It’s time for a Commander set review of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Just how many of the cards are worth your attention? How many are worth considering if you’re not all-in on playing a Spider Hero or Villain deck?
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Card Kingdom’s set review only cares about broadly relevant cards, because we want to maximize the usefulness of the cards in your collection. So, while some cards might be incredible in one or two niche decks, we’re not as interested in giving them air time. Let’s get stuck in before JJ Jameson gets impatient.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: WHITE
Tokens decks can make use of Friendly Neighborhood, perhaps even more than Spider-Man focused decks can. With a token doubler, this becomes quite the clock. It’s a nice way to get more damage in when you’re swinging wide, and if you’re also on the enchantments plan, then you can potentially cantrip off of it.
Spectacular Spider-Man joins the ranks with Boromir and Selfless Spirit to offer you some teamwide protection. Having to hold mana up is potentially more annoying than being a free activation, but you do end up getting both hexproof and indestructible, making it worth the mana.
I’ve always loved Valorous Stance in Commander, and now there’s a new kid on the block: Spectacular Tactics. You lose out on indestructible, trading it for a +1/+1 counter and hexproof until end of turn. Is it better? Time will tell. Either way, I’m excited to test it.
Spider-UK says that EU don’t need to be part of a trade network and secure political alliance to draw cards in monowhite. You just need to welcome more creatures to your board. There’s probably a further joke here about Spider-UK drawing off of incoming creatures, but I think I’ve made my point. A solid draw engine.
A Pariah effect stapled to a growable buff? A nice little combo. The common play pattern of this will be using it offensively and soaking up the crack-back damage, but there will be times where you use it in a more tricksy way by using it as a fog, or even as removal and a fog.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: BLUE
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is a popular and powerful card, and whenever we get something similar, it’s worth checking out. At uncommon, it’s hardly going to be as good – and so you lose the legend rule breaking ability. Still, being able to loot Chamelon away and cast him for Mayhem cost is still incredibly good.
Hide on the Ceiling combines the flexibility of March of Swirling Mist with Ghostly Flicker/Eerie Interlude. You can fog incoming damage, you can save your board from a wrath… it’s a sweet card and one of my faves in the set.
Hydro-Man is really interesting, because he’s essentially a mana-dork in blue. You only get to use that mana on opponents’ turns, but still… that’s usually when you want to use it anyways. Getting to go on the offensive with him and then untap him for use as a dork is a nice bonus, as is the fact he becomes a land – therefore untargetable by common removal.
Impostor Syndrome is your typical curve-topping amplifier effect. This one is Coastal Piracy for nontoken creatures, except instead of a card, you get a pirate-copy of whatever dealt damage. It’s neat, and strong, and a card I expect to see a good amount of play.
Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor reminds me of Jhoira, Ageless Innovator. Unlike Jhoira, she needs you to consistently be drawing cards to get the counters. She also requires you to cast the cards rather than put an artifact card into play, which opens it up to being countered. Still, she’s almost as good and a whole mana less.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: BLACK
Agent Venom reminds me of Liliana’s Standard Bearer. You need to flash him in before the wrath to draw, and you lose life. On the flipside, you do get Menace, and he’s a two-power Legendary, meaning he slots into a bunch of the sweet Mardu brews, from Alesha to Terra. Definitely worth a look.
Black Cat is Gonti on steroids, and I think she’ll end up being quite the card to face down. Looking at the top nine and taking two cards is hella good. I spoke more about her and the other 10 Cards to Watch from Spider-Man in this article.
Another card to watch for is Gwenom, Remorseless. Gwenom is basically Bolas’ Citadel, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. You’re getting at base an extra four life points to toy with when she attacks. A little harder to just drop out of nowhere than Citadel, but the fact she can be put in the ‘zone means she might be coming to tables near you soon.
Parker Luck is a sweet little Enchantment. I always felt Cunning Rhetoric was a little slow, where Keen Duelist was very on point. Parker Luck is Keen Duelist, except you can pick two opponents to ensure they both lose life, if you get to the end game with life totals already low. I’m happy to play it over Phyrexian Arena.
Ah yes, The Soul Stone. While you don’t need it to win – and on average, Jet Medallion will be a better draw – it’s still an incredible mana rock that is perfect for upgrading your stronger decks. The top end of bringing stuff back every time you have an upkeep is really strong when games go a little longer, and the rock being Indestructible means it’ll survive most wraths.
Villainous Wrath is the kind of wrath that reigns supreme in a meta with a lot of token decks, or a meta with faster decks that tend to melt life totals quickly. If you’re also playing a burn or life-drain focused deck, this is a great addition.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: RED
Electro, Assaulting Battery is perfect for spellslinger decks. It’ll function a little like an extra copy of Birgi, netting you bonus mana to just keep pushing that little bit more. Being a flyer and having a relevant leave-play trigger make it all the more playable.
I think Maximum Carnage is a little underrated, to be honest. It’s full goad for the table, and then it’s a boost of mana (ideal if someone wraths and you get more mana to rebuild), and then you get to deal 5 to each opponent to bring them closer to death. It’s very likely that this ends up finishing off the table if you deploy it at the right time.
Shadow of the Goblin is an excellent pickup for mono-red decks and even other builds that like to take advantage of the graveyard. It’s likely to see a significant amount of play due to being just two mana.
Spider-Punk is a sweet little card even outside of Spider decks. Throwing this in a RW, RG or RB deck can work great for stopping tricksy blue decks and fogs if you have a lot of those to contend with in your local meta.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: GREEN
Most of the green cards are fairly replacement level, all told, and so the one that I’m actually interested in – even outside of Spider decks, where it’ll be almost an auto-include – is Radioactive Spider.
Having a stronger early game blocker than search up a specific Spider Hero that synergizes with your deck is great, and functions like a little toolbox effect if you build around it more.
SPIDER-MAN COMMANDER SET REVIEW: MULTICOLOR, ARTIFACTS & LANDS
Biorganic Carapace is a strong draw effect in UW decks, who like to combine blue’s love of drawing cards with white’s love of equipment and modified creatures. I think this one is going to end up overperforming. More modified card draw in Azorious here with SP//dr, Piloted by Peni, which I like a little less, but is still very decent.
Carnage, Crimson Chaos is one of the most badass looking cards in the set. It’s going to be an amazing reanimator target in Chainer, Nightmare Adept decks for starters, and in any RBx deck that uses the cheaper reanimator creatures like Doomed Necromancer, it’s going to perform well.
Cheering Crowd is really interesting, and I can see it being the kind of group-hug card that gets out of hand quickly. Gruul decks like Svella, Ice Shaper, for instance, will enjoy having another source of cheap mana generation.
If you’re building the “oops, all Spiders” deck, then you obviously want to grab Cosmic Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson – the perfect couple.
You also want to grab Miles Morales, who could either helm your Spider Hero deck, or be one of the best cards in the 99.
Doctor Octopus is a good lead to a Villains build, but that’s not the exciting part about him. You get the Damia, Sage of Stone ability to refill your hand up to 7 cards, but this time up to 8 cards. It’s also on your end step, so you don’t have to wait until you untap. That’s pretty sweet.
Kraven, the Hunter is going to have people building “all of the edicts” decks, and while I certainly feel like it’s a valid way to build him, I also think it’s very uninteresting and will probably lose you friends. That doesn’t change the fact that the card is pretty good, though.
Norman Osborn // Green Goblin is an evasive threat that cost reduces casting from your graveyard by {2}. It also grants Mayhem to each card you’ve discard until the end of the turn, meaning you can keep pitching into the yard to keep the engine going.
Grixis flashback has a strong contender here for best Commander for the archetype.
Mister Negative is really cool. Swapping life totals is always wild and fun in Commander, and giving you the upside here of losing some life to draw some cards if you’re not dangerously low and wanting to swap with someone high makes the card a lot more versatile.
Rhino’s Rampage has every chance of being a strong 2-for-1 a good proportion of the time, which means it ends up as my favorite uncommon from the set. If you hit a card draw or other engine creature and a Sol Ring with this, it’s gonna feel like Christmas.
Spider Manifestation is an excellent mana dork. A 2/2 with Reach that taps for two different colors, and can untap itself when you cast big spells? I’m in. Or, well, I would be, if I wasn’t so damn terrified of Spiders. Ugh.
Sun-Spider is one of the better uncommons in this set (and not just because she has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, like me!). Tutoring an Aura or Equipment and providing a Flying body (even if only on your turn) is a good deal for four mana.
Symbiote Spider-Man can help you look through a lot of cards. I’m most excited in the shenanigans you can get up to with letting it go to the graveyard (as your Commander) and then later exiling it to grow a different creature, before sending it to the Command Zone as a replacement effect.
Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade is a solid way to draw cards in counters decks that are limited in the colors they’re playing. It’s also another Steel Overseer effect, at Legendary, which is pretty cool too.
Multiversal Passage is a fun and interesting land. It’s essentially a wildcard basic land. I like it a lot in four or five color decks in this role, but in three or fewer colors it hardly seems necessary.
END STEP
Even if you’re not keen on playing with all of the Spider Hero cards, Marvel’s Spider-Man still has a nice selection of new cards to consider for your brews. What’s your favorite?
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.