Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond releases are something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they’re a fantastic gateway for folks outside of Magic to get a taste for collecting cards and (hopefully) trying out a game or two. And the bigger the IP collaboration the better that effect – just look at the huge Final Fantasy launch earlier this year. But for those already fully invested in this long-running TCG, the threat of oversaturation is very real and arguably already here, meaning
Thankfully, both camps come out on top with the new Marvel’s Spider-Man set. For those in the former, it’s a really fun and collectable catalogue of cards featuring some great art and iconic Spider-Man characters and concepts. And for the latter, it’s a small-ish set with little to add to the game in any format – making it a safe skip.
Starting with what the Marvel’s Spider-Man release is. This is a 180-ish-card set spanning the web-slinger’s storied legacy and featuring all manner of heroes, villains, memorable stories, gadgets and Peters, Parker. Most, though not all, of the included cards are legal across all formats including Standard, with the general consensus that it’s a weaker overall set best suited to Limited play.
Naturally, the set comes with some new mechanics loosely based on the subject manner – resulting in abilities like Web-slinging, which is a fun little twist on Spidey thwip-ing in to save the day, offering a smaller casting cost in return for a tapped creature being slung back to your hand.
The bad guys get one too, with Mayhem, which allows cards with the ability to be discarded and re-played from the graveyard at a small cost. These should actually have a good bit of utility outside of the Marvel’s Spider-Man set, making good fodder for discard abilities but able to come back as if nothing happened.
And if you’re feeling truly villainous, the Infinity Stones have begun to appear with this set, thanks to the inclusion of the elusive The Soul Stone. It’s a proper menace at its full potential, an indestructible artifact able to generate black mana and eventually necromance a creature card from the graveyard once per turn, after you’ve Harnessed it.
What this set isn’t, is a full-fledged MtG release in the vein of something like Final Fantasy, Fallout or Warhammer 40K. The card count is a bit smaller than is typical, and (likely as a result) there are no commander deck precons to buy. There’s no real cohesion or sense of a singular theme that might support even constructing your own commander decks, just a liberal smattering of heroes missing any real synergy with the rest of the set.
I’m not really into deckbuilding, but one of my favourite parts of a Universes Beyond release is playing around with the precon decks and seeing how the MtG design team crafted collections of cards that feel thematic and enable interesting strategies that feel appropriate to the IP. I don’t really get any of that from Marvel’s Spider-Man, which is disappointing as it should have provided plenty of opportunity – perhaps we’ll see that with next year’s Marvel Super Heroes. Wizards did devise five free Welcome Decks for WPN stores to encourage new players, but folks seem pretty unhappy with those as well, given they’re aimed at beginners but contain a potentially confusing mix of Standard legal and non-legal cards.
For the collectors and web-heads, though, there’s some good eating here. Marvel’s Spider-Man represents a supremely attractive collection of cards, making especially great use of the comic book aesthetic in its special treatments. I’m a huge fan of the Borderless Source Material cards which reprint some iconic Magic faves with art from classic Spider-Man comic covers inked by the likes of Todd McFarlane, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. I might not have tens of thousands to purchase an original issue of Amazing Fantasy #15, but I can at least hope for it in card form.
The subjects of these cards are just as exciting. It’s not surprising to see a bunch of iconic heroes, villains and meta-Spideys featured, with a lineup comprehensive enough to signal something for everyone, no matter their entry point into the Spider-Man franchise. Whether you’re rooting for Spider-Man 2099 or Peni and SP//dr, or perhaps you’re on Team Black Cat or Mysterio for some reason, you’re covered here. There’s even a card for the greatest villain of all – Peter Parker’s landlady.
Quite possibly my favourite feature of this set is sizeable number of cards dedicated not to Spidey and friends, but to his home city. New York is as inseparable from Spider-Man’s identity as his origin or costume, so it’s great to see that it’s been given a proper space in this run. Cards like City Pigeon, Hot Dog Cart and Bagel and Schmear (complete with ‘Nosh’ keyword) are as fun to play with as they are to pull – borderline stereotypical, but fun.
The product mix here is pretty typical, with Play and Collector boosters and a Bundle as the core offering. If you’re freaky, you can pick up a neat Scene Box or try your luck at getting a fancy Gift Bundle when it drops in October, but there’s not much beyond that. Wizards was kind enough to send me the regular Bundle (along with some extra packs), and it’s exactly what you’d expect – a bunch of Play Boosters and lands, a special life counter dice, pop-out cardboard counters and a fancy box.
Overall, Marvel’s Spider-Man is a fine enough release for the purpose of giving Spidey fans and Magic collectors an attractive suite of cards to lust after, even if it stands to make very little impact to the game overall. There’s a bit of a vibe here that it’s a little undercooked, with the typically-strong theming and synergy found in a new MtG set mostly missing, but by golly does it have some beautiful-looking comic art and special treaments – if you’re lucky enough to pull the good stuff.
Magic: The Gathering – Marvel’s Spider-Man is available now in a range of products via leading retails and local game stores.
