5 Future Commander Staples From Marvel Super Heroes

Last updated on June 15, 2026

Iron Man, Modern Marvel | Illustration by Milivoj Ceran

Preview season for Marvel Super Heroes has wrapped up, so it’s time to shift our attention from oohing and aahing at new cards to giving them practical applications. The MSH prerelease isn’t until this weekend, but that hasn’t stopped players from jamming cards in their decks. Based on EDHREC inclusion numbers, these X cards could be EDH staples in the future, so get prepared to play them!

Ultron, Artificial Malevolence – 2.16k decks

Ultron, Artificial Malevolence has caught the eye of every artifact commander. It staples the ability of fan-favorite Mirrorworks onto an artifact creature, plus it makes your copied artifacts into creatures. While that’s a downside if you want to copy, say, Basalt Monolith, creatures get a variety of bonuses. For example, your vehicles no longer need crewing!

Expect to see Ultron often as a support piece for explosive artifact decks—not the kind with random mana rocks but those that want to curve a Talisman into a Thran Dynamo into an Ugin or similarly titanic finisher. Between the high inclusion rate and early popularity as a commander, Ultron might end up as one of the most played MSH cards.

The Ten Rings – 2.19k decks

Maybe The Ten Rings should be your ramp target for Ultron; the card is as powerful as it is expensive. 8 mana is a steep enough cost that most decks can’t run this, but that sounds like the opposite issue of The One Ring.

Access to ten cards a turn is extremely powerful; ideally, this doesn’t need to survive very long to give you the card advantage necessary to win. One, maybe two turn cycles ought to be enough. The trick to making this work is ensuring your deck can supporting casting (or cheating the mana cost of) a slow, 8 mana draw spell; that means ramp and removal.

World War Hulk – 2.60k decks

World War Hulk had the advantage of being among the first Marvel Super Heroes spoilers back in December. While time plays a part in its high inclusion rate, there’s something to be said for the raw power: Red and green have plenty of battlecruisers you’d be happy to cast for 5 mana instead of 7+. Heck, use a Painter's Servant and you can even get eldrazi in on the deal.

The real charm of the card is with expensive commanders. Battlecruiser commanders like Etali, Primal Conqueror, Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers, and Maelstrom Wanderer love this card. It either lets you play them several turns early or skirts the commander tax later in the game—perhaps both if you recur the saga with Eternal Witness.

Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor – 2.78k decks

Though Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor didn’t benefit from early previews, it’s proved itself a formidable equipment by clawing its way to the second most played spot. It has a truly terrifying damage doubling ability that doesn’t just affect combat damage—burn gets in on the fun too. While equip worthy seems like a restriction, Wizards prints so many legendary creatures these days that it’s basically just flavor text.

While the damage doubling ability has (rightfully) gotten most of the attention, the modality can’t be overlooked. This is a reasonable flicker target, either to kill multiple creatures or trigger twice against one, and the mini-Pyroclasm cleans up tokens or mana dorks before the green player gets out of control. Sorry, Squirrel Girl.

The Mind Stone – 4.18k decks

The Mind Stone also benefited from early previews—we saw this in May, about a month before the rest of the previews—but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it high up here if was the last card preview. The infinity stones are iconic items from Marvel, plus The Soul Stone is by far the most played card from Marvel’s Spider-Man (though that might say more about the dud of a set than the card’s quality).

The Mind Stone shares many characteristics with its predecessor as an indestructible mana rock with a harness ability but it is a little weaker. Flickering a creature is generally worse than reanimating one, though it’s nice you reap rewards the turn you harness the rock. Still, you can expect this to see plenty of play. An untapped, indestructible Marble Diamond would be one of the strongest white ramp spells without the extra text.