First Look at Marvel Super Heroes

I'm still loving Strixhaven, but we have another epic-looking set just around the corner. We are just a few short days away from the next arrival: Marvel Super Heroes.

I've loved Marvel Comics since I was a kid, though mostly just the aesthetics. I collected the books but never read them. Regardless, I love the world and characters, so I'm interested in digging in and immersing myself in my favorite game.

Let's take a quick look at a few of the cards that seem intriguing.

Namor the Sub-Mariner

This is the first card that jumped out at me. I was never the biggest Namor fan, and I know almost nothing about his character, yet the card kept getting better as I read it.

At first, Namor looked like another silly Merfolk payoff, but as I kept reading, I realized it's actually another juiced-up Young Pyromancer.

Namor has four critical points of toughness to dodge removal, like Lightning Bolt early. It will also scale into the game and allow you to play it, cast your cantrips, and create tokens while hitting for a ton of damage if left unchecked. Namor is not the kind of card you can leave in play. It looks well-suited for a deck like Izzet Prowess with Opt and Sleight of Hand, as well as cards like Octopus Form, potentially.

Namor reminds me a lot of Tempest Djinn. It could allow for a mono-blue tempo deck where we play "protect the king" and try to solo the opponent with it, protecting it with various tricks and counterspells.

This is a strong card that I expect will see play, potentially outside of Standard as well. I'm interested in whether we can leverage a deck that can play Namor and Practiced Offense, as they seem like a great pairing.

Captain Marvel is a juiced-up Baneslayer Angel that threatens to punish creature decks if they tap out into an opponent with five open mana and seven total mana sources.

Despite the days of expensive, game-ending, five-mana, five-power creatures being mostly over, Captain Marvel brings a unique squeeze capability in a white control deck.

When playing against control, you're often tiptoeing around their countermagic and card draw to deny them good spots to use their mana. For instance, when UW Teferi was one of the most popular decks, its card draw outside of Teferi was just a few Glimmer of Genius. You'd often want them to cast a spell when they had four mana up, forcing them to interact through an Absorb or something else that makes their mana usage awkward.

With Captain Marvel around, if you tap too low and can't answer at instant speed, then by the time you're untapping, you may be facing a 6/5 flying indestructible flier. Not many people are beating that.

This card design is excellent for modern Magic. It's not too powerful, you can potentially interact with it with removal capable of exiling, and it will have its moments as the best thing you could have.

Captain Marvel is mostly a Standard card. However, I'd expect it to show up sometimes and ensure that red aggressive decks and similar stay honest.

Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom, one of my favorite villains in the Marvel Universe, will hopefully replace Grave Titan in cubes everywhere.

This card is reminiscent of that iconic six-drop, coming into play with nine power spread across three bodies. Doctor Doom is indestructible as long as his bots are around. He will trigger on entry, so there's a brief window you could interact if there are no other plans or artifact creatures in play.

Doctor Doom will also refill your hand as it sits in play, rather than produce more on-board value like Grave Titan. Regardless, it will still be able to snowball games if left unchecked.

This type of creature doesn't usually see much play, but it has specific matchups in which it could be good. It's powerful, but it may be too clunky in large Standard sets where people are goldfishing wins on turn four routinely. However, it's possible we see Doctor Doom in a deck alongside Superior Spider-Man.

If any deck can play a midrange game plan, then it's a strong six-drop creature.

Thor, God of Thunder

Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor

Let's take a look at Thor, God of Thunder. This is one of the coolest designs I've seen in Magic. I have to give credit where it's due. Thor would be nothing without his trusty Hammer, Mjolnir, and the flavor is just fantastic.

Thor is unique as a five-mana 5/5 flier that functions as a Snapcaster effect. It can recycle cheap removal like a Lightning Bolt or set up for the following turn to literally drop the Hammer. While five-mana 5/5s are not what they used to be, you can tap out for this one and recoup the value on the next turn by casting the spell that it exiled. If you're lucky enough to keep it in play, its static effect of dealing damage equal to the spell's cost will take over the game.

I'd love to pair this card with Traumatic Technique, as it's an X spell that will scale doubly with your mana when Thor is in play, while also being a cheap piece of selection.

Mjolnir sweeping up the little creature early, then Thor coming down to drop the Hammer is just such a sweet design. It is easily my favorite pair of cards in the set. While I'm skeptical they'll actually be competitive, it's not out of the realm of possibility, but it's very unlikely.

World War Hulk

I wanted to cover at least one card of every color. There are some interesting green cards, but none of them really pop. World War Hulk has an effect I've always adored—putting large creatures into play for free. While Atraxa is no more in Standard, we still have Cubs, Gearhulks, and of course, Craterhoof.

Likely, there's only a narrow chance this plays out well. It is a powerful effect that can win games on its own, and as Standard grows, there will only be more things to cheat into play.

The flavor of this set looks great so far. I love the alternate art comic cards, and the cards seem interesting.

At the time of this writing, I'm playing my last weekend of Strixhaven in the Arena Limited Champs Qualifier. However, I'm looking forward to early-access Marvel.