Why Spider-Man Fits Perfectly in Magic: The Gathering

On first glance, the city-dwelling, web-slinging Spiderman doesn’t exactly fit hand-in-glove with the spells and swords of Magic: The Gathering. But we’re now five years into a journey into Universes Beyond, which started with The Walking Dead, and since has visited everything from Transformers and Jurassic Park to Lara Croft and Sponge Bob Square Pants… So does a radioactive spider man really struggle to fit in?

I think not! Anyone who has been on the wrong side of Ishkanah, Grafwidow knows that legendary spiders are well established in Magic: The Gathering, so Marvel’s Spiderman will be right at home.

Universes Beyond – Merging Worlds Through Card Design

Universe Beyond is all about tapping into other popular franchises to delight current players and introduce new ones to the incredible game that is Magic: The Gathering. While some players feel aggrieved at the dilution of Magic’s own lore and reduced frequency of ‘in-universe’ set releases, there’s no doubt of UB’s incredible success – this year’s Final Fantasy set had become the best-selling MTG set of all time based on pre-orders alone!

And that isn’t the only success story – from the hugely popular Warhammer 40K Commander Decks to the first full Universes Beyond release with Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, the majority of UB releases have been massive hits. Spiderman is the next in-line, and I’ve high hopes!

Spider-Man’s Heroic Archetype – A Natural Fit for MTG

Spiderman as a hero is a great fit for MTG. We already have humans, spiders, mutants, etc., as creature types – he’ll be right at home!

His web-slinging abilities which make him (almost) fly work perfectly for the famous MTG spider ability of ‘can block creatures with flying’ (i.e. reach). The ability to shoot webs and quickly get out of danger, or rescue others, makes me think of ‘bouncing’ (i.e. returning creatures to their owners’ hands). This too could be illustrated with the ‘flash’ key word, which allows you to play spells at instant speed, meaning Spiderman suddenly appears to block creatures or at the end of your opponent’s turn for a sudden and unexpected attack. His Spider-senses – the ability to sense danger ahead of it arising – could nicely be shown with danger-avoiding hexproof or ward.

The concept of him transforming from Peter Parker into Spiderman, too, can be deftly illustrated with double-faced cards. As we can see, Magic: The Gathering is a game all about perfect timing and tactical play, and so is Spiderman!

What Villains and Allies Could Represent in Gameplay

Let’s touch on villains for a moment, and The Sinister Six specifically. Villains are likely to have some commonality – such as with a villain key word or creature type.

Let’s go through them one at a time. Firstly, Doctor Octopus has some obvious design routes with the number eight, something MTG has done a lot in the past with Octopus creature types. This includes being an 8/8 creature, making eight creature tokens, or tapping eight permanents. Being a scientist, he’ll almost certainly be blue-based, which also means I can imagine artifact synergies too (e.g. the tentacles could be artifact creatures).

Next up is Vulture, a villain I must admit I know less about, but know he has flying and is a scientist too, so is likely to be blue aligned in some way and certainly have the flying ability.

Mysterio is another I feel will be part of the blue colour pie because he is all about creating illusions, which is a well-established mechanic in Magic: The Gathering (they tend to be creature tokens that are sacrificed when targeted). I can imagine Mysterio copying creatures and making illusion tokens of them.

Sandman is up next, and as sand is associated with the ground and lands, he could be a ‘lands matter’ creature or at least have landfall in some way, while I can also see him being hard to block or even shapeshift.

Kraven is a villain all about hunting and big creatures, so he must be green with an ability that cares about creatures (and possibly killing them). With green/red being the colour pair with the biggest beasts, I can see him being Gruul, or maybe Jund to get black mana in there too.

The final member of the six is Electro, and with electric spells (Lightning Bolt, for example) typically being red, this guy must be red aligned, possibly ‘spells matter’ in some way, potentially also dipping into blue.

One thing for sure with the villains is that they likely won’t be aligned with white mana – that will be saved for the allies and good guys! There are, thanks to the spider-verse, other versions of Spiderman to consider, not just our traditional Peter Parker. Peter is a strong leader with lots of experience and is the most likely to be white aligned. Gwen is all about speed, making her feel quite red, or Boros, while Miles is still learning his powers and has different abilities to Peter, maybe giving him access to green mana or blue.

As for other allies, Mary Jane and Aunt May have to have white mana and play some kind of support role (e.g. Mother of Runes style protection, gaining life, or drawing cards).

And of course, all of these characters will be legends too, providing a huge amount of options for the Commander format. You could even make some cool battle decks with various heroes fighting the terrible villains!

Thematic Strengths – The Web of Flavour

MTG has really perfected its art treatments over the years, creating incredible alts for whatever you’re into. I’m expecting some amazing comic-book versions with this set, really bringing home the origins of Spiderman, as well as stunning pieces that show city-scaling, much like the city plane of Ravnica, and the spider-verse hopping like we’ve seen in recent sets with the Omenpaths. We’ve already explored Spiderman's own abilities and how they fit neatly into game mechanics, and I’m expecting to see A LOT of reach, hexproof, ward, bounce and unblockable variants (e.g. menace). Mutate is of course interesting with Spiderman's own mutation, however it’s probably more likely we’ll see this in the form of transform, whether that’s MDFCs or a mechanic like werewolves that flip under certain conditions.

Anticipating Deck Types and Collector Appeal

Marvel’s Spider-Man will of course be a great limited environment, with players bound to enjoy draft, sealed, and even making a cube out of the cards, possibly mixing it up with other Marvel cards we’ve already seen or will be released in the future.

Its impact on Standard and other competitive constructed formats is to be seen, however one thing we know is bound to have a huge effect on Commander. People are going to love making Spiderman MTG decks, whether fun ‘theme’ decks or possibly competitive ones based on the most powerful cards in the set. Not to mention, having some new interesting options for spider decks!

Not only does this provide a lot of fun for Magic fans who like Spiderman, but those who are less familiar with the webslinger still get new cards to try out, while I’m sure plenty of fans of the Marvel franchise will be giving MTG a go for the the first time as a result of the set.

Stay Updated on MTG Spider-Man at Magic Madhouse

If you’ve been bitten by the bug of Spiderman MTG… everything you want from Marvel’s Spider-Man is available here as Magic Madhouse! Sealed products are a great option, whether you want a Booster Box to draft (or just tear open!), or even single boosters to sample the set. From Bundles to Collector Boosters and even Scene Boxes, you can find it all here with great prices and shipping faster than a web-slinger on a mission. You can also subscribe to Magic Madhouse for launch alerts and product updates.