Avengers Assemble!Avengers Assemble! | Illustrated by Alex Horley-Orlandelli

Marvel Super Heroes previews for the main set have recently concluded and as par for the course in recent Universes Beyond sets, there are a bunch of new legendary creatures that take time to digest and ponder their uses.

I'm here to help with that! I've got over 30 years experience playing multiplayer Magic, and nearly 18 years playing and writing about EDH/Commander. I combed through the list and leveraged my expertise to highlight new legends that stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of power, fun, or both.

So as the great Stan Lee used to say... make mine Marvel!

The Scarlet WitchThe Scarlet Witch

It's a flavor home-run that The Scarlet WitchThe Scarlet Witch card cares about spells. Discounting instant and sorcery spells with mana value four or greater by her power is potent even if you don't consider boosting her two power. Red has a lot of spells that temporarily boost her power if you want to cast a flurry of more expensive spells; think Brute ForceBrute Force. If you know me you know how much I love Blackblade ReforgedBlackblade Reforged, and I would personally include a fair number of Equipment cards to boost and protect her.

King T'ChallaKing T'Challa

Having "draw a card" in a commander's text box always warrants a close look, and since King T'ChallaKing T'Challa is Azorius , which has plenty of card draw, this card instantly rockets to the top of the power list. Plus he has flash? Plus the Black Panther side has double strike and is basically immune to damage?

Tony StarkTony Stark

For these dual-faced cards where you can cast either side I've tended to lean towards flat out casting the more powerful back side first, and using the cheaper front side as a way to circumvent commander tax of sorts when your commander gets sent back to the command zone. But the front side of Tony StarkTony Stark sets up the Iron Man back side so well I can't imagine not running Tony out first and working it for a while before transforming. You'll want powerful Equipment cards to eventually attach to the Iron Man side, but you'll stuff your deck with a bunch of other artifacts to ensure you never miss with activating. Pepper in some artifact lands like Silverbluff BridgeSilverbluff Bridge to help with that.

Captain Marvel, Earth's ProtectorCaptain Marvel, Earth's Protector

While it will be a challenge to ramp up to seven mana in a timely fashion to power up Captain Marvel, Earth's ProtectorCaptain Marvel, Earth's Protector, you will indeed get a formidable and resilient protector for your trouble. I like that she has lifelink, so while she's punching your opponents' life totals, she's padding yours from the crack backs. The flash is a nice bonus to wave away attackers the turn you get to seven mana.

Doctor DoomDoctor Doom

Doctor DoomDoctor Doom himself seems a bit small as a 3/3 for six mana, but as befitting a Villain of his stature he brings a lot to the party. He enters with two 3/3 Doombots, and so long as you control an artifact creature or a Plan (a cool new Enchantment type, such as Doom Reigns SupremeDoom Reigns Supreme), Doom has indestructible. I expect Darksteel MyrDarksteel Myr and Darksteel ColossusDarksteel Colossus are going to get a lot of work in future Commander decks led by Doom!

And if that wasn't enough, at the beginning of your end step, you draw a card and lose a life, so you're already one card deeper into finding what you need for your evil plans.

Bruce BannerBruce Banner

While I personally am more enamored with the Hulk side of Bruce BannerBruce Banner (and wrote up a deck tech about it here), I know a bunch of power gamers are going to be stoked about the front side of Bruce and all the card drawing potential. Between the permanent-based land ramp afforded in green, and the fast mana available in red, I expect Bruce is going to be drawing a lot of cards... you know, for science!

Absorbing ManAbsorbing Man

If your opponents allow Absorbing ManAbsorbing Man to live to the beginning of your first main phase, shenanigans will ensue! The combo-minded folks out there are surely brewing up all sorts of wild brews around this fellow and I can't wait to see them. What happens when he becomes a copy of a planeswalker? Who knows! Me, I'm a simple man and will probably run a bunch of Vehicles in my Absorbing ManAbsorbing Man deck. But what I do know is this is a cool design and is wide open for how powerful or weird you want to make it.

M.O.D.O.K.M.O.D.O.K.

M.O.D.O.K.M.O.D.O.K. is shockingly powerful and certainly earns its mythic rarity. Burning life as a resourceful is super easy in Commander, and black has a bunch of cards that can recoup life and also payoff losing life. This Villain also has lifelink which pays off conniving away nonland cards. The obvious path this deck will take is reanimation strategies since you can connive away huge creatures while digging for a reanimation spell, but it can drive other combo strategies or just be a value engine.

Oh, and not to be overlooked is that Designed Only for Killing ability that shrinks your opponents' creatures and outright kills creatures with one toughness!

Thor, God of ThunderThor, God of Thunder

What lands Thor, God of ThunderThor, God of Thunder on my list is its flexibility: he can either helm an Equipment deck, or an instant and sorcery matters deck, or just a general good stuff deck where you run a fair number of Equipment, instant and sorcery spells. Meanwhile Thor does a pretty good Terror of the PeaksTerror of the Peaks impression for noncreature spells.

In a nod to flavorful design, Thor has nice synergy with Mjölnir, Hammer of ThorMjölnir, Hammer of Thor's discard ability!

The Mighty Thor, Jane FosterThe Mighty Thor, Jane Foster

If you've ever seen Phelia, Exuberant ShepherdPhelia, Exuberant Shepherd in action you've got to give The Mighty Thor, Jane FosterThe Mighty Thor, Jane Foster respect for a very similar effect, and if you're blinking your own Equipment card you get to draw a card! Notably her ability is a nice way to unequip Lightning Greaves if you don't have another creature to move it to if you're wanting to equip a new drawn Equipment.

While you sadly can't put Mjölnir, Hammer of ThorMjölnir, Hammer of Thor in a Jane deck, you could run Mjölnir, Storm HammerMjölnir, Storm Hammer! It even attaches back to a legendary creature if Jane blinks it to draw a card.

Scientist Supreme of A.I.M.Scientist Supreme of A.I.M.

Paying just two life to copy a target activated or triggered ability you control from an artifact source is incredibly powerful even if it's restricted to your own turn and only once each turn, and Scientist Supreme of A.I.M.Scientist Supreme of A.I.M. only costs two mana, so you can count on having it on the battlefield early and often. There are a wide variety of powerful and weird artifacts you can pair up with this Villain, I can't wait to see what people cook up.

Jennifer WaltersJennifer Walters

Back to my typical play pattern for these cards, I'll be casting Jennifer WaltersJennifer Walters's She-Hulk side most often first, and what a great bunch of abilities. You can attack with creatures once you cast She-Hulk and make it very awkward for blocking. I'd be very tempted to run Grothama, All-DevouringGrothama, All-Devouring in a Jennifer WaltersJennifer Walters deck, especially since she shuts down any spells your opponents might cast to break up your shenanigans. Her reach ability makes it awkward for opponents to attack you, too.

Moon Girl and Devil DinosaurMoon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

Moon Girl and Devil DinosaurMoon Girl and Devil Dinosaur doesn't ask for much to be powerful: just play a bunch of artifacts and you'll draw an extra card that might be another artifact to deploy again next turn. Meanwhile, you'll be smashing face with your 6/6 trampler. Equipment seems like an excellent artifact type to load up on to make your Human Dinosaur Hero smash life totals even harder. Liberator, Urza's BattlethopterLiberator, Urza's Battlethopter is a natural fit so you can draw an extra card on your opponents' turns.

Super-SkrullSuper-Skrull

Super-SkrullSuper-Skrull is a fascinating riff on Kenrith, the Returned KingKenrith, the Returned King's pile of cool abilities. It's got an incredibly heavy black mana requirement to cast, and the abilities are expensive to activate, so you'll want to include a lot of ways to generate a bunch of mana across all five colors... and don't leave home without Training GroundsTraining Grounds to discount 'em! Especially since the blue activated ability is going to be what you want to activate the most. I can't wait to see what people cook up for the Skrull!

The Unbeatable Squirrel GirlThe Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Even if you're not a fan of Universes Beyond or Marvel specifically, I bet Squirrel fans will be hard pressed not to put The Unbeatable Squirrel GirlThe Unbeatable Squirrel Girl in their 99 if not the commander. Not only is this cute because, you know, Squirrels are cute, but it does exactly what you want: generate an ever-growing army of Squirrels! The activated ability is mana-hungry, but you're a green deck, you can handle it.

Baron Helmut ZemoBaron Helmut Zemo

Are you playing a mono-black with a bunch of black mana pips? Baron Helmut ZemoBaron Helmut Zemo is here for just that sort of strategy. The connive ability helps stock your graveyard, and once you've got fifteen black mana pips on spells in your graveyard that boast ability is going lead to a really wild turn. It's going to be a fun deck-building adventure to hunt down the most intensive black mana spells you can cram into your deck.

The Sentry, Golden GuardianThe Sentry, Golden Guardian

The Sentry, Golden GuardianThe Sentry, Golden Guardian is a fascinating design that calls back to the "hunted" cards, like Hunted DragonHunted Dragon. A 5/5 creature with flying, vigilance, and indestructible is incredibly powerful for just four mana, and the balancing drawback is actually an upside in Commander. You give an opponent a 5/5 black Horror Villain creature token named The Void that has flying and indestructible and has to attack each combat if able. Notably, The Void does not have vigilance, so it will usually be tapped when it's forced to attack, which clears the way for The Sentry to smash into that opponent's life totals if you want.

Mole Man, Moloid MasterMole Man, Moloid Master

Mole Man, Moloid MasterMole Man, Moloid Master will mostly be played in the 99 of landfall decks since it lets you play lands from your graveyard and has a landfall ability that creates 1/1 green Minion tokens that mill yourself when it attacks, but I think the combination of abilities is strong enough to warrant building a mono-green landfall deck with Mole Man as your commander.

Fin Fang FoomFin Fang Foom

Fin Fang FoomFin Fang Foom is undeniably powerful, but you'll want to be very careful about going down the Stone RainStone Rain path since land destruction is very much frowned in Commander and if you go that route you'll want to limit it to Bracket 4 pods where players are more accepting of land destruction. The rough thing about this card is, even if you're not playing Stone RainStone Rain effects and you make it clear your deck "isn't like that," people are going to be wary and skeptical unless they know you well.

Kang the ConquerorKang the Conqueror

Kang the ConquerorKang the Conqueror's ability is definitely flavorful, but this is going to be another card that you'll want to be open with your pregame conversation to ensure everyone is okay with you taking extra turns attached to your commander. You can load up on blink effects so you can keep using the power-up ability to take another turn, which is going to be incredibly fun for you, but not so much for your opponents.

I had a half-dozen other picks that could have easily made this list, but for the sake of my editor's sanity I'm going to stop here. What other new legends do you think are going to be powerful or fun? Which are you going to be building new Commander decks around?

Excelsior!

Read more:

The Incredible Hulk Commander Deck Tech

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