We all knew we’d be getting some Spider-Man previews at this weekend’s ComicCon. Few could’ve anticipated, however, the absolute deluge of spoilers we’ve gotten before the event has even started. Last night saw the first preview from the main set, followed by five more. Today, a whopping 65 new cards have been revealed via the set’s Welcome decks. Within this frankly ridiculous batch, a number of iconic Spider-Man heroes are making their MTG debut.
We got Aunt May, Spider-Cat, and a couple of variants of the main man himself. While most of these cards are commons and uncommons, there’s a surprising amount of power here. They may not be setting Standard on fire any time soon, but these are cards that could easily claim slots in Commander or Pauper.
Spectacular Spider-Man
- Mana Value: 1W
- Type: Legendary Creature – Spider Human Hero
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: Flash.
1: Spectacular Spider-Man gains Flying until end of turn.
1, Sacrifice Spectacular Spider-Man: Creatures you control gain Hexproof and Indestructible until end of turn.- Stats: 3/2
The only rare in this batch of MTG heroes was, unsurprisingly, the Spectacular Spider-Man himself. Apparently revealed via some kind of photo booth, this is a fast, flexible legend with a lot to offer.
Two mana for a 3/2 with Flash is, honestly, pretty good in itself. White is a very common Tempo color, often paired with blue to create decks that play largely at instant speed and constantly hold up mana. In such strategies, getting to cast a well-statted creature if you don’t need to interact is great.
Spidey’s two activated abilities here are also very nice. Gaining Flying is great on both offense and defense, letting you get in damage, or surprise block an opposing Flier out of nowhere on the back foot. The lack of a sorcery speed restriction here is surprising, but welcome.
The final protection ability is what really makes this card exciting. Effects that help retain your board are very popular in Commander, be it Teferi’s Protection, Flare of Fortitude, or Heroic Intervention. Spider-Man only protects your creatures, so it’s not quite as comprehensive as these other options. Those cards don’t come attached to a 3/2 with easily-accessed evasion, mind you. Spider-Man should be an easy include in many Commander decks, and possibly even some Standard lists.
Aunt May
- Mana Value: W
- Type: Legendary Creature – Human Citizen
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Text: Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life. If it’s a Spider, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
- Stats: 0/2
Aunt May is the latest in a long line of MTG creatures colloquially known as ‘Soul Sisters.’ These are white one drops that gain you a life whenever another creature, sometimes yours, sometimes anyone’s, enters play. The classics of the genre are Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant, and we’ve seen some powerful retrains lately like Guide of Souls.
Aunt May stands out from the others in this category for a couple of reasons. First of all, she has bizarre synergy with Spiders. This is obviously intended to play with the various Spider-Man cards in the set, because there are no other white Spiders in Magic: The Gathering history. In practice, this is likely little more than flavor text.
The other differentiating element here is the fact that Aunt May is legendary. This means you can run a Soul Sister at the helm of your Commander deck, and get your lifegain synergies going as early as possible. With payoffs like Ajani’s Pridemate and Archangel of Thune, this can lead to some very speedy wins against unprepared opponents.
Spider-Man, Web-Slinger
- Mana Value: 2W
- Type: Legendary Creature – Spider Human Hero
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text: Web-slinging W (You may cast this spell for W if you also return a tapped creature you control to its owner’s hand.)
- Stats: 3/3
Our second Spider-Man of the day is also one of the best Heroes we’ve seen from this MTG set yet. Three mana for a 3/3 is deeply, deeply mediocre, but you’ll never really be casting this card for that. Instead, you’ll be using that Web-slinging ability to turn it into a one-mana 3/3 with upside.
Bouncing a tapped creature is not a trivial cost, but it’s also not too difficult, either. The last few sets have had mechanics related to tapping, so there are plenty of ways to do so in Standard right now without resorting to combat. If you can cast a one-mana 3/3 early in Standard, you’ll be feeling pretty good about that.
You can turn the bounce here into an upside, too. Esper Pixie has lost a ton of ground since the bannings, but this is exactly the kind of card that could give it a boost. Recycling a Sunpearl Kirin for extra draw, or a Fear of Isolation for extra Optimistic Scavenger triggers, are both valid plays.
The card also has potential in Pauper. Mono-White Aggro has started running Summon: Choco/Mog, and this is a great way to reset its counters or get another power boost for the turn. You can also get extra value out of Thraben Inspector, Salt Road Packbeast, and the like.
Masked Meower
- Mana Value: R
- Type: Creature – Spider Cat Hero
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text: Haste.
Discard a card, Sacrifice this creature: Draw a card.- Stats: 1/1
Speaking of cards with Pauper potential, Masked Meower is absolutely full of it. This is an (almost) strictly better version of Insolent Neonate, a card that still sees play in Pauper Dredge lists to this day. A cheap body that can rummage for free on a later turn is, it turns out, fantastic in such strategies.
Meower is exactly the same card as Neonate in terms of that rummage effect, so it has a shot on those merits alone. On top of that, it swaps out Menace for the far more useful Haste. This makes it much more aggressive, and therefore likely to see play in a broader range of decks.
Madness Burn, for example, is one of the top decks in Pauper right now. It doesn’t typically run Neonate, but something like Meower adds an aggressive edge that fits better with the deck’s game plan. If you can get in a couple of points of chip damage with your free rummage before you cash it in, you’ll be feeling pretty good about that.
Outside of Pauper, I don’t expect we’ll see Spider-Cat here around much, but in that format, it has an awful lot of potential.
Scout The City
- Mana Value: 1G
- Type: Sorcery
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text: Choose one —
• Look Around — Mill three cards. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. You gain 3 life. (To mill three cards, put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.)
• Bring Down — Destroy target creature with Flying.
Scout the City feels pretty pushed for a modal common. The first mode is just a straight-up solid self-mill spell. You get to mill three and recur any permanent you’d like, lands included. You also gain three life, which is quite a nice chunk for an incidental upside.
This card still likely loses out to Cache Grab and Say Its Name as a pure self-mill piece, due to its sorcery speed. What Scout the City offers in exchange, however, is the flexibility of also being a hard removal spell. Taking out a creature with Flying is an effect we often see on modal spells like this, since it’s rarely worth a full slot. We’ve never seen it on a self-mill card like this, however, which opens up some new deckbuilding avenues.
In Standard right now, this card could find a home in the likes of Gruul Delirium and Insidious Roots. Both decks love to fill their graveyard, and this lets them do that while not being totally dead later on. If it doesn’t make the main deck, it’s almost certainly good enough to test out in the sideboard given its utility.
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