Is Spider-Man Good for Spider-Decks?

I don’t know if anyone has noticed this, but there are a lot of Spider-Man cards in Marvel’s Spider-Man! I don’t just mean cards that relate to Spidey or depict him in the art, that was to be expected. I mean there’s a shocking number of actual creature cards which represent various versions of Spider-Man.

We’ve got Peter Parker and Miles Morales of coure, but also Gwen Stacey (both as Ghost Spider and Gwenom), Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Byte, Spider-Rex… we’re really plumbing the depths of the Spider-Verse. What surprised me more is that rather than inventing some bespoke new creature type like “webslinger”, Wizards just went with “Spider”: a creature type that’s been in the game for decades, and which is already quite a popular theme for deckbuilders!

So, are we about to see a golden age for spider typal decks? That sounds like the obvious outcome when a whole set of cards is dedicated to your deck’s central theme, but still… my spidey sense is tingling.

DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN?

Like many of Magic’s recurring creature types, spiders have established a strong mechanical identity over the years. Originally appearing in green, spider cards exemplarize that color’s grudge against flyers: almost every spider has reach, and many sport additional anti-air capabilities.

Beyond this ultra-consistent primary role, the toolbox of arachnid mechanics is impressively deep. Their webbing can be used to arrest combat or immobilize individual creatures. Their agility and aptitude as ambush predators allows some spiders to be cast at instant speed, while others have deathtouch to represent powerful venom. 

Their sensitivity to vibration grants them vigilance and bonuses to blocking. Yet other cards emphasize their egg-laying and hordes of offspring, or their morbid tendency to wrap up and stockpile prey for later snacking. That’s an impressively large swathe of green’s color pie to have access to, even compared to more prolific types like beasts, snakes or dinosaurs! 

Of course, the new Marvel’s Spider-Man cards are spread across all five colors and have mechanics inspired by each character’s personality as much as their spider-powers. Most of the classic spider traits still show up, but only on a card or two – many of them don’t even have reach! 

It makes sense from a set design perspective; you can’t really have a whole set of creatures with the same abilities regardless of color. But it means we need to dig a little deeper if we’re looking to connect the spiders of Magic’s multiverse to their Spider-verse cousins.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

If we’re talking about spider typal deckbuilding, I think it’s safe to assume that means Commander decks. The pool of available spiders is just too sparsely distributed across Magic history for a deck to come together in a specific Constructed format, and there’s not enough powerful options to justify a themed deck without a synergistic commander to buff that specific creature type. Perhaps it’s better then to look at popular spider commanders and see whether any of the Spider-Man cards seem to support those playstyles. 

Shelob, Child of Ungoliant is by far the most popular choice for players on EDHREC, which is very understandable. She’s very powerful for her mana cost, and that “capture-prey-as-food” ability adds awesome flavor while setting up very unique and unpredictable lines of play. There’s a great example of “weird Shelob tech” in this set, in fact! 

While the food tokens created by Shelob are not creatures, they often end up with pointless +1/+1 counters on them due to inherited abilities from the original card. Well, the new Iron Spider card can efficiently slurp up those wasted counters and convert them into card draw! Once you’ve sucked those foods dry of their useful counters, you can sacrifice them for a consistent source of lifegain – lifegain which can fuel another new card-advantage engine in Gwenom, Remorseless.

Obviously there’s plenty of Spider-Man cards which would benefit from Shelob’s buffs if they rubbed shoulders in a five-color deck like Morophon. But with the Daughter of Ungoliant in the command zone restricting us to GB color identity, Spider-Man Noir is the clear standout. If you’re going to send in just one creature at a time, then adding ward and deathtouch to it are both massive force multipliers – especially if that creature has menace like Noir himself.

USEFUL MUTATIONS

Another much-loved spider commander is Thantis, the Warweaver. This bloodthirsty Jund arachnid offers more flexible deckbuilding options, thanks to both her color identity and more open-ended mechanics. 

The forced combat aspect of Thantis suits a number of Spider-Man creatures well, as it means they can attack to trigger abilities without (much) fear of blockers. This applies not only to Gwenom and Spidey Noir, but also Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit – and especially Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, who should be dishing out some chunky pre-combat damage in this deck!

Being forced to attack also ensures you’ll have tapped creatures you can bounce to pay for web-slinging on cards like Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary, which will enter untapped and give you some much-needed blockers on opposing turns. Another theme to consider with Thantis is +1/+1 counters – and that is one spider mechanic which DOES see strong representation in the Spider-Man set! Spider-Punk and Spider-Man, Miles Morales are the best options we’ve seen spoiled thus far, but Spider-Man Noir and Iron Spider are still positives here, as are Twisted Spider-Clone and (while not technically spiders) the various Venom cards.

Of course if we’re expanding our search to include ALL the new Spider-Man cards and not just spider creatures, then we can also pick up some on-theme removal spells in Venom Blast and Kapow!. It’s a little gimmicky, but you could also use Taxi Driver to catch out opponents who play creatures pre-combat: giving their things haste will force them to attack immediately due to Thantis, something their controller may not be ready for.

GRAFWIDOW’S LAMENT

Looking through the other top spider commanders, a common theme emerges: they really want a full graveyard. Ishkanah, Grafwidow and The Swarmweaver both rely on delirium to turn on their key abilities, while Izoni, Center of the Web needs non-land cards in the yard to exile for her collect evidence trigger. 

This is not one of the established mechanics for spiders as a creature type, although you can find self-mill support on a couple of cards like Nyx Weaver and Vilespawn Spider. Unfortunately that’s also true of our Universes Beyond spiders. So far the only sources of self-mill are non-creatures like Kraven’s Last Hunt, Scout the City and Eerie Gravestone.

However, there does seem to be a significant amount of recursion and other graveyard-dependent effects among the spoilers we’ve seen – enough to suggest that there may be more self-mill support yet to be revealed. So I’d still watch this space in case another spider drops which helps these commanders load up the yard – anything of that sort would instantly be a valuable inclusion.

UNIVERSES APART

It’s a little confusing that Wizards would print a whole set of new spider cards but make no significant attempt to support the mechanics historically associated with that type. 

I suppose the outcome is not that different to if they’d just gone with “spider-folk” or another totally unique type; existing spider decks have not been made materially worse. But designing cards isn’t always about the material and the quantifiable, especially in Commander. 

Players who are motivated by gradually improving their play skills and decklists tend to resent the idea that they’re somehow missing out on a potential upgrade. Look at the community backlash against cards like Lutri, the Spellchaser, or typal commanders who don’t have the right color identity to include every possible instance of their type.

I think that at least for one chunk of the playerbase, creating a bunch of spider cards which don’t fit the expectations of that type is a similar kind of sin. Slow erosion of Magic’s established design language isn’t something that will destroy the game overnight, but it does feel like we’re witnessing some of the costs of the Universes Beyond experiment here.
Uncle Ben’s parting advice might be the most over-used quote in comic books, but I hope that those with the power to steer Magic’s future keep their responsibilities in mind the next time a decision like this is on the table.