name, we’d be very surprised if that wasn’t the case.
Technically, until we do see a main set J. Jonah Jameson, this is an exclusive card, and could be coveted as such. Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, as MagicCon: Atlanta isn’t far away. The convention itself begins on August 29th; however, Marvel’s Spider-Man spoilers will begin a day earlier, on the 28th.
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