Magic: The Gathering has finally revealed the first of its multi-part collaboration with Marvel in a series of Secret Lair drops, coming on November 4th in a limited print run.
The sets themselves can be seen as a sort of Commander starter kits, each coming with an iconic Marvel character as a Legendary Creature capable of taking the role of your deck's commander, with each card in the Secret Lair drop supplementing that commander quite well, especially in the flavor department.
Announced at today’s #NYCC #MTG / @Marvel panel: @MTGSecretLair’s Marvel SuperdropCheck out everything in this drop: https://t.co/JIQt0tdUJK#MTGxMarvel pic.twitter.com/bZkfdRBZ1g
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) October 18, 2024
The passion from the design team is pretty clear here, with some solid choices for each flavor and mechanics-wise, and some cards have been reimagined as Marvel icons, such as reprinting Sword of War and Peace as Shield of War and Peace to highlight Captain America's iconic Vibranium Shield.
Each Secret Lair drop is themed around a particular character:
- Captain America, First Avenger
- Black Panther, Wakandan King
- Iron Man, Titan of Innovation
- Wolverine, Best There Is
- Storm, Force of Nature
One thing keen-eyed viewers might pick up on is that none of the cards lean into the Black section of Magic's color wheel, which makes some sense given that these are all heroes in the Marvel universe, while Black in Magic isn't always associated with the most morally good themes.
Each set consists of five cards, with both Black Panther and Iron Man coming with a special token card in addition to the mainstays. The supporting cards around each main Marvel hero all speak to the hero's nature and skill set, yet are still effectively reprints of existing Magic: The Gathering cards, such as Wolverine's Rhythm of the Wild leaning into the more primal nature of the iconic X-Men hero, or Storm's inclusion of Lightning Bolt and a reprint of Manamorphose, renamed "Ororo's Borealis."
Each supporting card also seems to take advantage of the theme around each Legendary Creature- Human Hero (a new card type in MTG), such as Storm, Force of Nature's text that gives the next instant or sorcery card cast after Storm, well...Storm, if she dealt damage that turn. This mechanic is supported by inclusions like Manamorphose, a staple in Storm decks from Commander to Modern.
Captain America, First Avenger plays into his role as a leader slinging an iconic piece of equipment, with the new Throw and Catch mechanics supporting the way Captain often rushed into combat, shield flying. Paying three colorless mana, Captain America, First Avenger can unattach an Equipment card from Captain America, dealing damage equal to that equipment's mana value divided among up to three targets.
Catch symbolizes the way Captain America's shield, more often than not, finds a way to bounce back to him, catching it in combat. So at the beginning of combat on your turn, you can attach one equipment you control to Captain America.
Black Panther, Wakandan King plays with the idea of creating +1/+1 counters on a land, and then moving those counters from a land to a creature with the new Survey the Realm and Mine Vibranium keywords. When moving those counters from the land, you also draw a card and gain life equal to the number of counters moved in the process.
Bast's Blessing, a renamed reprint of Primal Vigor, takes that theme a step further, placing an enchantment on the field that doubles counters moved and doubles the number of tokens created, a beefed-up Anointed Procession for sure. Karn's Bastion is reprinted as Wakandan Skyscraper, adding a Proliferate engine to the drop.
Wolverine, Best There Is (and my personal favorite of this bunch) highlights the primal rage and Wolverine's Healing Factor by printing the Regeneration keyword on the hero. Wolverine's Unrivaled Lethality doubles all damage Wolverine would deal, while doing damage makes him stronger in the form of a +1/+1 counter each turn he deals it.
Beserk pairs nicely with this new card, as you can boost Wolverine's damage output and give him Trample till the end of turn, and then use Wolverine's regeneration to bring him back once you are force to destroy him.
Iron Man, Titan of Industry, is a Legendary Artifact Creature - Human Hero that is all about, you guessed it, making artifacts and using them for card advantage. Genius Industrialist - the main keyword on Iron Man outside of Flying and Haste, lets the player create a treasure token and then sacrifice a noncreature artifact. If they do, the player can search their library for an artifact with a mana value equal to 1, plus sacrificed artifact's mana cost and put it into play - meaning you can sacrifice those Treasure tokens to tutor up a Sol Ring, or destroy another artifact to tutor in a more powerful artifact when necessary.
Supporting cards lean into the artifact and invention themes for Tony Stark, with reprints of Sol Ring, Inventor's Fair which depicts the Stark Expo, Commander's Plate and Galvanic Blast.
Each card features beautiful art that pay homage to Marvel across its comic book history, and honestly it feels like the same care and attention went into this drop series that went into the Lord of the Rings Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond collaboration. The art is stunning (I especially want that Sol Ring and Commander's Plate), and each card fits thematically so well that I'm very curious how the team will top this with its next Marvel collab - namely Spider-man in 2025.
Each Secret Lair drop will start at $39.99 in non-foil, while foil versions will run $49.99, and both will be available on November 4th at 9am PDT on the Secret Lair site. This is another limited print run, as opposed to Secret Lairs in the past which have been predominately a print-to-demand type situation, so be prepared to potentially sit in a queue and walk away with nothing in the end if they sell out first. Those who do order and place an order of at least $199, you'll also get a special edition Arcane Signet, reprinted as Earth's Mightiest Emblem, depicting the Avenger's Logo on the iconic New York tower headquarters of the superhero outfit.