We’re deep into Marvel Super Heroes spoiler season, and so far, there have not been any glaring power outliers revealed. While a few cards do seem like interesting upgrades to specific archetypes, none of the main set cards are threatening to break entire formats. Sadly, we can no longer say the same for Marvel Super Heroes Commander.
Revealed as part of the Fantastic Four precon yesterday, The Fantasticar is getting a lot of big reactions. Considering that this card may impact Legacy and has a very strong chance of breaking Vintage, those concerns are very much justified.
MTG The Fantasticar
In Commander, The Fantasticar offers a persistent threat for decks built around noncreature spells. Realistically, though, a Flying 4/4 for three, or even four 4/4 bodies with Flying and Haste aren’t that scary. At most, you’ll be able to send a quick burst of damage at the archenemy of the table, setting them up for a kill later on.
In Vintage, however, The Fantasticar appears to be a massive issue. In this format, you can easily generate three mana while casting four noncreature spells on turn one. For many players, the main concern for The Fantasticar rises from Vintage Shops decks.
Between Mishra’s Workshop and Black Lotus, Vintage Shop decks can cast The Fantasticar on turn one fairly reliably. Alternatively, using fast mana like Mox Jet and Mana Crypt can similarly get the job done while furthering your spell count. Hell, if you’re really lucky, both Mishra’s Workshop and Black Lotus together can let you play two Fantasticars for 32 damage in the air.
That said, technically, every MTG Vintage deck can pull off a turn-one Fantasticar. With Black Lotus available, you can cast The Fantasticar with ease, following it up with two zero-mana artifacts. Even without Black Lotus, any combination of fast mana, from Ancient Tomb to Mana Vault, makes turn-one Fantasticar extremely easy to cast and trigger.
If that weren’t enough, Force of Will, another Vintage pillar, just makes things worse. The card can both protect The Fantasticar and add to the noncreature spell count, making it even more consistent. Factoring in all of this, it certainly seems like The Fantasticar has a strong chance of having a big Vintage impact.
A Call for Restriction
Between all the different fast mana available in the format, triggering The Fanasticar on turn one is way easier than it may look. Because of this, some players are calling for the card to be Restricted as early as possible, making these turn one starts much less consistent.
Outside of Vintage, at least, The Fantasticar looks like a much smaller problem. There is a real chance that the artifact could become an issue in Legacy, but the card is a lot clunkier there. With much less fast mana to work with, a turn-one Fantasticar is really only possible for Affinity or Storm decks. Even then, pulling off a turn two Fantasticar and bringing it back with Emry, Lurker of the Loch, is absolutely terrifying.
While The Fantasticar has a very high likelihood of being an issue in Vintage, its true impact remains to be seen. Until the card hits shelves on June 23rd, players will only be able to speculate about how strong this card will be. That said, from first impressions, The Fantasticar certainly has the potential to be a problem.
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