Earth’s Mightiest Expansion - The Powers of Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes
Super Powered Cards - Translating Super Powers Into Mechanics
Probably the main challenge with any Universes Beyond set is translating character abilities and powers into Magic: The Gathering mechanics, getting the right blend of flavour and meaningful gameplay. Based on what we’ve seen so far, we definitely think Wizards of the Coast showcased what it means to be a superhero or villain in Magic: The Gathering.
Power-Up
No matter what abilities or powers you have, every superhero’s story has that critical moment where they need that extra bit of juice, that crucial Power-up.
Power-up is an activated ability some creatures have that can only be activated once. When you activate it, you put a number of +1/+1 on the creature dictated by the ability. Some creatures then have bonus effects when you power up as well. The unique thing about Power-up is that if you activate it in the same turn the creature entered the battlefield, you get a discount equal to the mana cost of the creature.
Join us for Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes in Brussels, Belgium, from July 24-26, 2026!
Let’s take a look at Quicksilver, Brash Blur. His power-up ability is 4 generic mana and 1 red mana. If you activated his power-up ability on the turn he comes in, the ability would only cost 4 generic mana. This flexibility allows you to play these heroes early in the game, and power them up later, or simply play them later in the game, with Power-up functioning as effectively an increased casting cost.
Teamwork
Teamwork makes the dream work. Marvel stories rarely focus on solo heroes, and even when they do, heroes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Spider-Man, and the like often find themselves teaming up with each other to take on threats greater than they could individually.
Teamwork is an optional additional cost found on several instants and sorceries in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes. If you cast a spell with teamwork, you’ll look for the number next to the teamwork cost. Then, as an additional cost, you may tap any number of creatures you control with total power equal to the number.
More News? Check out our socials and newsletter! 🙂
Looking at Go Nuts!, it has Teamwork 3. You can tap a 1 power creature and a 2 power creature, or a single 3 power creature, or any other combination of creatures to pay for its cost. If you pay for a spell’s Teamwork cost, various things can happen. You could cast an empowered version of the spell or have access to multiple modes at once.
Plan
Of course, where would the superheroes be if they weren’t stopping their iconic villains and their plans?
Plan is a brand new subtype of enchantments that can be found in this set. These Plans encapsulate the grand visions that many of Marvel’s villains have, and give your game plan a physical manifestation of your overarching goals as well. Each plan has a triggered ability that tracks what conditions or requirements progress the plan. Fulfilling these conditions will grant you a small bonus, but the real reward lies when you achieve all you’ve set out to do.
Next up, Political Triumph; you get a plan counter and scry one every time a creature enters under your control. Once you’ve acquired your fourth plan counter, you draw a card and give each creature you control a +1/+1 counter.
Additionally, villains love crafting plans, and many cards will reference the Plan subtype in their abilities.
Connive
An ability so nice we’ve seen it twice. Just like in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man, connive is a returning keyword action that exemplifies what it means to be an evil genius, always two steps ahead.
When a creature connives, you draw a card and discard a card. And then if the card you discarded was nonland, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that connived. If you discarded a land card, you won’t get a counter, but you’ll likely have strengthened your hand to be better in future turns.
Transforming Modal Double-Faced Cards
Just as we got a saw in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man, we now see these card types return here, exemplifying the double life of several superheroes and villains. Whether or not they’re out fighting bad guys or going about their everyday lives, Marvel’s characters have strong personalities and abilities both in and out of costume.
These double-faced cards can be cast from either side, as each has a mana value. However, should you cast the front side, you can later pay the transform cost to transform the card to the back side. Additionally, when these cards are put into play through an effect other than being cast, they enter with their front face up. Additionally, card effects that let you transform your creatures will also transform these double-faced cards.
Worthy
We can’t have a set with Thor and not include Mjölnir. And while this is not a mainline mechanic of the set, I just want to touch on what it means to Equip worthy. A creature is worthy if it’s a legendary creature that’s red and/or white and not a Villain. That means best boy Yoshimaru is most definitely worthy.
- More of Magic: The Gathering:
- Our next Magic: The Gathering Events:
Avengers, Assemble! - Bringing Together Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Superheroes is full of the biggest, strongest, and most iconic heroes Marvel has to offer. Earth’s mightiest heroes, The Avengers, form a large part of the set, with new iconic renditions of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and so many more.
Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm come together to battle against Doctor Doom as the Fantastic Four. And even just beyond, we see the coming of Galactus.
Of course, no Marvel crossover would be complete without the Mad Titan. Thanos joins the fray alongside many of Marvel’s other iconic villains. Kang, Loki, and other massive threats will bring our heroes together. Marvel comics are often defined by their villains as much as their heroes, and Wizards of the Coast looks to commit to giving both sides of the story equal attention.
Bringing Comics To Life - A Truly Marvellous Art Treatment
Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond products have always striven to bring their partner’s intellectual properties to life. Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes is no different, with a plethora of iconic art treatments, special character art, and unique products for any established or aspiring Magic player.
Of course, the stars of the show are the superheroes and villains. We have a fantastic logo treatment celebrating the typography and characters, putting them both front and centre.
Originating from comic books, we could not have a Marvel set without the Classic Comic Card art treatment. Bold colours, dramatic action poses, and vintage comic book cover layouts bring these cards to life, making them look like they were pulled off a shelf in the 80’s themselves.
Recreating the imagery and paying homage to the comic book medium, we see a gorgeous Panel Card art treatment on many of the sagas of this set, creating epic one-page comics in their own right.
Continuing the trend of creating our own comic panels, we also see the return of Scene cards, where collections of six or even up to eighteen cards come together to create an absolutely stunning piece of artwork.
Marvel comic books have always featured iconic artwork throughout their decades of publication. We see the return of the beautiful source material cards, powerful reprints over top historic Marvel comic artwork.
Excelsior
Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes is a culmination of decades of pop culture and history, a collision of two of the largest fandoms in the world, and is a beautiful blend of gameplay and artwork.
We see four ready-to-play Commander decks launching alongside the products, all with unique play styles and themes. These decks offer a ready-to-play experience for casual players while also being the perfect entry point into Magic: The Gathering for long-time Marvel fans.
For those fans, this is a celebration of the most influential comic universes ever created, and for Magic players, this is one of the most ambitious and expansive Universes Beyond releases yet. We cannot wait for the full set release on June 26th. And if you want to see the full debut video, you can find it here!
And of course, you wouldn’t want to leave behind any important subjects, right? 
Join us in Brussels for Magic Spotlight: Marvel Super Heroes, where you’ll be able to test all the new mechanics in a weekend full of Magic! Let’s celebrate Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes with artists, special guests and tons of fun events from 24 to 26 July!
Get your tickets here!
- More of Magic: The Gathering:
- Our next Magic: The Gathering Events:
