Considering the sheer number of iconic characters in the Marvel multiverse, it’s no wonder MTG’s Marvel Super Heroes has a lot of legends. Even ignoring Commander’s influence on the game, it’d be criminal if a known hero or villain wasn’t legendary. While we knew to expect a lot of legends because of this, we didn’t expect Wizards to take it quite this far.
According to MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, Marvel Super Heroes may have more legends than ever before. In fact, almost every creature in the set is going to be legendary, which is an absurd statistic. Even if this does make sense for a Marvel set, we’ve got to wonder if it’s time for a long-overdue change.
It’s Almost All Legends
“Every uncommon, rare, and mythic rare creature is legendary.”
Mark Rosewater
On Tuesday, Mark Rosewater revealed this remarkable tidbit of information during “A Marvel of Magic Design” article. While we’re used to Universes Beyond having a lot of legends, this is one hell of a step forward. There’s a good chance that Marvel Super Heroes will have more legends than any other MTG set before it, in fact.
Since we’re still in the midst of the set’s spoiler season, it’s currently unclear just how many legends the set will have. Given we’re already at 79 legends with two days of spoilers to go, however, this set could easily eclipse the current record. For reference, this currently belongs to MTG Final Fantasy, which had a staggering 99 legends in the main set.
Due to the legend rule, there’s a non-zero chance that many legends in Marvel Super Heroes will be dead cards in Draft. Thankfully, Wizards has partially solved this problem through mechanics like Connive, which appears fairly frequently in the set. As Rosewater attests in his article, this should mitigate the chances of extra copies of legendaries being useless.
The fact that mechanics like Connive are needed to mitigate this problem raises an interesting point. Clearly, having too many legendaries is a real problem, but for some sets and IPs, like Marvel, it makes sense. This begs the question of whether or not a fundamental part of MTG needs to be changed.
Leaving the Legend Rule Behind
The big problem with having too many legendaries in the set is the Legend Rule. Since 2013, this rule means each player can’t have two copies of the same legendary permanent in play. For some cards, this is an important balancing tool; however, it’s rare that a card genuinely needs this.
Looking at Marvel Super Heroes, it’s clear that the vast majority of legends don’t need to be legendary. Having four copies of cards like Luke Cage, Power Man, Attuma, Atlantean Warlord, and Hercules, Prince of Power in play, for instance, would cause absolutely no issues. In Limited formats, however, adding more than one copy of these to your deck could cause legitimate problems.
At the same time, not making each of these cards legendary simply feels wrong. Not only are they popular characters in Marvel, but being legendary lets fans build around them in Commander. Admittedly, none of these cards are good options for that, but there’s nothing wrong with a sub-optimal pet deck.
With this in mind, it really feels like MTG needs to change its terminology so the overabundance of legends isn’t a problem. It seems Mark Rosewater knows this, in fact, as he’s often said how he wants “the legend rule to go away.” Rosewater has even pitched the “Unique” mechanic before, which would keep the legend rule’s rules as needed.
In theory, this feels like the perfect solution to the growing problem with legendaries. The rules baggage affecting sets would be dropped, but cards wouldn’t feel less special, and Commander wouldn’t lose any cards. That being said, while adding Unique as a mechanic might seem straightforward, don’t expect it to happen.
The Long Wait
Despite being the Head Designer of Magic: The Gathering, even Mark Rosewater isn’t optimistic about this change happening. For better or worse, it isn’t just up to Rosewater, as all of R&D needs to come to a consensus on this topic. So far, this hasn’t happened, and Rosewater has been pushing for it, or at least talking about it, for years.
Due to this, I definitely wouldn’t recommend holding your breath until the legend rule gets changed. That being said, sets like Marvel Super Heroes and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could easily affect things. By containing tons of legends and common legends, respectively, these Universes Beyond sets could make the issues with legendary creatures more apparent.
In theory, this could sway more of R&D over time; however, this is far from guaranteed. Whether you love it or hate it, the current rules surrounding legends are core to MTG. Thanks to this, changing them won’t be done lightly. Ultimately, as always, since we can’t predict the future, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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