The entirety of the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man Universes Beyond set has been revealed, and there are some extremely interesting cards included - there’s the stuff you’d expect, obviously, with all facets of Spider-Man’s life represented, but there’s also some deep cuts. And some of these cards are absolutely incredible Commander cards that can lead to absolutely incredible combos.
Web Of Life and Destiny
Web of Life and Destiny feels like the ultimate conclusion of the Natural Order type of Magic card. Except it’s better than that card in several ways (though worse in that it doesn’t search for a specific card) - it’s an enchantment that stays on the field and activates more than once. It’s an eight mana green Enchantment with Convoke that, at the beginning of combat on your turn, allows you to look at the top five cards of your library before putting any creature card from among them onto the battlefield.
This is one of the Spider-Man cards that can really be played in any deck. You want entirely triggers - Craterhoof Behemoth is an obvious inclusion in a deck like this, but how about Disciple of Freyalise to offer up some draw power? Terastodon is removal for up to three non-creature permanents that your opponent controls, and Apex Altisaur can help to remove actual creature cards. Even big vanilla cards like Ghalta, Primal Hunger are useful in a situation like this - 12/12 with trample is incredibly powerful.
Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer
Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer isn’t a complicated card. He’s a five white pip mana card that, when it enters (if cast), returns a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. That’s cool, but not the real meat of the card - the real meat is that whenever damage would be dealt to Anti-Venom, you prevent that damage and put that many +1/+1 counters on it. So how do you use this?
Pariah, Pariah’s Shield and Entangler all allow you to make it so that you can have extra damage dealt to Anti-Venom, with Pariah and Pariah’s Shield all redirecting damage that you would take to a creature, while Entangler allows Anti-Venom to block any number of attacking creatures. Phrexian Vindicator might seem a bit pointless at the outset since it also has an ability that prevents damage, but whenever you prevent damage with that ability, you’re able to deal damage equal to that prevented damage to any other creature, including Anti-Venom.
Wave of Reckoning is perhaps my favourite card to combo with Anti-Venom, however. It causes each creature to deal damage to itself equal to its power - getting around Ward, Hexproof, and more, potentially wiping your opponent's board - and doubling the power of Anti-Venom in the process so that you can swing in for massive damage.
Norman Osborne / Green Goblin
Out, is he? Do you know how much he’s sacrificed? Norman Osborn/Green Goblin is a really fun Grixis commander. While the Norman side isn’t amazing, transforming it makes it incredible - The Green Goblin makes it so that any spells you cast from your graveyard cost 2 less to cast, while giving each nonland card in your graveyard Mayhem.
That’s right, we’ve finally broken One with Nothing. Seriously though, you want discard outlets here - Frantic Search, Faithless Looting and Psychic Frog are all excellent for this explicit purpose, allowing you to pick and choose what you’re sending to the graveyard. Combining that with Monument to Endurance means that you can get way more value out of your discards, while Archfiend of Ifnir helps to remove creatures from your opponents side of the field.
Cosmic Spider-Man
Let’s talk WUBRG. Cosmic Spider-Man is a Spider-specific card that has Flying, First Strike, Trample, Lifelink, and Haste. At the beginning of combat on your turn, every other Spider you control also gains those keywords, so you need to keep it typal.
Morophon The Boundless is an obvious inclusion since this is a WUBRG deck, as is Roaming Throne for Spider-based shenanigans. In terms of Spider cards themselves? You can include a lot, but I recommend including Arcahnogenesis to make a ton of Spider tokens, Shelob, Child of Ungoliant to give your opponents deathtouch and ward, and Spider-Ham, Peter Porker to give all of your Spiders +1/+1.
Other than that, it’s really your call on what to include - there’s so much potential here. Realmwalker allows you to look at the top card of your library and cast Spiders from the top, and [card]Thantis, The Warweaver[card] forces each creature to attack each combat if abl,e while getting bigger each time you or a planeswalker you control is attacked.
The Soul Stone
I think a lot of the combo potential for The Soul Stone will come later, once the rest of the Infinity Stones are revealed, but even without those cards, it’s pretty great. Initially, it’s just a two mana black indestructible mana rock, but for seven mana you can ‘harness’ it, activating a new ability whereupon at the beginning of your upkeep you return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
That’s right, we started this article with entry triggers, and we’re ending it with entry triggers - but in two diametrically opposed colors.
Let’s start with the obvious card - Gray Merchant of Asphodel is an auto-include in a deck like this, regardless of what your color identity is. The ability to recur it makes it so incredibly powerful, and it becomes a creature that can end games without ever actually needing to attack.
We could spend ages just singing the praises of all of the entry trigger cards, but I’d much rather look at a few key cards - Etali, Primal Conqueror, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Spider-Man 2099. Etali, Primal Conqueror probably needs no introduction - it’s a fearsome dinosaur that, upon entry, forces each player to exile cards until they hit a nonland card before casting any number of them. It’s also a 7/7 with trample that, for ten mana, can transform into an 11/11 with trample, indestructible, and the ability to give poison counters to your opponent.
Sakura-Tribe Elder is just a recurring basic land searcher, nothing else to talk about there. But Spider-Man 2099 is a curious card - it’s one of those cards that can’t be cast during the first three of your turns - but it can be cast during other people’s turns, or brought onto the battlefield in different ways - so bring it onto the battlefield using The Soul Stone. Then, at the beginning of your end step, if you’ve played a land or cast a spell this turn from anywhere other than your hand, you deal damage equal to the power of Spider-Man 2099 to any target. So combine it with cards like Jeska’s Will and you’re good to go.
Now, what Commander would actually be good for this card? Well, have you ever heard of Obeka, Splitter of Seconds? Whenever Obeka deals combat damage to a player, you get additional upkeep steps equal to the damage dealt after the combat phase - which means additional Soul Stone triggers. It’s perfect, really - abusing the Soul Stone, just like Thanos himself.
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