Spider-Man preview season has officially begun, and the floodgates are well and truly open. We got to see a ton of new cards today, including a bunch from the set’s Bonus Sheet. Naturally, given the series’ comic book origins, we also got to see some truly stunning Showcase treatments. One of the most interesting of these is dedicated to a single MTG card, Spectacular Spider-Man, who gets no less than seven different costume variants in the set.
Even this deep into the Booster Fun era, this is a lot of variants for a single card. Given the subject matter, however, it couldn’t be more appropriate. Spider-Man is a colossal franchise that’s been running for over 60 years, and the character has gone through a ton of iterations. This allows Wizards to explore these iterations without creating individual cards for each. It also adds a ton of collectability and, potentially, financial value to packs.
The MTG Spectacular Spider-Man Costume Variants
Spectacular Spider-Man isn’t one of the many new cards revealed today. We actually saw it last month, amid a surprisingly large batch of early spoilers. It’s a solid card, and one that could easily see play in a number of formats due to its low cost and versatility.
As of today, however, the MTG playability of Spectacular Spider-Man is secondary to its wild range of variants. During today’s debut stream, seven different versions of the card were revealed. This makes eight if you include the base version. If you count the two different promo versions, there are actually 10. If it weren’t for Cid in Final Fantasy, this would be the card with the most single-set variants in Magic history.
These variants each showcase a different suit that Spider-Man has worn throughout his career. They also do something pretty unique for Magic, in that they share a single pose and background. In a clever twist mentioned during the stream, the time of day/year in the background changes each time.
Including these variants in the set was a masterstroke on Wizards’ part. It lets the designers really flex their knowledge of the series, as some of the suits here are deep cuts. It also adds a lot of collectability. These variants will only show up in Collector Boosters, and only in Textured Foil, to boot. While not quite on the level of The Soul Stone, these could easily be some of the pricier cards in the set.
They may not alleviate the early ‘too many Spider-Men’ complaints some have had, but for long-time fans these variants seem like a slam dunk. The only downside is that these aren’t ‘a deck can play any number’ cards, so you can’t run them all in Commander.
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