Spider-Man 2099 Commander Deck Tech

Spider-Man 2099 | Art by Toni Infante

The first wave of spoilers for the Spider-Man set proper have arrived! There are a lot of cards from this set I'm looking forward to building around, but the first card that caught my eye was Spider-Man 2099, who I'll be taking a crack at in this deck tech.

I've been a Spider-Man fan for as long as I can remember, and many of these cards read like they were designed specifically for me. Nearly every single one of my favorite characters from these universes have been given mechanics that I enjoy and placed in my favorite colors. I mean, just look at Gwen Stacy!

Spider-Man 2099 is no exception. A two-mana Izzet () legend that pairs well with Curiosity effects and rewards me for fiddling with card advantage engines? Malcolm, the Eyes has serious competition now.

What Does Spider-Man 2099 Do?

Spider-Man 2099 is a two-mana 2/3 with double strike, vigilance, and a very odd drawback: he can't be cast on the first, second, or third turn.

From a flavor standpoint, I think that's really cool. He's from the future, and waiting to cast him on turn four practically feels like waiting until the year 2099. His end step trigger has to seriously make up for that downside - and it does!

At the beginning of the end step, if a land has been played or a spell has been cast from anywhere other than the hand, Spider-Man 2099 does damage equal to his power to any target.

There are so many directions to go with this. There are a lot of ways to play cards from the graveyard, exile, or even directly from the library, and all of those directions seem very powerful.

My version of Spider-Man 2099 is going to be a tempo deck; it'll straddle the line between aggro and control. Spider-Man 2099's end step trigger is incredibly versatile, being able to burn out opponents over time or simply pick off threatening creatures and planeswalkers every turn cycle.

The goal is to thwart opponents at every turn as they try to win the game and use powerful card advantage engines, like Curiosity and Ophidian Eye, to create overwhelming card advantage and slowly wrest control of the game away from the rest of the table.

Key Cards for Spider-Man 2099

In order for this deck to work at all, there needs to be a lot of ways to play cards from zones other than the hand.

Play From Exile

First, we have cards like Tavern Brawler, Outpost Siege, and Cait Sith, Fortune Teller that exile a card every turn. These cards are perfect as, once they've been established, they completely eliminate the need to expend resources to find a way to play cards from other zones each turn.

Then, there are one-off impulse draw effects. Expressive Iteration, a multi-format all-star that's banned in both Legacy and Pioneer, is the best of the bunch. It basically draws two cards from the top three of the deck each time it's played. There are many analogous cards in the deck, like Wrenn's Resolve and Reckless Impulse, but none do the job as well as Expressive Iteration.

Casting these cards for the second time through recursion effects, like Snapcaster Mage, Dreadhorde Arcanist, or Mystic Sanctuary, creates a drastic resource imbalance in Spider-Man 2099's favor.

Lands In the Graveyard

One of the most unique "play from outside hand" effects is Crucible of Worlds, a card that doesn't often see play outside of dedicated lands decks. Here, it's simply a way to replay fetch lands, like Scalding Tarn or Prismatic Vista, each turn. Strip Mine and Wasteland can also be played over and over again, although it isn't a particularly effective means of mana disruption in a deck that can only ever play one land each turn.

One noteworthy use of Strip Mine and Wasteland is that, over two turn cycles, they can be used to destroy Mystic Sanctuary, allowing it to be played again. This is technically an infinite, if a little slow, spell recursion engine.

Curiosity

Next up are the ways to take advantage of Spider-Man 2099's end-step trigger. Curiosity effects, like Curiosity, Ophidian Eye, and Tandem Lookout draw a card each time Spider-Man 2099 deals damage to an opponent. Even better, they'll trigger twice when he deals combat damage to an opponent, due to double strike.

That means any given Curiosity effect can draw three cards each turn!

Niv-Mizzet, Visionary is a bigger version of the aforementioned Curiosity effects. Rather than simply drawing a card when Spider-Man 2099 deals damage to an opponent, Niv-Mizzet only counts non-combat damage and draws that many cards. This will typically be two cards, but can be boosted with pump spells like Monstrous Rage.

Basilisk Collar has a very fun interaction with Spider-Man 2099. With Basilisk Collar equipped, he'll gain deathtouch and lifelink, giving him the ability to kill any creature with his end step trigger and gain life while doing it. I've found this Equipment, along with Shadowspear, to be incredibly worthwhile.

This deck is often going to force games to go long, and an easy way to gain life and deal with problematic creatures is a needed boost, particularly against smart opponents that have deduced that this deck is secretly the problem at the table and plan their combat steps accordingly.

More Damage

Finally, there are ways to convert the many game actions this deck takes into even more burn damage.

Passionate Archaeologist is an incredible burn engine that adds additional value to Curiosity effects, as rather than the enchantment dealing damage with its trigger, Passionate Archaeologist grants that ability to the commander.

Valakut Exploration supplies cards to cast from exile with its landfall trigger while also providing the tantalizing option of simply letting those cards stay in exile to deal damage to each opponent. While not the most impressive card advantage or burn engine, the fact that it does both well enough puts this enchantment over the top.

Vivi Ornitier is just a ridiculous Magic card in any deck. Here, Vivi is a mana accelerant, a burn engine, and an additional creature that has strong synergy with Curiosity. Vivi also serves as a fantastic backup in games where Spider-Man 2099 has been removed a few too many times. After the first 10-minute turn of adding a million mana and casting half of the deck, opponents will regret having pointed their removal at anything else.

How Does This Spider-Man 2099 Deck Win?

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is such a natural fit in a deck that plays all three Curiosity effects that go infinite with him. This is usually a late-game backup plan rather than a first resort due to this combo's incredibly high mana cost relative to the rest of the cards in the deck. Niv-Mizzet is also more than capable of winning a game without Curiosity as he smugly sits on the board and punishes foolish opponents for having the audacity to cast spells in his presence.

Twinflame Tyrant is a very straightforward win condition. It just makes everything do a bunch of damage! All this deck has to do is take normal game actions with this Dragon in play and the game will come to an end in very short order.

Spider-Man 2099 is also very adept at winning through commander damage. Because he has double strike, a pump spell or some +1/+1 counters from Lyla, Holographic Assistant in combination with Jeska, Thrice Reborn is capable of killing a player out of nowhere. This is particularly venomous when combined with Shadowspear, which grants trample and lifelink.

Spider-Man 2099 Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This was the most work I've put into a deck in a long time. I went through countless iterations trying to find the secret formula for this one. Halfway through working on several versions of this deck, I just stopped, deleted the deck, and started over because that iteration felt too messy or convoluted.

This deck fits solidly into Bracket 3 (Upgraded), with a caution warning for the Niv-Mizzet, Parun combos. The fact that it takes a minimum of seven mana, typically at sorcery speed, and requires an additional spell to be cast to initiate the loop, and can't actually deal enough damage to kill the whole table in one shot, should satisfy the requirement that two-card combos can't be executed in the early states of the game.

For players that enjoy the tight, stressful gameplay of tempo decks in 60-card formats, Spider-Man 2099 is an excellent fit. I definitely fit into that category. I can't imagine finding a way to play this deck without having a great time.

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