Wild New MTG Marvel Darkhold Destiny Spoilers Include Busted Tutor With New Mechanic

Following on from the Star Trek spoilers we saw yesterday, New York Comic Con has delivered another fantastic treat for Magic players. As revealed in the MTG panel earlier tonight, the Marvel set for 2027 will be called Darkhold Destiny, and we got our first look at its new cards today. With a fresh take on one of the game’s most broken cards, some sweet new mechanics, and some golden oldies making a comeback, this set is shaping up to be stellar when it drops on April 9th next year.

Hela, Mistress of Darkness MTG

Hela, Mistress of Darkness introduces an all-new MTG mechanic: Vengeance. Like a twisted take on Adventure, these are spells on creatures that can only be cast when said creatures are dead and in your graveyard. In this case, you can cast a new Sorcery called Dark Tutor, which is a strictly-better Grim Tutor Grim Tutor Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. You lose 3 life. that also lets you Entomb Entomb Search your library for a card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle. the chosen card if you so wish.

Ignoring Hela herself for now, this is a pretty solid new effect for multiple formats. In Standard, it’s a nice addition to Darklight Phoenix Darklight Phoenix Flying, haste
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if two or more creatures died this turn, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. decks, as a way to dump Phoenix into the graveyard, or grab some sacrifice fodder to reanimate copies already there. With self-mill like Dark Matter Manipulator Dark Matter Manipulator When this creature enters, mill three cards.
This creature gets +2/+0 for every seven cards in your graveyard. and Overlord of the Balemurk Overlord of the Balemurk Impending 5—{1}{B} (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with five time counters and isn't a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.)
Whenever this permanent enters or attacks, mill four cards, then you may return a non-Avatar creature card or a planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand. in the mix, it shouldn’t be hard to put this right into your ‘yard to access it right away, either.

Dark Tutor is also an easy include in Commander, where Grim Tutor Grim Tutor Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. You lose 3 life. sees play in over 197,000 decks as-is. This version has lots of extra utility, letting you set up cards like Anger Anger Haste
As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control a Mountain, creatures you control have haste. , or dump big creatures into your ‘yard to reanimate them in decks like Slimefoot and Squee Slimefoot and Squee Whenever Slimefoot and Squee enters or attacks, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
{1}{B}{R}{G}, Sacrifice a Saproling: Return this card and up to one other target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery. . Heck, it can even set up infamous combos with cards like Worldgorger Dragon Worldgorger Dragon Flying, trample
When this creature enters, exile all other permanents you control.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, return the exiled cards to the battlefield under their owners' control. . You do need to build around it to an extent, with discard outlets or self-mill, but this new tutor feels strong enough to warrant it.

Unfortunately, Hela herself isn’t nearly as interesting as her accompanying spell. While that ability can be very strong alongside cards that let you pay life in bulk, such as Necrodominance Necrodominance Skip your draw step.
At the beginning of your end step, you may pay any amount of life. If you do, draw that many cards.
Your maximum hand size is five.
If a card or token would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. , six mana still feels like too much for something with no immediate impact on its own. For this reason, I expect the card to see play mainly in Commander decks that can bypass casting Hela, such as those running Birthing Pod Birthing Pod ({G/P} can be paid with either {G} or 2 life.)
{1}{G/P}, {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only as a sorcery. or Sneak Attack Sneak Attack {R}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. That creature gains haste. Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the next end step. .

The Darkhold MTG

Like its Middle-earth cousin, The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. , The Darkhold is a legendary artifact that taps to draw cards, scaling its draw as it accumulates counters, and dealing you damage in the bargain. The major difference here is that the damage is based on the cards you have in hand post-draw, which means in most cases it’ll be far worse than the damage from The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. . At minimum, you’ll be taking damage equal to the cards drawn, but if you had any other cards before that, this could be a serious beating.

For this reason, The Darkhold feels much more specialized than The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. , likely best suited to aggressive decks that can reliably empty their hands. In Standard, it could potentially be a good fit in Orzhov Lifegain decks, for example, which have a fairly low curve and can balance out the life loss this brings. Further back, decks like Dimir Aggro in Pioneer could also find slots for it, and maybe even certain Affinity builds in older formats.

As strong as it could be in constructed, The Darkhold looks far more interesting in Commander. With higher life totals, plenty of decks should be able to afford the life loss here. The second ability, which is literally just a slightly pricier Repay in Kind Repay in Kind Each player's life total becomes the lowest life total among all players. , is great for Commander as well. When paired with life payment outlets and cards like Platinum Angel Platinum Angel Flying
You can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game. , this becomes a legitimate win condition, which is insane upside on an already solid draw engine.

The Darkhold looks particularly nice for cEDH, where abundant fast mana and cheap interaction make emptying your hand trivial. Thanks to its low cost, it can easily come down on turn one thanks to Dark Ritual Dark Ritual Add {B}{B}{B}. , too, which is a major upside for a lot of lists. Overall, this new MacGuffin looks like one of the more exciting Commander cards we’ve seen in some time, and I’ll be very surprised if it isn’t a staple somewhere or other when it drops next April.

Magik, Illyana Rasputin//Darkchild, Demon Uncaged MTG

Like both of the MTG Marvel sets before it, Darkhold Destiny appears to feature some transforming MDFC creatures, with Magik, Illyana Rasputin leading the charge in today’s first look. Magik herself is a fairly simple 3/3 for three that impulse draws you a card each upkeep, making it a much worse Phyrexian Arena Phyrexian Arena At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and lose 1 life. in many ways. Given how far Arena has fallen from grace in Commander in recent years, this isn’t an amazing start for this card.

Fortunately the back side here, which can be cast for five mana, is considerably more exciting. Instead of impulse drawing one card you get to do so until you hit a nonland card, which at least guarantees you some action. Since you can make land drops this way as well, it’ll often draw you at least two usable cards, which feels pretty solid, especially when you factor in the free protection effect. There’s even some combo potential here, as you can exile all the nonland cards in your deck with Selective Memory Selective Memory Search your library for any number of nonland cards, exile them, then shuffle. , then let Darkchild exile your whole library.

In an interesting new twist on the transforming MDFC formula, you can’t simply flip Magik over by paying five mana, but need to fulfill a condition instead. Sacrificing two permanents in a turn is very doable, especially in higher bracket decks running plenty of Fetchlands and cards like Lotus Petal Lotus Petal {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color. , but for a lot of decks this just won’t be possible. While this could allow Magik to see play in Standard Jund Sacrifice decks, in Commander, it will probably see play as a five-mana creature, or won’t see play at all.

Hela’s Arcanum MTG

As teased with Hex Magic Hex Magic Exile all the cards from your hand, then draw that many cards. Until the end of your next turn, you may play cards exiled this way. in Marvel Super Heroes, the Arcane subtype is back in a big way with Darkhold Destiny. Hela’s Arcanum pairs it with another returning mechanic, Bloomburrow’s pawprint cards, to great effect, creating a highly flexible instant with strong Commander potential indeed.

For the most part, I expect players will run Hela’s Arcanum for that third ability, which is a pretty excellent instant-speed board wipe. Since it spares Zombies, it’ll naturally be fantastic in Zombie Typal lists like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Grimgrin enters tapped and doesn't untap during your untap step.
Sacrifice another creature: Untap Grimgrin and put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whenever Grimgrin attacks, destroy target creature defending player controls, then put a +1/+1 counter on Grimgrin. , but any deck can use it alongside the middle ability to at least preserve one of their creatures. Given how low Commander mana curves have gotten recently, this feels like a potent option at instant speed.

Of course, the beauty of the pawprint cards was their flexibility, and Hela’s Arcanum offers that too with its first ability. This can be a mini- Overrun Overrun Creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn. (Each of those creatures can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.) on your alpha strike turn, or a brutal combat trick on defense. Though you’ll almost always get the best value from the other abilities, being able to slot this in where needed is excellent and makes the card a great all-around package for Commander.

Low-Rarity Goodies

In addition to the rare and mythic big hitters, today’s stream also revealed some low-key, low-rarity role players. Penance Stare is the most exciting card in this bunch, giving white a hard one-mana removal spell under the right conditions. While it has to compete with the more consistent Erode Erode Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. from Secrets of Strixhaven, I could still see this seeing play in Standard and Pioneer, in tempo-driven decks that really don’t want to give away lands.

Another uncommon we saw today was Rise from the Nether, which, sadly, is mainly interesting because it’s an Arcane spell. While it counts more card types than cards like this normally do, it only creates vanilla 3/1s, which is deeply underwhelming. Without Haste, these tokens will likely die to a board wipe before they can do much, which makes this a seven-mana do-nothing in many scenarios. Though some budget Spellslinger decks will undoubtedly enjoy it, without serious Arcane support this feels incredibly weak.

Speaking of unconfirmed support, Temple of Khonshu is the very definition of the phrase. This is a new Orzhov dual land that enters untapped if you control a Dimension, which is presumably a new card subtype we haven’t seen yet. We have literally nothing to go on with regard to what this type will look like, but based on the name, my guess is it’s a modern take on World Enchantments. Since Temple of Khonshu is a common land, I expect Dimensions will matter more in Limited than in constructed, but time will tell.

Gargantos, the Endbringer MTG

While most of the spoilers in today’s first look came from the MTG Marvel: Darkhold Destiny main set, we did get one Commander card in Gargantos, the Endbringer. Given its borderless artwork, this is almost certainly either a face Commander for a precon or a card from a Scene Box. Either way, it delivers on this new set’s cosmic-horror promise incredibly well.

This is largely down to Gargantos’s last ability, which is essentially a built-in Super State Super State Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 9/9 and has flying, first strike, trample, and haste.
Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to each other opponent. or Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar Whenever a commander you control deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to each other opponent.
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.) . This avoids the common issue with running big beaters like this in Commander: the need to slowly bash each opponent down one by one. Since it naturally doubles its own counters each turn, Gargantos is a surprisingly strong candidate for a Voltron Commander, which we don’t see every day in Golgari colors.

Naturally counter synergy cards like Doubling Season Doubling Season If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. , and Equipment like Genji Glove Genji Glove Equipped creature has double strike.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap it. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
Equip {3} , will make Gargantos incredibly deadly. If you’re feeling really evil, you can even end the game in a single swing by granting it infect with something like Tainted Strike Tainted Strike Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains infect until end of turn. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.) or Grafted Exoskeleton Grafted Exoskeleton Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has infect. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
Whenever this Equipment becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip {2} . Of all the new cards revealed today, Gargantos looks like the best fit for the command zone, and could make a really interesting build-around come April.

A Tease for the Time Stone?

That’s all the new cards from today’s first look stream, but we also got a sneaky little extra treat in the artwork Wizards chose to reveal. Among a few other (excellent) pieces, we got the above art from Volkan Baga, which very much appears to be the set’s Infinity Stone. Baga illustrated both The Soul Stone The Soul Stone Indestructible
{T}: Add {B}.
{6}{B}, {T}, Exile a creature you control: Harness The Soul Stone. (Once harnessed, its ∞ ability is active.)
∞ — At the beginning of your upkeep, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. in Spider-Man and The Mind Stone The Mind Stone Indestructible
{T}: Add {W}.
{5}{W}, {T}: Harness The Mind Stone. (Once harnessed, its ∞ ability is active.)
∞ — At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one other target nonland permanent you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control. in Marvel Super Heroes, and this art is clearly from the next piece in that line.

While this confirms we’ll get another Stone in Darkhold Destiny, exactly which one remains a mystery. Right now, most signs point to the Time Stone. For one, the Stone in the art is green, which matches the Time Stone in the MCU and the color scheme Wizards has followed for the Infinity Stones so far. The Time Stone also has a strong affinity with Doctor Strange, who will likely play a significant role in this set given its themes of magic and mysticism.

Though the rest of the artwork doesn’t exactly scream ‘Time Stone,’ this seems like the best bet given what we know so far. In any case, we have no information on what the card actually does, but we can expect another Indestructible two-mana rock with an expensive activated ability given the other cards in the cycle. It’s great to get a glimpse of the next card in this powerful cycle, which will likely be a chase card from the set when Darkhold Destiny drops on April 9th next year.

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