ICONIC Marvel Heroes Are Also INCREDIBLE Commanders

Last updated on October 31, 2024

Storm, Force of Nature | Illusrtation by Magali Villeneuve

Wizards of the Coast will release five Secret Lairs (yes, you read that right: five!) focused on the MTG-Marvel Universes Beyond crossover. Announced last Friday at New York Comic Con 2024 and set to release on November 4, the Marvel Superdrop will bring five brand-new Magic cards featuring Storm, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Wolverine, alongside reprints of several Commander staples.

The new-to-Magic cards will feature the five Marvel Super Heroes as legendary creatures and will be legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage. Each drop will contain one of these new cards, alongside several valuable reprints.

As noted in the official article, while there's no hard end date to the sale, these drops will be available in limited quantities.

Storm, Force of Nature

One of the most prominent X-Men, Storm, Force of Nature is also arguably the most powerful of the bunch with her storm-granting ability. Temur already has access to some of the most powerful spells in Magic, and throwing storm on anything along the likes of Nexus of Fate or Magma Opus[/card] is borderline game-winning.

Thus far, Storm's Secret Lair has generated the most traction on Reddit, with her announcement thread getting almost twice as many upvotes as Captain America’s. Storm, Force of Nature's EDH decks have, at least this early on, caught the most attention in cEDH circles as a competitive Temur commander, and by current prices her Secret Lair is by far the most valuable.

Ice Storm is a green sorcery that hasn't seen print since Unlimited, making scarcity push the price of this piece of land destruction above $50.

Jeska's Will, one of the best cast-from-exilie cards ever printed, is presented as Storm's Will in this drop, and the basic print costs around $18.

WotC hasn’t revealed if the five brand-new cards will be reprinted as part of the Marvel-Magic sets expected next year, so there's no way of knowing how valuable these new cards will end up being.

But as far as current value goes, Storm, Force of Nature‘s looking like a very strong commander and two of the reprints already cover Storm's Secret Lair's price.

Captain America, First Avenger

There's little surprise in WotC making Captain America, First Avenger an equipment commander, and even less in him being a Jeskai commander – even altering the classic order in which the colors are presented ( rather than ) to better match the way that the Captain would list the colors of the flag he fights for.

But Magic's designers really have delivered: Captain America, First Avenger is a dream come true for Commander players who love assembling equipment decks.

And the rest of Captain America's toolbox is not too shabby, either!

Flawless Maneuver, Sigarda's Aid, and Shield of War and Peace cost around $8-9 each and see ample Commander play.

Wolverine, Best There Is

Everybody's favorite grumpy Canadian headlines another of the Marvel Secret Lairs: Wolverine, Best There Is is a flavor win with regeneration and a built-in damage-doubling ability.

Players are already eagerly brewing with this Gruul commander, although he may end up being a bit small for Commander tables (which may actually be even more flavor: unlike how he is portrayed in the movies, Wolverine is fairly short in the comics!).

Wolverine's drop goes tall in price, though!

The Ozolith, cosplaying as Adamantium Bonding Tank in this drop, is a Commander staple priced over $35. And Berserk is not too far behind, with a $20-$22 price tag at the time of writing.

All in all, although Wolverine doesn't look as strong a commander as the previous two, in reprint value he comes as a clear second after Storm's drop.

Iron Man, Titan of Innovation

Inventors' Fair (currently costing about $12) and above all Commander's Plate  (priced around $33) are the two reprints to look at for value in the Iron Man, Titan of Innovation Secret Lair.

Tony Stark is no slouch himself as an Izzet commander, creating treasure and letting you tutor artifacts with his attack trigger. Iron Man, Titan of Innovation looks like an interesting artifact commander, but gauging by early traction on Reddit (nearly a third from what Storm's drop got), players are not as hyped about the Titan of Innovation as they seem to be about the previous three.

Black Panther, Wakandan King

King T'Challa seems to have gotten the short end of the stick among these five SL drops. Black Panther, Wakandan King looks like a very interesting Selesnya commander with a unique twist (putting +1/+1 counters on lands and then moving them, a wink to the Vibranium from Wakanda's mines), but as far as reprint value goes, this drop looks like the lowest.

Priced around $7-$10, Heroic Intervention and Bast's Blessing (aka Primal Vigor) are very good cards, but clearly not as expensive as the toys that the other Marvel Superheroes get.

… And a Web-Slinging Set?

WotC decided to be very stingy with this follow-up announcement, but there's also going to be a Spiderman-focused Magic set:

There's literally nothing we know right now about this one: could be anything from another Secret Lair, to some EDH Precons like Doctor Who this year, or a whole draftable set. Currently, there's no other information other than the Spider-Man product page.

But all in all, it looks clear that 2025 will be Magic's Marvel year!