More Marvelous Previews

We started Marvel previews last time, and we'll continue this week. I'll soon play the early access event and finally get my hands on the cards. Then, I'll pivot to more Limited-focused content, as we have an exciting series of upcoming Team Limited events, and I'll make Limited contributions to my testing team for the last PT of this PT.

Let's take a peek.

M.O.D.O.K

M.O.D.O.K. is a fascinating card that I overlooked at first glance. I looked at it like a clunky Night of Soul's Betrayal with a small body that can interact easily with all kinds of removal.

However, this card is interesting when it's played alongside Superior Spider-Man. If you play it a turn ahead of schedule, you put it into play on a more critical turn four. At that point in the game, we can kill off LLanowar Elves, Otter tokens, Earthbent lands, and more.

On top of that, we get a healthier stat line as a 4/4 flying lifelink that can grow with its connive ability, which you can do at instant speed in your own turn.

I like the idea of adding this to the Demon deck. It could also be used to get rid of the Doomsday part of the deck to make it a midrange strategy that can bury its opponent in card draw, efficient interaction, and creatures that must be answered.

Connive will also let you put cards in your graveyard for future Superior Spider-Men, potentially building a deck more like Reanimator, except with castable creatures that can resist Rest in Peace.

This is a cooler card than I gave it credit for on my initial read. I'm excited to put it into play.

Loki, God of Mischief

I did an initial write-up of Loki after misreading it as a spell or ability and thinking it was completely absurd. Now, I think it's solid.

Loki plays nicely with various equipment, much like Nadu used to, though it's not nearly as broken with a once-a-turn limit cap. Cards Relic of Progenitus and other graveyard hate cards can make it trigger on your and your opponent's turn. When combined with Mishra's or Urza's Bauble, you have a nice two-drop engine creature.

While Loki has a variety of applications, you will likely want to slot it into decks and only soft-build around it rather than go all the way. We can also play Loki alongside various creatures with effects like Luminarch Aspirant that trigger and target every turn.

There are many ways to make Loki pop, and I expect it to find a home. If the card said "spell or ability you control," rather than just "ability you control," it would be the clear-cut best card in the set. Right now, it's a lot more work for the same payoff, but that payoff is certainly there.

This is a solid card that will be fun to tune.

Black Widow, Super Spy

Black Widow is a solid, efficient two-drop with snowball potential. She reminds me a lot of Caustic Bronco or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner in overall rate. While those were fairly solid cards, Magic, especially Standard, is at a much higher power level these days. This card may potentially find a home, but I doubt we will see her much.

The aforementioned cards were also not Legendary, so there wasn't as big a risk in running a full play set to increase your chances of having your snowball two-drop on turn two. However, Black Widow is, and that makes her more difficult to play four in confidence, given it's already at the borderline of playability.

It's also worth noting that playing your opponent's cards in many cases, especially in a Standard format like this, will often be a downside, not an upside. Let's say I'm a Dimir Midrange-style deck and I connect with Black Widow, then I "may play" an Eddymurk Crab or a Sapling Nursery.

It's a cool card. I love that evasion makes it connect more, but I don't think we'll see much from Black Widow, unfortunately.

Monica, Rambeau / Photon of Living Light

Monica Rambeau's front side is nothing to write home about. A three-mana 3/3 flying prowess creature is a below-rate three-drop creature. I think of that side as just an added upside of maybe I don't have a way to spend mana on turn three and this will give me that.

Photon is the part that interests me, as it's a five-mana hexproof creature with Prowess, which can punish some decks that are trying to play a slower game. The word hexproof is scary for some decks, and we haven't seen many creatures with those keywords. In addition to hexproof, we can cycle some cantrips and put counters on our team, giving it an almost Ouroboroid feel in some spots, except it has hexproof.

You want to play this in a shell where Photon is the top of the curve and in a deck with a bunch of token-producing non-creature spells that take advantage of the ability to spread counters, both triggering it and producing more.

This is a cool and very powerful card, but it's more of a build-around than a staple. I'm not sure it's worth building around because the strategy of white decks flooding the board isn't appealing in a world with Mono Green Landfall and Various Cub decks doing the same kind of thing, but much better.

Hawkeye, Master Marksman

I absolutely love the flavor design for Hawkeye. While the card is likely not good enough for Standard these days, it wasn't too far off.

Hawkeye's biggest weakness is basically dying to Burst Lightning and other cheap removal while providing no value. Regardless, if Hawkeye were to remain unchecked by removal, it would be a nightmare for the opponent. It can flexibly attack all game stats. In a close grindy game, you get to spend two mana to deal an extra two on attack and rummage to find more gas. An all-out race? Remove a blocker and deal an extra two if you have the mana.

This card wants to play in a deck that can make full use of its abilities. An aggressive red deck would be the place, but Standard is far too powerful these days for a card like Hawkeye. Mono Green Landfall is threatening to kill you a turn after this attacks once, and Izzet decks kill this for one mana while throwing a card in their graveyard to work towards their endgame of putting Eddymurk Crab into play.

Hawkeye, unfortunately, like many other efficient creatures from this set, would be quite strong in formats of old. In 2026, there are only a few cards that can break into Standard, and I don't think Hawkeye will be one of them unless things drastically slow down.

That will wrap up my previews for Marvel. The set overall looks relatively weak for Standard, with a few standout cards that I'll have to see in action. I'm excited to see things develop. Who knows — maybe, like last year, there will be a massive ban wave this summer that shakes things up for some of these potentially playable cards.