Preview season has nearly concluded for Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Marvel Super Heroes crossover set, and the full decklists for the four preconstructed Commander decks are among the last cards revealed. On Monday, The Command Zone podcast revealed every card in the superhero-themed Avengers Assemble deck. Based on early assessments, it looks like this deck will have absurd value that’s more than worth the MSRP price tag.
Avengers Assemble has 32 brand-new cards, including the two Commanders: Captain America, Team Leader and Director Nick Fury. The vast majority of those new cards are legendary creatures featuring characters like Iron Man, Hulk, and Black Widow. The overall strategy is fairly straightforward: assemble an army of legendary hero creatures and support them with both equipment and counters — with a lot of emphasis on the “Legendary” and “Hero” subtypes. As such, the deck offers some compelling value for anybody who favors these kinds of typal strategies. The most enticing reprint in the bunch is Kindred Discovery.
Originally printed as part of Commander (2017 Edition) in the Draconic Domination deck, Kindred Discovery is basically a must-include for any typal deck with access to blue mana. It’s a five-cost blue enchantment that has you select a creature type when it is played. Then, whenever a creature of that chosen type enters the battlefield or attacks, you draw a card.
The most expensive version of Kindred Discovery goes for $95. Even the cheapest versions of this card hover around the $13 mark or higher on sites like TCG Player, and it’s easy to see why. It sets up a valuable draw engine for decks that focus on merfolk, wizards, ninjas, elementals, slivers, pirates, faeries, and plenty of other creature types. For Avengers Assemble, that’s obviously going to be “Hero.”
The charming Marvel art illustrated by Stephanie Hans depicts four classic Avengers bonding with their protégés. Front and center we have Captain Marvel shaking hands with an excited-looking Ms. Marvel. On the right there’s Ant-Man, aka Scott Lang, in his larger form high-fiving his daughter Cassie Lang. To the left we see Scarlet Witch with her son Wiccan casting some kind of spell with her chaos magic. Then there’s Clint Barton instructing Kate Bishop on her form with the bow and arrow.
Previous versions of the card emphasized the “discovery” a bit more than the “kindred” vibes with their art, but this feels like a perfect thematic fit for a deck where you want all of your heroes to have a lot of synergy.
Since Avengers Assemble is a three-color deck, having a solid land base is also important — which is where some pretty valuable lands come in. The real highlight here is Spectator Seating, which taps to add one red or white mana. It enters untapped if you have two or more opponents, making it very strong in Commander. That explains why copies of this card go for $16 or more.
Other notable reprints include Plaza of Heroes, which goes for at least $8 and gives you more flexibility for your mana base when casting legendary spells. It also grants hexproof and indescribable for a legendary creature of your choice for only three mana.
Scorched Geyser is less costly at around $2.62, but it’s a very good blue-red dual land that enters untapped if you control two or more basic lands. And, unlike most dual lands, it has both Island and Mountain in its type line, so if you’re playing any cards that search for these specific land types, it counts.
More importantly, nearly every major reprint feels purpose-built for the deck’s strategy. Kindred Discovery draws cards for your Heroes, Plaza of Heroes protects your legends, and Spectator Seating helps cast them. Rather than stuffing the deck with random Commander staples, Wizards appears to have chosen reprints that actively reinforce what Avengers Assemble is trying to do — even if some players only buy the new precon to strip it for parts.
Magic just revealed 38 new Marvel Super Heroes cards (including an epic Commander deck)
Commanders…assemble.
