In these first few days of August I’ve already played more drafts than during the entire July season. Mostly Marvel Super Heroes (MSH) , although I also played one Edge of Eternities (EOE) draft that I found quite fun, despite a rather disappointing result.
I think I’m starting to get a pretty good handle on Marvel’s mechanics and the cards you simply can’t afford to pass. As the stats suggest, Azorius seems to be the winning color combination, probably because those colors have the best removal in the set: Web Up and Frozen in Ice . Still, my best result came with a deck that splashed a touch of to include Thor Odinson and The Super Hero Civil War . The latter is one of those cards that can win games all by itself, so I suppose splashing red was justified—and the result certainly backs that up…
That said, I’ve seen a bit of everything. Even though my win rate so far in the August season is 54%, which isn’t bad, I’ve also had some truly awful drafts…
Since I’ve played quite a few drafts this week, I won’t write up every single one of them, but I do want to go over some of the cards I’ve enjoyed the most or that have surprised me in a positive way. By color:
White
Agent Maria Hill is an excellent 1-drop. If you can pair her with a Helicarrier Strike or two, you really can’t ask for much more.
Captain America, Wings of Freedom isn’t game-ending on his own, although a 3/1 with flying and first strike is nothing to dismiss. Obviously, the dream is to equip him with Captain America's Shield (although I haven’t managed to pull it off in a game yet), but even just a S.H.I.E.L.D. Spy Kit or the token from U.S.Agent, John Walker
Agent 13, Sharon Carter doesn’t look like much, but in the games where I’ve played her she has drawn me at least a couple of extra cards. Paired with Black Widow, Double Agent and/or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Spy Kit is another card that pleasantly surprises you once you actually play it. It fits very nicely into the “attack alone” archetype I just mentioned with Agent 13, Sharon Carter , and considering how little it costs to cast and equip, the +1/+1, scry 1 and pseudo-vigilance end up making a real difference.
Playing Limited has made me appreciate the importance of cards that do more than one thing. There are several cards in the format that give you two (or more) creatures from a single card, such as S.H.I.E.L.D. Deployment Drone , and they’re all well worth playing. Borough Backup is one of them, and two 3/2s with vigilance do much more work than you might expect. If you’re playing more than two colors, Basic Landcycling also becomes relevant!
Blue
The giant flying ant has helped me swing a couple of very close games in my favor. Being able to tap or untap a creature at instant speed gives you plenty of options both offensively and defensively.
And if we’re talking tempo plays, I think Trickster's Stratagem is one of the best cards in the format. Even at sorcery speed, removing a key defender and drawing a card (potentially getting an extra +1/+1 in the process) is an incredible advantage.
Futurist Forge is a very solid card, even if we don’t have any other artifact synergies. You play it early, it replaces itself, and then you basically forget it’s there until you need it again a little later.
Leader, Super-Genius , of course, shines in Dimir-based decks with connive, but it’s good enough to be worth playing even if we don’t have any other cards with that mechanic.
Black
There aren’t many black cards that have performed very differently from what I expected. There are good cards… but nothing to write home about.
Red Room Recruit , for example, is a very solid card. It can be a 2/3 for that helps improve your hand or find your third land when you’re a bit short on mana, but it’s not exactly a card that wins games on its own.
Cruel Alliance is good removal in a color that has fewer spells of this kind than you might expect.
I’ve saved Super-Skrull for last. It’s not a card I’ve played myself, but it stole a game from me that I had very much under control (my opponent was at 9 life and I was at 37, and I had the stronger board presence).
Red and Green
I’ve played very little red and not much green, so I’m grouping the remaining colors together before moving on to the multicolor and colorless cards.
Obviously there are better red cards than Stark Industries Executive , but I haven’t had the chance to play them. This one, though, isn’t bad. Leaving it back on defense for a couple of turns and using it to ramp before eventually sending it to the graveyard isn’t exactly a masterstroke, but it can give us a bit of an edge.
In a format with very little ramp, Undercover Skrull is quite valuable in three-color decks. Getting +2/+2 once we have a couple of creatures in the graveyard is a nice upside. And the fact that it also counts as a Hero and a Merfolk was relevant in a couple of games. For , you can’t really ask for more.
Go Nuts! would be a much better card if it were an Instant (hehe, I suppose you can say that about any Sorcery, Captain Obvious!), but even so, in many situations it’s removal for just , and if we can pay the teamwork cost we even get an extra counter out of the deal.
Pet Avengers can block most of the flying creatures that hit the board during the first four or five turns, and later on it gets one last burst of value by creating a 3/2 token with vigilance.
Multicolor
[card lookup failed: Captain America, Living Legend][card lookup failed: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur]
Spider-Woman, Secret Agent is one of those cards that can look a little expensive, but more than makes up for it with its enters effect. Being able to cast her with flash, tap your opponent’s best creature and keep it frozen for as long as Spider-Woman stays on the battlefield is a fantastic tempo play. On top of that, the 1/4 body can still hold off plenty of small creatures while we try to close out the game, and it often forces the opponent to spend removal on her instead of on stronger creatures we may play later.
[card lookup failed: Captain America, Living Legend] is probably the card that best explains what Azorius wants to do in this format. A 3/4 with vigilance for three mana is already an excellent baseline, but the best part is that creatures we tap during our turn untap the first time we do so. That makes paying teamwork costs much less painful: we can tap creatures to power up a spell and still have them available to attack or defend.
[card lookup failed: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur] needs a little more setup, but when it works it’s spectacular. Having an artifact enter draws us a card, and if that is the second card we draw that turn, they suddenly go from a modest 2/2 to a 6/6 with trample. We won’t always have the perfect sequence, but in a deck with enough artifacts it’s a threat the opponent can’t afford to ignore.
I already mentioned Black Widow, Double Agent when talking about Agent 13, Sharon Carter , and that’s because they fit together perfectly. Giving first strike and menace to the creature attacking alone makes it much harder to block, while Black Widow’s own deathtouch turns any block involving her into a pretty unpleasant decision. It’s a card that makes the Orzhov archetype work without requiring you to build the entire deck around it.
And what can I say about The Super Hero Civil War … I’ve already said it’s a card that can win games all by itself, and after playing it I’m even more convinced. Temporarily stealing up to two creatures, attacking with them while taking advantage of the +1/+1 and vigilance from the second chapter, and then, before giving them back, having one of our creatures fight another one is an absurd amount of advantage from a single card. If the mana values line up well, the first chapter alone can completely dismantle the opponent’s board. I should also say I’ve lost more games to this card than I’ve won with it… but the card is spectacular.
Colorless
[card lookup failed: Super-Adaptoid][card lookup failed: H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit]Captain America's Shield is every bit as absurd as it looks. The +0/+8 doesn’t directly help deal more damage, but it turns almost any creature into a wall, gives it vigilance and, when it attacks, even taps down a potential blocker. And yes, the dream I mentioned earlier with Captain America, Wings of Freedom is genuinely ridiculous: with the Shield equipped, his toughness becomes 9 and he can give the rest of your Heroes +9/+9 when he attacks. Just remember that the indestructible belongs to the Shield, not the equipped creature. (I already made the mistake of trying to destroy an opponent’s one with a [card lookup failed: Guerrilla Gorila].)
[card lookup failed: Super-Adaptoid] is another card that looks unassuming until you see it in action. In a set full of legendary creatures, it isn’t hard for it to have a respectable power for just two mana, and whenever it enters or attacks it can keep accumulating abilities such as flying, first strike, deathtouch, lifelink or vigilance copied from other creatures. With the right creature on the battlefield, it can go from a simple 2-drop to a threat that’s very difficult to deal with.
H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit isn’t a bomb (a 2/1 flyer for four mana isn’t much), but it does more work than it looks like it should. It immediately replaces itself by drawing a card and, if we have a land in hand, lets us put it directly onto the battlefield tapped. In three-color decks, or simply when we have a slightly higher curve and want to reach five or six mana quickly, that combination of an evasive creature, card draw and a bit of ramp can be useful enough.
