Fantastic Four Upgrade Guide: 15 Fantastic Changes You Can Make

Invisible Woman | Illustration by Erikas Perl

New sets generally have a precon or two, but Marvel Super Heroes went all out with four: one each for heroes and villains as typal decks and two decks dedicated to some of Marvel’s most iconic characters: the Black Panther and The Fantastic Four, the latter of which is my focus today.

The Fantastic Four precon is one of those rare 4-color precons—though it’s just another non-black precon because Wizards only seems to print commanders for some reason. It comes with a slate of heroic cards, but more than a few could be upgraded for better options.

The Fantastic Four Deck Overview

The Fantastic Four precon has four potential commanders: Each member of the team got a mono-colored card with a four-color ability, so any of them can lead the deck.

The precon focuses on casting noncreature spells, and most of the creatures do something at the beginning of combat if you cast a noncreature spell. The deck’s primary means to support this is cards with rebound or flashback.

Overall, the deck is solid; it has a decently focused gameplan since most of the new cards share the noncreature spell payoffs. While there are quite a few outliers, there’s no conflicting themes or anything of the sort. The deck also has an issue of mana; the mana base is absolute trash and it’s lacking in ramp.

Upgrade Plan

I'll be using Mister Fantastic as the commander for this upgrade. This deck is more of a good-stuff pile, so I want the generic good-stuff commander with card draw. Some of my card swaps were made specifically with Mister Fantastic in mind.

Moving to the actual card swaps, I’m removing cards that are generally just weak or under-supported in the deck; nothing more than quality separates them since I don’t need to cut a wonky sacrifice theme or something.

The cards coming in include ramp, which makes the deck more consistent by giving you more mana and fixing, and higher quality cards that either synergize with or support the noncreature spell gameplan. Note that I’m not adding spellslinger payoffs because that isn’t the focus of this deck.

Fellwar Stone

Suggested Cut:

Fellwar Stone provides very reliable ramp since the only circumstance when it doesn’t fix your mana is when you’re against three mono-color decks that share a color. It’s practically a second Arcane Signet.

The Fantasticar is cute, but the deck doesn’t have the low curve of cheap noncreature spells you need as enablers.

Hex Magic

Suggested Cut:

Hex Magic is a fantastic draw spell from Marvel Super Heroes with an excellent ceiling. I’d much rather gamble on an explosive turn from the arcane spell than give my opponents cards with Cut a Deal.

Improvisation Capstone

Suggested Cut:

Paradigm is a great way to support the noncreature theme because resolving one triggers your payoffs for the rest of the game. Improvisation Capstone has plenty of great cards to cast in this deck. Since most of the synergies trigger on the combat step, this can both cast and trigger members of the Four and similar effects.

Nova Flame also costs lots of mana but is less synergistic and works better in a deck with large creatures, which this precon lacks.

King Solomon’s Frogs

Suggested Cut:

King Solomon's Frogs is an extremely cool removal spell from the Wakanda Forever precon. Giving your opponents a card in exchange for their best threat isn’t ideal, but white often deals with removal like that. Getting the monarch later helps recoup that advantage.

Collective Effort isn’t bad, but Frogs is a much more interesting removal spell.

Monica Rambeau / Photon, Living Light

Suggested Cut:

It makes perfect sense that Silver Surfer, Galactus's Herald would be printed with The Fantastic Four, but it doesn’t actually mesh with the deck. Monica Rambeau’s backside, Photon, Living Light does, so this is an easy swap to apply the pressure.

Raise the Palisade

Suggested Cut:

While this isn’t strictly a typal deck, the design philosophy means most of the creatures are heroes, so I like the idea of Raise the Palisade as a sweeper that mostly leaves your board untouched.

Restoration Seminar

Suggested Cut:

Restoration Seminar gives the deck resilience and grind since key threats can only die for so long. While Genesis Ultimatum is strong, the mana base is too weak to support it.

Swan Song

Suggested Cut:

Swan Song provides an extremely efficient counterspell, something it lacks—frankly, the entire removal package could be expanded upon, but it’s not a high (or fun) priority.

Deep Analysis isn’t a bad card, but it’s rather slow for the modern era of Magic, and raw card advantage matters less with Mister Fantastic in the command zone.

Taigam, Ojutai Master

Suggested Cut:

Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards works very well with the Invisible Woman, but leaving that out of the command zone means this card needs to leave, too.

I love to support the noncreature theme with rebound cards, so Taigam, Ojutai Master felt like a natural inclusion. It doubles as counter protection for the more expensive spells.

Talisman of Creativity

Suggested Cut:

Willie Lumpkin, Postman doesn’t interact with the noncreature gameplan. Talisman of Creativity does while helping cast spells and fixing this terrible mana base.

Talisman of Conviction

Suggested Cut:

Mirage Mirror is a cool card, but this deck doesn’t have any of the exciting combos or even great permanents to copy since the good permanents are all legendary. It’s much better to make the deck more consistent and leaner with Talisman of Conviction.

Talisman of Progress

Suggested Cut:

Terramorph is technically ramp and color fixing, but it’s so much less efficient than Talisman of Progress that even casting it twice doesn’t seem worthwhile. A slow Explosive Vegetation isn’t what this deck needs.

The Fantastic Four

Suggested Cut:

The Fantastic Four—not to be confused with this precon—has excellent support in this deck, and it plays nicely with the commander and quite a few other cards. It does far more than Path of Discovery, which is an admittedly low bar.

West Coast Expansion

Suggested Cut:

West Coast Expansion benefits from all the ramp I’m adding and is just a solid play. Most of the creatures are heroes, so you can reasonably pour mana into this and come out way ahead.

Into the Time Vortex is a neat rebound card, but I just like the consistency of a card that always does the same thing whenever you cast it.

World at War

Suggested Cut:

Like the Silver Surfer, it makes sense that Galactus, Devourer of Worlds gets printed here; it just doesn’t belong with the meager ramp package.

World at War is a much more convincing finisher. The extra combat synergizes with most of the creatures, including the commander, and rebound does it again, so this effectively nets four triggers from your important cards.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the updated decklist, plus another list below with just the upgrades. If you want to pick them up for yourself, click the shopping cart button in the decklist to go straight to TCGplayer!

Commanding Conclusion

The Fantastic Four | Illustration by Yasmine Putri

The Fantastic Four precon looks delightful. The way it uses noncreature spells is impactful but meaningfully distinguishes itself from typical spellslinger strategies, and I hope Wizards expands it going forward. These upgrades don’t mess with the core strategy so much as they bolster the existing themes with more impactful cards and better consistency.

Are you considering picking up this precon? How would you upgrade it? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! If you want more MSH coverage, check out Draftsim’s YouTube channel and newsletter, both called The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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