Mister FantasticMister Fantastic | Art by Gintas Galvanauskas

Marvel Superheroes is right around the corner, and with it comes not one but four new four-color commanders for none other than Marvel’s first family.

As a kid, they were mostly those characters who showed up in the Secret Wars saga of the Spider-Man cartoon. I’d go on to read various comics with them in it, including the Ultimate Fantastic Four run in full.

I don’t have the full scope of appreciation that Bennie does, but I know and enjoy them well enough to appreciate the cleverness of the designs.

They all care about noncreature spells and interact with them in different ways, but Mister Fantastic himself has a quirky hook in copying triggered abilities.

I realized that there’s one noncreature card type whose entire purpose is triggered abilities…

And with that, my mind went to the races…

What Does Mister Fantastic Do?

Mister Fantastic is a 2/4 for with vigilance and reach. He has two relevant abilities. First, he draws a card at the beginning of combat if you’ve cast a noncreature spell.

Noncreature spell is a very wide swath of spells, so this is a trivial condition to achieve on most turns with very little adjustment to deck construction.

Second, he has an activated ability that lets him copy a triggered ability twice.

Triggered abilities are nearly as commonplace as noncreature spells– just look for “at”, “when”, or “whenever”.

There are a wide array of directions that this deck can run down just on this alone– even cEDH is a possibility, as Harvey McGuinness shows.

Mister Fantastic could go a Spellslinger route, using instants and sorceries to guarantee card draw, while copying triggers from Jin-Gitaxias, Progress TyrantJin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant or Arcane BombardmentArcane Bombardment.

I’m a little more straightforward and enjoy the idea of a card type that interacts with both parts: Sagas.

Hoping to cast a noncreature spell and hold up mana to activate Mister Fantastic isn’t always going to work out, but Sagas have plenty of powerful chapter abilities after the first which are worth getting two extra bites of.

Let’s examine this particular solution…

Key Cards for Mister Fantastic

The deck needs three unique elements to win: Sagas, cards which key off of Sagas in some way, and copying effects. First of note: this deck runs 25 Sagas– pretty standard, seeing as they’re the whole point of the deck.

Because of that, they have to fulfill some basic deck functions like card advantage (Rediscover the WayRediscover the Way), ramp (The Weatherseed TreatyThe Weatherseed Treaty), and removal (The Fall of Lord KondaThe Fall of Lord Konda). After that, things get more fun.

Some Sagas can double as threats, like the transforming ones from Neon Dynasty and Avatar: the Last Airbender.

This deck runs two in particular that don’t transform but do warp the board state enough to present potentially lethal damage: Kiora Bests the Sea GodKiora Bests the Sea God and Roar of Endless SongRoar of Endless Song. Games gotta end.

The Sagas are good, but with a little extra spice, they can get a lot more exciting.

There are three kinds of cards which interact with Sagas: those which directly call out Sagas (Satsuki, the Living LoreSatsuki, the Living Lore, more general enchantment-matters cards (Starfield MysticStarfield Mystic), and the Historic batch (Crystal Skull, Isu SpyglassCrystal Skull, Isu Spyglass).

There are three essential ways these cards can help magnify the saga cards: manipulate lore counters, draw cards, or reduce their costs.

Manipulating lore counters is a good way to either rewind to a powerful first chapter or help skip through the boring middle to its finale, like the aforementioned Satsuki or the new Chong and Lily, NomadsChong and Lily, Nomads.

Enchantress effects like Satyr EnchanterSatyr Enchanter are always good in decks like this, ensuring the cards keep flowing even if Mister FantasticMister Fantastic is locked in the N-Zone for the foreseeable future.

Finally, reducing the costs of the Sagas helps reduce the strain on our mana, potentially ensuring we can cast a Saga and copy its first chapter.

Starnheim CourserStarnheim Courser is one of the best due to it also reducing the cost of artifacts (for a grand total of 40 cards it cheapens).

Finally, copying effects: a form of redundancy for our commander. There are two ways this could go: other cards that copy triggered abilities Strionic ResonatorStrionic Resonator, or cards that copy the Sagas themselves. This deck opted for the latter.

Estrid's InvocationEstrid's Invocation can not only copy any of our Sagas but flicker itself to keep the stories going.

Several cards actually have triggered abilities themselves to copy Sagas, like Ondu SpiritdancerOndu Spiritdancer, meaning Mister Fantastic can copy those instead to give us four copies of a Saga.

This is a theme that can really get out of hand.

The research is done, let’s run some trials…

How Does the Deck Win?

This is a value grind deck, hoping to pick up enough cardboard and put it on the table to overwhelm opponents. Every Saga will essentially cast three or more spells, and Mister FantasticMister Fantastic can triple some of those over time.

Copying effects like the power-doubling of Roar of Endless SongRoar of Endless Song will take a few small threats and make them indomitable.

There are some cards in the deck that represent a big endgame push by interacting with the graveyard: Eivor, Wolf-KissedEivor, Wolf-Kissed and Eiganjo DynastorianEiganjo Dynastorian.

Eivor helps fill the graveyard while cheating in Sagas, and Eiganjo Dynastorian can cast ReplenishReplenish to suddenly reanimate all of those milled enchantments.

Finally, there is the token angle. There is one card that really takes this game plan and pushes it to the extreme: Three Blind MiceThree Blind Mice.

Its second and third chapters make a copy of any token you control– meaning that if you have any token copies of the Saga itself, it can make a copy of itself and keep repeating endlessly– thankfully a win condition in and of itself due to the pump effect in the final chapter.

Even if it doesn’t get copied, this deck has a nice amount of ways to make tokens so there will always be something worth copying. This list lacks token doublers like Anointed ProcessionAnointed Procession, but it’s an easy consideration.

Great– the prototype should be just about ready…

Mister Fantastic Commander Deck List

It’s clobbering time.

Conclusion

Some final notes: there are a lot of interesting sub-themes which could have been explored in more depth. More copying effects like Lithoform EngineLithoform Engine or Peter Parker's CameraPeter Parker's Camera could act as additional redundancy or magnify what Mister FantasticMister Fantastic is doing.

A streak of token doublers could also be good. This is more focused on the Sagas themselves and aims for the Core (2) bracket, as it is a slower card type.

A few tutors could make the Three Blind MiceThree Blind Mice plan more consistent and bump this up to Upgraded (3) pretty easily. This deck is almost five-color, but not quite.

Dropping black is barely noticeable, to be honest, aside from a few nice hits like Narci, Fable SingerNarci, Fable Singer and Binding the Old GodsBinding the Old Gods. If you feel it necessary to hit all five colors, try good old Tom BombadilTom Bombadil (I wrote about him here)– if you want a more reigned-in Saga experience, Princess Garnet is a fantastic way to start.

I hope very much that this narrowing-down of Mister Fantastic’s open-ended theme provides some interest, or some inspiration down a different path! Let me know what wide-open commander you’ve taken down narrower streets.