Minotaur, Roxxon CEO | Art by David Palumbo

After all the spell-slinging and rounds of Mage's Tower of Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS), it's time for summer break. And what better way to spend that time than with the summer blockbuster of Marvel Super Heroes (MSH)!

The heroes and villains we all know and love, plus some very weird deep cuts, are here for action. I think we were all a little disappointed with how Spider-Man fared, but let's give this set a fair shot and see what powers Minotaurs can gain.

For those new to my reviews, I analyze cards from the perspective of Minotaur typal and how they can be used in the various sub-strategies available, those currently being Aggressive Combat, Discard, and MagarMagar Big Spells. Each has their own nuances, but all broadly rely on the same core Minotaur typal backbone.

So with that, let's assemble the Avengers and set out once more into New York City. Who knows, third time could be the charm.

Minotaur, Roxxon CEOMinotaur, Roxxon CEO

Here he is. Move over Labyrinth AdversaryLabyrinth Adversary, we've got the real Minotaur now. It's literally his name.

This is such a cool design space for Minotaurs. Theros Beyond Death introduced the sacrifice theme for Minotaur typalMinotaur typal and the Roxxon CEO puts that into gear. Whenever any nontoken creature dies, we create a 2/1 Villain token with menace. So when we sacrifice a creature we get a guy to replace it, which is great for sacrifice payoffs and an Aristocrat playstyle. It also means that an Edict effectEdict effect causes three creatures to die, potentially creating three tokens for us.

Furthermore, with how Minotaur is worded he also acts as insurance against a board wipe. Consider the following scenario: if everyone at the table had five creatures in play, when destroyed by Wrath of GodWrath of God, or Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act we would get twenty Villain tokens, allowing us to be a serious threat after the dust settles. This position of power should allow us to broker some deals with the players at the table or outright end the game, depending on what life totals are like.

I am really impressed by the many ways Minotaur can be used, and I am definitely adding him to any Minotaur deck I'm building.

Spider-Man, New ChampionSpider-Man, New Champion

After Spider-Man I didn't think there was much design space left to be explored for the many iterations of the web-slingers, but here I would be wrong.

This version of Miles Morales does a few interesting things for Minotaur decks. The least exciting is that he has reach. Minotaur decks are very weak to creatures with flying as we have few cards that can block them.

So Spider-Man having reach can at the very least help us with that problem.

The more interesting effect is that he turns our discards into targeted removal. Currently we use Glint-Horn BuccaneerGlint-Horn Buccaneer or Magmakin ArtilleristMagmakin Artillerist to burn down our opponents with each card discarded. This is great to slowly chip down people, but it means we have to rely on spells to remove threats. Spider-Man helps solve this blind spot. Now if we were to wheelwheel a full hand, we can blast a threatening creature or planeswalker for seven damage. Alternatively, if there is one player that is causing problems, Spider-Man can target all the damage directly at that player, melting them down even faster.

Ares, God of WarAres, God of War

One of the biggest obstacles to Minotaur typal is when our creatures inevitably die. It comes with the territory of being combat-focused. Minotaurs are expensive creatures and losing them in combat can create setbacks hard to recover from. Ares has a better way.

The God of War (not you KratosKratos) has decided that our attacking creatures don't die, they go back to the hand. This makes the choice to attack so much simpler, as we don't have to calculate if an attack is safe or not. Currently Dolmen GateDolmen Gate is the best tool at our disposal for keeping our Minotaurs alive, but the redundancy is appreciated.

Additionally, by having our dead attacking Minotaurs return to hand, it makes it a lot harder to run out of gas during a game. This is especially true if SethronSethron is our commander, as we shouldn't run out of Minotaurs to play to create his Hurloon tokens, thus keeping us in the fight for a lot longer.

Misty Knight, Hero for HireMisty Knight, Hero for Hire

Something I've come to learn when writing these reviews is how important card draw is for Minotaurs. That is especially true when we build our decks around discarding our cards. Misty Knight I think will play a key part in this strategy going forward.

There are a lot of things going for Misty Knight as a card. She's cheap, costing only two mana, so she won't be competing with a lot of the Minotaur cards we want to be running in our deck, as Minotaurs tend to crowd around the three-mana portion of our curve.

Then we have her aggressive stat line. Since we can play her quickly, we can use her to start the pressure early and especially target our opponents that focus on ramping. However once people have blockers we will want to hold her back to start using her ability.

And her ability is what I am most interested in. For two mana we discard a card, then draw a card for every card we've discarded. This is massive, as it effectively replaces each card we've pitched, allowing us to continually have more cards to discard later. But when rummaging, cycling, or wheel effects are added into the mix, Misty Knight starts giving us card advantage.

I think this is going to be critical to make sure we never burn ourselves out in our discarding. One problem is that this doesn't pair well with Neheb, the WorthyNeheb, the Worthy, who is our usual commander for Minotaur discard decks. He wants us to have an empty hand to power up our Minotaurs. Instead, I think she'll work better with Neheb, Dreadhorde ChampionNeheb, Dreadhorde Champion.

Dreadhorde Champion is already dumping our hand when he hits an opponent. So Misty Knight allows us to completely refill the hand on top of the cards Dreadhorde draws us. Together we can churn through our cards like a machine and unlike anything else to get our discard payoffs going. It'll be a bloodbath, that's for sure.

Cosmic CubeCosmic Cube

The Cosmic Cube I see being the spiciest card in the set for Minotaurs.

This is an artifact that has the specific ability to cast spells for free dependent on the number of creatures attacking. Given how aggressive Minotaurs are, this is an excellent tool to dig into our deck. As every time we attack, we look at the top six cards and cast a spell for free if it costs less than or equal to the number of attacking creatures. Given that most Minotaur spells fall between two or four mana we should always have something to cast.

This is most important for SethronSethron decks, as we need to cast Minotaur spells to make the most of his ability. The more we can attack, the greater the value our Minotaurs generate. It doesn't hurt that the Cube also has ward 2 so it is harder to remove after we've played it.

Now consider what happens when extra combat triggers are thrown into the mix, either from cards like Aggravated AssaultAggravated Assault, or Moraug, Fury of AkoumMoraug, Fury of Akoum. Suddenly we aren't casting one spell, we're casting multiple. Or if you're playing a Magar of the Magic StringsMagar of the Magic Strings deck you can loop Savage BeatingSavage Beating for infinite combat steps and keep casting greater and greater threats. But I suppose by then, you should already be winning with the infinite combats.

Living LaserLiving Laser

Living Laser has to be one of the funniest cards I've seen.

Here we have an Elemental that just makes copies of himself for all the cards we've discarded before combat. It's kind of impossible to not theory-craft how to make as many tokens as possible with him. Each token is a 4/4 with flying looking to beat people to death and then sacrifice themselves, playing into the discard and sacrifice themes of Minotaur typal.

Having haste is the cherry on top if you can draw into him after a Wheel and play him that turn. The best I have come up with is a having Living Laser in play alongside at least one Wheel effect, which should be enough to defeat one player at the table. Afterwards you're probably going to need the best Machiavellian tactics to survive the next turn.

The way I imagine it, it should only take about five discards to kill a player, by the time Living Laser can be played. So his effectiveness really is dependent on how well you're managing your hand size, alongside the classic Minotaur discard staples like Glint-Horn BuccaneerGlint-Horn Buccaneer, Monument to EnduranceMonument to Endurance, Grisly SurvivorGrisly Survivor, or Insult // InjuryInsult // Injury. But if you can make Living Laser a Minotaur through the various cards that can add creature types, such as Maskwood NexusMaskwood Nexus, suddenly Living Laser becomes an armada of Minotaurs bearing the full benefit of our Minotaur lords, and should end the game right there.

Conclusion

And with that, classes come to a close on Marvel Super Heroes. I was really impressed by how much they stuffed into this set. I think the amount of legendary creatures was overkill, but it did show just how expansive the world of Marvel is beyond what the Disney movies show us.

Overall, I think I like the set more than I was expecting to, especially for the support Minotaurs received, even though I personally don't care about Marvel as an IP.

Looking forward, not too long from now we're returning to the world of Middle-Earth with The Hobbit. I have high expectations after how great The Lord of Rings: Tales of Middle-earth was, and I'm definitely going to be rewatching all the movies leading up to it - even though I don't think we'll be getting any Minotaurs.

Until next time, be sure to check out the other set reviews found on EDHREC for a broader analysis on everything the set has to offer.

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