Secret Lair x Marvel Super Drop - Incredible Commanders for your Table
Recently Wizards of the Coast revealed a giant Secret Lair Super drop in collaboration with Marvel. This is just the first of many Marvel-related products we’ll be seeing over the next year or so and trust me when I tell you, there are some amazing cards in this drop alone. Each Secret Lair is themed around one of Marvel’s most iconic characters, with them at the helm as a unique creature and many fun and interesting reprints in their kits. Let’s look at some highlights and cards we’re very excited to bring to our next Friday Night Magic.
Alex Kivitz
Storm, Force of Nature
Starting with probably one of my favourite flavour wins and potential jank is Storm, Force of Nature. Storm, Force of Nature is a Legendary Creature that, when she deals combat damage, gives your next Instant or Sorcery-spell Storm. For the uninitiated, Storm is a keyword that reads “When you cast this spell, copy it for each other spell that was cast before it this turn. If the spell has any targets, you may choose new targets for any of the copies.” Giving anything Storm is a recipe for a wide variety of decks, game plans, and interesting interactions in general.
I expect Storm to become one of, if not the most popular commander forming the coming Secret Lair drop. Within the Secret Lair drop itself, we see reprints of Jeska’s Will, Lightning Bolt, Manamorphose, and Ice Storm. These cards are all amazing targets for Storm’s ability. Turning Lightning Bolt into a three-damage Grapeshot can sometimes just end games. For the more devious players, Ice Storm can lock players out of colours, or even the game.
Storm has access to Red, Green, and Blue mana, colours that can accelerate your mana and get Storm online quicker, as well as cast even more spells. Early on in the game, I wouldn’t be surprised to see cards like Rampant Growth be copied 2-3 times to get ahead of the curve. Cards like Rogue’s Passage and Whispersilk Cloak can make Storm unblockable, but let’s be honest, you’ll likely have at least one opponent without a flying creature. More importantly, I would recommend cards like Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to keep her safe and allow her to swing the moment she comes down. Red offers a few ways to obtain extra combat steps for more spice. Allowing Storm to grant multiple spells Storm in a single turn is a recipe for guaranteed destruction. With Storm having Vigilance as well as Flying, there is no need to worry about having to Untap her after each combat step. So, giving a card like Fury of the Horde Storm, while expensive, could outright end the game.
Late-game people may have plans of using her to storm extra turn spells, or maybe inflict massive amounts of damage. Perhaps they see her buffing creatures with anthems and running over other players. Probably one of the more sinister options I see is utilising her to mill each opponent. Several mill cards in blue are cheap and effective. Some hit each player, some hit a target player, but with Storm, it doesn’t matter either way. Probably the most important tip is to keep plenty of counterspell mana open for spells that would look to remove Storm from play. She will likely be one of the commanders that are classified as many as “remove on sight”
Wolverine, Best There Is
Even before anything was known about the Secret Lair drop, or even the Marvel Crossover in general, my friends and I knew that we would see Wolverine make an appearance as a Gruul character. If Wolverine isn’t the embodiment of Gruul then we don’t know if any Marvel character would be Gruul. For the extra icing on the cake l, having Regenerate just makes him all the better.
Wolverine, Best There Is has a few fun abilities. The first one was “double all damage Wolverine would deal”. Some may ask, ‘Why not just give him Doublestrike? I think this is better flavour-wise. Wolverine doesn’t care if he gets hit, or at least, anyone who’s seen Deadpool & Wolverine, it doesn’t matter if he gets hit. Wolverine will take the damage and hit you back twice as hard, and Regenerate afterwards. As a Commander, he will outright end games on his own.
At the beginning of each end step, if Wolverine dealt combat damage to another creature this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on him. Now, you can’t expect opponents to just feed you with small creatures, you’re going to have to either get them to attack you, or play spells that have Wolverine fight other creatures. However, for a little bit of spice, you could also equip Wolverine with Assault Suit, and maybe Goad him as well, forcing players to attack with him on their turns.
Finally, we see for one and a green mana, Wolverine has Regenerate. This synergises very well with Berserk, one of the reprints featured in Wolverine’s secret lair. Able to survive the berserk trigger that destroys him, this lets Wolverine double his power, deal double again of that damage, and still live. Truly a powerhouse and the embodiment of turning sideways and killing players.
Captain America, First Avenger
Next up we have Captain America, First Avenger. He has two abilities, or rather what could be seen as one two-part ability. There is “Throw” and then “Catch”. Throw is self-explanatory: pay three mana and Captain America hurls an equipment, unequipping it, and dealing damage equal to its cost divided how you choose to up to three separate targets. As an additional bonus, just like Liberty Prime from the Fallout Universes Beyond set, I love that they gave Captain America a colour identity of red, white, and blue.
My mind goes immediately to Excalibur, Sword of Eden from the Assassin’s Creed set. A 12 mana sword that costs X less where X is the total mana value of all historic permanents you control. With Captain America on the field, this already costs 3 less. Captain America can throw this to deal 12 damage and easily re-equip it for 2 more without having to wait until the end step. Nothing is stopping you from reattaching and throwing it again as well. Something your tablemates may not love, it’s the fact that you can equip a card like Grafted Exoskeleton to Captain America and suddenly the damage he deals gives poison counters.
Catch is also very self-explanatory. At the beginning of combat on your turn, attach up to one target equipment you control to Captain America. Colossus Hammer is all I have to say about this. But in all reality, this is a great way to bypass equipment costs, and not every equipment needs to be thrown as well. The Secret Lair set itself comes with Shield of War and Peace, a beautiful reskin of Sword of War and Peace. I see Captain America paving the way for some very interesting Voltron Decks.
Black Panther, Wakandan King
Black Panther, Wakandan King gives a very interesting take on token decks. Going wide also means going tall. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, you get to put a +1/+1 counter on target land you control. Selesnya loves going wide. It provides a very interesting way to stockpile +1/+1 counters alongside The Ozolith, another very impressive reprint in this Secret Lair.
When looking at these cards, I feel like you want to have a counter on as many lands as possible, and then proliferate them for maximum value. These lands notably can’t attack, but should we be able to animate said lands, suddenly they’re all creatures with many +1/+1 counters on them. Karn’s Bastion already makes this gameplay very evident. Another bonus of animating the lands into creatures is being able to move the counters back and forth for 3 mana. As there is no restriction on the amount of counters you can move, this turns Black Panther into a very powerful life gain engine, with some bonus card draw.
Iron Man, Titan of Innovation
First things first, I’m a bit sad that Iron Man, Titan of Innovation isn’t an Artificer. Now that we’ve ripped off that Band-Aid, let’s talk about Izzet Oswald Fiddlebender, or better yet, Artifact Birthing Pod on a stick. Notably unlike Birthing Pod and Oswald, Ironman needs to attack. I wouldn’t say one is necessarily better than the other, but to get value from Iron Man’s ability right away, you would need to give him haste. Iron Man, Titan of Innovation reads “Whenever Iron Man attacks, create a Treasure Token, then you may sacrifice a noncreature artifact. If you do, search your library for an artifact card with Manavalue equal to 1 plus the sacrificed artifact’s mana value, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle”.
I like at face value how powerful this deck can become, being able to sequence Artifacts and tutor cards quite easily. I’m not so good at deck building to find an optimal way to break this myself. I initially thought of utilising cards with Affinity for Artifacts, however, Wizards of the Coast tested very well and worded Ironman in such a way that you must sacrifice a non-creature Artifact. Curse you Frogmite! I did, however, manage to find Tooth of Chriss-Goria and Scale of Chriss-Goria, two three-cost non-creature Artifacts with Affinity for Artifacts. I’m not sure how useful they will be but I thought I’d throw these two cards out there.
I can see Iron Man operating like an Artificer deck, looking for key pieces to win the game, but I can also see it run as a Voltron deck as well, building his suit, and taking out opponents. Commander’s Plate being Iron Man’s suit in the Secret Lair just feels right. I also appreciate the Galvanic Blast repulsors, guiding players into a Metalcraft-focused game plan.
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