Marvel’s Spider-Man releases on September 26th, and as of last week we now know every single card in the set. While the set unfortunately doesn’t feature any Commander precons, the set does have several great cards for Commander, and offers a significant power up for many EDH decks. In this article, I’ll take a look at some the Commanders that have benefited the most from Spider-Man.
SHELOB, CHILD OF UNGOLIANT
Perhaps most obviously, Shelob, Child of Ungoliant is very excited about the influx of tons of new Spiders in the set. While any legendary creature who likes Spiders benefits, Shelob is the most popular and arguably the most powerful Spider commander. I was pretty excited about this card back when it was originally printed, and it’s only gotten even better.
She makes all your spiders harder to kill and gives them death touch, and anytime one of your many Spiders kills an opposing creature, you get a token copy of it that’s a Food token. There are a whopping 12 spiders between the main set and Marvel’s Spider-Man Eternal that can be played in a Shelob deck, as well as several Spider payoffs.
The two cards that are the most ready-made for Shelob are Spider-Ham, Peter Porker and Gwenom, Remorseless. Like Shelob, Spider-Ham loves Spiders and Food tokens, allowing you to take advantage of the two main points of synergy in most Shelob decks.
Gwenom is less obviously connected to the Spider and Food them, but she has a Bolas’s Citadel-like ability, and that’s always insanely strong in a deck that can gain lots of life with food. Plus, when she attacks, your opponent basically has to block her or be in a world of trouble, so you’ll get this strong trigger, 4 life, and a Food for all of your trouble.
PROSPER, TOME-BOUND
While the Spider theme in Spider-Man is pretty obvious, there’s also a fairly significant number of cards in the set that pay you off for playing cards from somewhere other than your hand and Prosper, Tome-Bound is all about that life.
He lets you exile a card from the top of your library during your end step, and gives you a treasure any time you play something from exile. Previously, there were only a handful of cards like Prosper that pay you off for this, so the fact there are several powerful Spider-Man cards that like it when you cast stuff from exile is a boon for an already powerful Commander.
Interdimensional Web Watch is perhaps the most exciting of the bunch, as it not only exiles a couple of cards for you to play, it can also be tapped for mana to cast anything from exile, making it much easier for you to find the mana to cast all your spells from exile.
Spider-Verse isn’t far behind, though. It lets you double one spell cast from exile every turn, and if that spell happens to be a creature, it also gains haste. Prosper is primed and ready to really abuse both of these cards in a big way.
CHAINER, NIGHTMARE ADEPT
Any Commander who really likes it when you discard cards has been augmented by the addition of Spider-Man. This is because of the Mayhem mechanic, which effectively gives a card flashback during a turn in which you discarded it.
I think the Commander that benefits the most from this is Chainer, because he comes with a built-in discard ability that doesn’t cost any mana, while also being able to take advantage of the stuff you throw in the graveyard.
While the set has many cards that could slot nicely into a Chainer deck, Ultimate Green Goblin and Carnage, Crimson Chaos should be at the top of the list. Both of them come with Mayhem, and Ultimate Green Goblin gives you an additional way to discard cards for value. Meanwhile, Carnage lets you reanimate small creatures for a turn, and you’re likely to have plenty of those in a Chainer deck.
JODAH, THE UNIFIER
If you use any Commander who loves legendary creatures, Spider-Man likely upgraded your deck. After all, of the sets 191 cards 79 of them are legendary creatures! Jodah is the most popular “legendary matters” Commander, but if you use Captain Sisay or Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, you should also rejoice. And the set even features a subtle “legendary matters” theme.
Peter Parker is perfect for Jodah decks, because not only does it give you a cheap legendary creature to get down early, you can also transform it (or cast it as) into Amazing Spider-Man, who gives virtually all legendary creatures web-slinging, a mechanic that lets you cast them on the cheap. Casting legendaries cheaply is exactly what Jodah wants to do for his cast trigger to go wild.
Additionally, Amazing Alliance gives you a strictly better Glorious Anthem that can gain you a ton of life in a legendary deck.
END STEP
What do you think? What Commanders got the biggest upgrade with the release of Spider-Man? Let me know on X or Bluesky.
Jacob has been playing Magic for the better part of 24 years, and he especially loves playing Magic’s Limited formats. He also holds a PhD in history from the University of Oklahoma. In 2015, he started his YouTube channel, “Nizzahon Magic,” where he combines his interests with many videos covering Magic’s competitive history. When he’s not playing Magic or making Magic content, he can be found teaching college-level history courses or caring for a menagerie of pets with his wife.