We're on a hot streak in Magic: The Gathering, with the last two sets being fantastic limited experiences. Now it's over to Marvel Super Heroes, and this set does something that not many previous sets can boast: it supports a whopping ten archetypes in two colors for draft.
That means you have double the options for deck building compared to recent Magic sets, but with that wave of options comes the risk of confusion and a botched draft. In this guide, we'll run through all ten draft archetypes (using guild names for simplicity) for Marvel Super Heroes, so you know what to look out for from your first pick to your last.
Izzet Artifacts
Izzet takes a break from being the spellbinding color combo in Marvel Super Heroes, and instead you'll be trying to build around artifacts. Iron Man is the primary hero of this archetype, and his cards encourage the use of all artifact types, such as equipment and artifact creatures.
Building your deck around this angle requires you to hone in on every card with the word artifact written on it, but if you can nail your draft, this is an archetype that I expect will be tough to counter.
Key card
- Iron Man, Master Machinist
- Armored war
- Machinist automaton
- Mjolnir, Thor's hammer
- Super costume
- Iron Lad, Divergent Fate
Magic: The Gathering – 5 Greatest Hunting Cards in Marvel Super Heroes
Here are the rarest cards and card variants you'll want to pull from the packs in the Marvel Super Heroes MTG set.
Azorius Teamwork
Arozius will benefit from the new Teamwork mechanic, which allows you to pay an additional cost in the form of tapping a creature with power equal to the Teamwork cost. Paying the Teamwork cost will either unlock additional effects for a card or just make its base effect more powerful.
Your primary goal is to pick up as many of the limited Teamwork cards as you can, supplementing them with a backup mechanic like +1/+1 counters or artifacts, which can be easily accessed in the blue and white mana pools from this set.
Key card
- Agent Maria Hill
- Helicarrier Strike
- Murdock's Crusade
- Atlantis attacks
- We tell you no!
Dimir Connive
It's a little strange to see a Dimir archetype that relies on drawing cards instead of milling them, but Connive is a mechanic that still sees cards end up in the graveyard often; it's just the extra step where you get to choose which cards exactly move from your hand to the graveyard instead.
Connive is also a mechanic exclusive to Villains, so you need to keep an eye out for these creatures when drafting. Since rogues are your primary creature, you'll also want to keep an eye on Plans, which is a rogue mechanic that pairs well with Connive.
Key card
- Leader, super genius
- Construct a Cosmic Cube
- Kang, Temporal Tyrant
- Baron Helmut Zemo
- MODOK
- AIM Scholar
Straight-up villains
Rakdos is the home of the Villain tribe strategy, where you want to create as many Villain cards as possible that have abilities that activate when other Villains enter the game.
Connive also plays a role in this archetype, albeit a much smaller one than it does for Dimir. If you can get the right cards in your deck, this archetype has an aggressive engine written all over it, which is perfect for Rakdos, especially as you can generate creature tokens, give power and toughness boosts to Villains, and drain life just by playing more Villain cards.
Key card
- Madame Hydra
- Avengers: Under Siege
- The Ruinous Wrecking Crew
- Arnim Zola, Cinema fanatic
- Doom Reigns Supreme
- Hire a crew
Selesnya Heroes
We follow up the Villain archetype with its mirror, the Hero archetype. Selesnya is the color scheme for hero cards in draft, so, just like with Rakdos, you'll want to draw as many cards that are either hero types or have an effect that activates when a hero enters play.
There aren't quite as many bombs in this archetype as there are for Rakdos, unfortunately, so I can see it being one of the less played decks in the draft, but should you find yourself with some big green and white cards in your early picks, you can still build a capable deck around them.
Key card
- Black Panther, Vanguard
- Jennifer Walters / The Sensational She-Hulk
- The Thing, Ben Grimm
- Rick Jones, Destined Sidekick
- Avengers origin
- Captain America, Super Soldier
Gruul Power-Up
Gruul makes the most of the new Power-Up mechanic, which allows a creature to activate a one-time ability for either a small mana cost if used on the same turn the spell is cast, or a larger one if used on a later turn.
The mechanic itself is quite powerful on certain cards, and luckily most of them are in the red and green mana pools. While it's a good idea to draw as many Power-Up cards as possible, they are extremely expensive, so you may want to target some dual lands or mana ramp opportunities to support this archetype.
Key card
- Human Torch, Johnny Storm
- Hercules, Prince of Power
- Pet Avengers
- abomination, terrifying titan
- Hulk, Gamma Goliath
- Wonder Man, Hollywood Hero
Similar Counters (+1/+1)
Unsurprisingly, the +1/+1 counter archetype falls largely to the green and blue decks. There are also some card draw and creature token options if you're going to play this archetype, and it's this diversity that makes me think it's going to be one of the strongest in Marvel Super Heroes.
However, drafting for Simic Counters isn't as simple as just picking up cards that offer +1/+1 benefits, as many of these abilities are tied to mechanics like Teamwork and Power-Up. That's not to say you can't add them to your deck; you need to be aware of the extra costs. Simic decks always ramp pretty well, so access to mana won't be a problem.
Key card
- Young Loki
- Knight of Wundagore
- Mister Hyde, Monster Within
- Ant-Man, Colony Commander
- The Astonishing Ant-Man
- The Beast, Erudite Aerialist
Boros Spellslinging
The deck identities we usually associate with Izzet have been moved over to Boros for Marvel Super Heroes. This means you'll try to stock up on powerful instants and spells while casting creatures with Prowess and Haste where possible.
Boros/Lorehold felt a bit underutilized in Secrets of Strixhaven, at least where we expect it to be in a set that focuses on just five of the mana combos. Here, Boros is back with a vengeance and is definitely the archetype to draft if you're looking for quick, decisive wins.
Key card
- Borough Backup
- Kree Commandos
- Monica Rambeau / Photon, Candlelight
- Crimson Operative
- Daredevil, Man Without Fear
- Superhero Civil War
Golgari Resurrection
Golagari being hard to hold down is nothing new, so I expect this to be a powerful archetype just like it was in Secrets of Strixhaven. Sure, you can play surprisingly aggressively with Witherbloom in Secrets of Strixhaven draft, which makes me wonder how the tempo of this composition will work.
From what I've seen in the card pool so far, there's a decent mix of spells that can take your creatures out of the graveyard, and ones that get more powerful when your graveyard is full. Exactly how you choose to play this depends on which cards you manage to draw, but both paths are feasible under the right conditions.
Key card
- Killmonger, Scourge of Wakanda
- Undercover Skrull
- Robot domination
- Baron Helmut Zemo
- Grim Reaper, Lethan Legionnaire
- Mole Man, Moloid Master
Orzhov single striker
Arguably the unique caster archetype from Marvel Super Heroes is Orzhov's lone striker strategy. A number of cards have been printed with attack-only abilities or text. This doesn't always print on a creature that needs to attack either, as cards like Agents of SHIELD give +1/+1 to a creature if it attacks alone.
This mechanic is not called anything clever. In fact, it doesn't even have a specific name, but it's tied to mechanics like Investigate, First Strike, Menace, and more. I'm extremely interested to see how deep this archetype can go, but I'm afraid that being too narrow minded when choosing cards could result in a pretty weak deck overall.
Key card
- Black Widow, double agent
- HYDRA Infiltration
- Luke Cage, Power Man
- Agent 13, Sharon Carter
- SHIELD Spy Kit
Magic: The Gathering – All Marvel Super Heroes Precon Face Commanders, Ranked
We rank all the primary and reserve commanders from the MTG Marvel Super Heroes precon deck to see which ones you need to consider for your deck.
