For a second there, it looked like Wizards might finally beat the ‘endless spoiler season’ accusations. Since Avatar, we haven’t seen any new Magic: The Gathering previews, even for January’s Lorwyn Eclipsed. That streak was broken today, however, with the eleventh-hour Prologue stream for Marvel Superheroes.
While it isn’t due for release until June next year, today’s previews have undoubtedly set its hype train in motion. We saw a ton of new cards today, including some from the main set, some from the accompanying Commander decks, and some from the Source Material bonus sheet. We also got a look at a couple of new MTG mechanics coming in Marvel Superheroes, which have serious potential to enable some really interesting designs. Based on first impressions, Magic’s second foray into Marvel looks much stronger than the first.
The Power-Up Mechanic
Exhaust is a relatively new addition to Magic, being introduced just seven months back in Aetherdrift. While resettable via Flicker effects, Exhaust denotes powerful activated abilities that are balanced by a ‘once per game’ limit. Power-Up, one of the new mechanics in MTG Marvel Superheroes, takes this idea and turns the power level up a notch.
Power-Up functions identically to Exhaust, with the caveat that you get a discount on the activation if the creature entered that turn. Said discount is equal to the creature’s casting cost, which should lead to some interesting decisions on some of these cards. There are definitely echoes of Kicker here, but it’s also different enough to stand alone.
We got to see one Power-Up card today in Quicksilver, Brash Blur. This card is interesting in its own right, thanks to being a 1/1 Haste creature with Gemstone Caverns text. Power-Up gives it an extra dimension, however, which saves it from being a total dud later on. If you don’t high roll and drop this on turn zero, you can cast it for five as a 2/2 Hasty Double Striker. Hyper-aggressive decks will gladly pay five mana for four burst damage, and the card is solid even just as a one mana 1/1 with Haste, too. If Mono-Red Aggro makes a comeback in Standard, I expect this card to slot in nicely come June 2026.
The Plan Mechanic
It’s not every day we get a new subtype in Magic, but Plan is just that. Plans are a new category of enchantment, similar to the Ascensions we saw in Avatar in terms of functionality. Plans accumulate plan counters as you perform certain game actions. Eventually, they sacrifice themselves for a powerful one-off effect once you reach a critical mass.
In the case of Doom Reigns Supreme, the sole Plan we saw today, the action needed to accumulate counters is having Villains enter the battlefield. Unfortunately, this is a very rough start for the card, as there are only around 60 Villains in all of Magic right now. Most of them, except a few outliers like Electro, Assaulting Battery, aren’t constructed-playable, either. This means the card relies on a very narrow, very mediocre pool of creatures to function. The payoff here is undoubtedly very powerful, but it also has the potential to whiff, so we’ll really need to see some good Villains in Marvel Superheroes for this to have a chance.
Interestingly, Plans also look to have value outside of their own effects. We’ve already seen one card, Doctor Doom, that cares about simply having a Plan in play. With enough support like that, Doom Reigns Supreme could be worth running, but for now, it’s a dicey proposition at best. Hopefully, future Plans will push the envelope a little harder.
For more on MTG Marvel Superheroes, check out the main set spoilers and Commander deck cards from today’s reveals!
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