Five new MTG X Marvel Secret Lairs were suddenly announced on Friday afternoon. Each Secret Lair contains a mechanically unique card of a Marvel superhero alongside four other MTG reprints. The five superheroes featured are Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Wolverine, and Storm.
Storm may be the name of a Marvel superhero, but it also happens to be a rather traumatic word to some in the MTG community. Storm is one of the most broken mechanics in the game, and Storm from the Marvel universe enables Storm from the MTG universe. What a terrifying combination.
Not only is Storm a totally new MTG card coming in her themed Secret Lair, but she’s bringing four themed reprints alongside her! One of the cards even has a $55 reprint value!
An Extremely Broken Character
Storm, Force of Nature is a terrifying card. As long as she successfully deals combat damage to any player, your next spell has Storm. Storm even has Flying to help ensure that she’ll be able to connect with someone. Then, the terror begins.
There’s obviously going to be a ton of smaller spells in a Storm, Force of Nature Commander deck, but the most exciting thing for players to think about is what card Storm can copy. Some cards, like Growth Spiral, may be obvious. Drawing cards and ramping lands may not end the game, but it certainly gives you a huge advantage. In this sense, Growth Spiral is good as a Storming card and as something to set up a larger turn. Other cards, like Irenicus’s Vile Duplication, are not as obvious but are terrifying alongside Storm.
Irenicus’s Vile Duplication can create copies of Legendary creatures that are unaffected by the Legend rule. This means that you can create a ton of copies of Storm, Force of Nature herself. Each combat damage trigger between your Storms adds another Storm trigger to the single instant or sorcery you cast. This can easily get out of hand.
Finally, there’s extra turn spells. I don’t think we really need to talk about extra turn spells.
Secret Lair MTG X Marvel’s Storm
Fortunately, the rest of Storm’s Secret Lair comes armed with cards that could easily fit into a Storm, Force of Nature Commander deck. The reprint value of some of these cards is nothing to sneeze at either!
Ice Storm is an incredibly flavorful, but strange reprint. Bizarrely, the card is also quite expensive, going for about $55 at its cheapest on the secondary market. Even though the card has a decent secondary market value, this copy of Ice Storm could easily be the cheapest one on the market.
Ice Storm’s value comes from its sheer rarity. The card has only been printed in very old sets like Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited. As a result, very few copies of this card exist.
The effect of Ice Storm is pretty strong, in the grand scheme of things. Giving this card Storm with Storm, Force of Nature’s triggered ability can easily end a game. Destroying all of your opponent’s lands is a great way to get a bunch of scoops from the table. It’s also one of the unspoken social taboos of Commander, so this particular card may not make it into many Storm Commander decks. Ice Storm is, regardless, a rather unique reprint that some players may not have even known that they wanted.
Jeska’s Will, rebranded as Storm’s Will, is another fantastic reprint. Easily going for $18 on the secondary market, Jeska’s Will fits into both parts of Storm’s game plan. This can easily accumulate Storm before you connect with your Commander, or you can use this card as your Storm payoff to generate a ton of mana and card advantage. This is a staple red card in any Commander deck that consistently gets their Commander out in the early game.
Lightning Bolt is another card that fits into both of Storm’s gameplan stages well. This is an absolutely disgusting card to give Storm to, but it’s also an incredibly cheap removal spell that can help accumulate Storm.
Unfortunately, because Lightning Bolt has been reprinted into the ground, the card is not worth much. It does see Modern and Legacy play, however, so this premium variant should be worth a decent amount more than more common copies. Other copies of Lightning Bolt that are on the cheaper side go for about $3.
Manamorphose is the last of the reprints in Storm’s Secret Lair. This card is one of the best Storm cards out there. Offering card draw and mana when partnered with reduction effects like Ruby Medallion, Manamorphose ups your Storm count without utilizing any resources. Since the card also works well with Prowess effects, Manamorphose has a decent secondary market price of about $4. The card is rather popular in multiple different Modern archetypes.
With a total secondary market value of about $80, MTG Secret Lair X Marvel’s Storm seems like a no-brainer. Throw in a very powerful unique Commander, and this might be one of the best Secret Lairs in the new drop.
If you’re interested in purchasing this for yourself, all of the MTG X Marvel Secret Lairs go for sale on November 4. Non-foil Secret Lairs will be available for $39.99, and foils will be available for $49.99. You can check out the other four MTG X Marvel Secret Lairs here.
