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Welcome back!
This is the fifth and final part of me going over some of the best Spider-Man cards, so if you happened to miss the first four parts, be sure and go back to check those out. You can find all the details of what's going on there, but essentially, I love Spider-Man as a character, and I wanted to talk about some of the gems in the set, especially since it's had something of a less-than-stellar reception.
As usual, these are going to be a combination of cards that could be competitive all-stars or just cards that I like a lot, with great flavor, so nothing is really off-limits.
Let's begin!
Superior Spider-Man
Five-mana reanimation spells sometimes see play, but four-mana reanimation spells are really where you want to be. Cards like Zombify, Resurrection, Unburial Rites from the graveyard, and Dread Return are really the sweet spot. Nowadays, reanimation spells often cost five mana, so seeing the Superior Spider-Man cost four-mana is a nice surprise. While he'll always be a 4/4, he has quite a few upsides, like the fact that he can choose a card from any graveyard (a perk of reanimation spells I've mentioned before), and he will always be a 4/4, regardless of your chosen creature. Only have a Noble Hierarch in the graveyards? Well, now you have a 4/4 with exalted rather than an 0/1.
Ultimate Green Goblin
This guy feels like a much more reasonable Carnage Interpreter, which is ironic, since that's a card with the name Carnage. But otherwise, we have two creatures with three-mana hybrid costs, that both allow you to do some discarding for tokens. While Ultimate Green Goblin is a little worse since Treasures are worse than Clues, the cost is always for a 5/4, not simply when you have one or fewer cards in hand, and you also don't have to discard your entire hand. Being able to discard the Green Goblin in order to recast him on the same turn is also quite the perk. Again, I will lament that you can't discard an Ultimate Green Goblin to the Ultimate Green Goblin's trigger, only to cast the discarded Ultimate Green Goblin...because legendary, but I digress.
Doc Ock's Tentacles
Speaking of legendary cards, I have no idea why this isn't. It's not like there's a ton of sets of Doc Ock tentacles lying around. Legendary issues aside, I mostly added this one because I think most artifacts that cost one mana are worthy of consideration due to Urza's Saga. While the equip cost on this is rather high, a +4/+4 buff is pretty crazy and being able to equip this for free is strong. Imagine casting a Mulldrifter for five mana, then making it a 6/6 for free. Just some food for thought.
Peter Parker's Camera
Remember what I said about consideration for Urza's Saga? Peter Parker's Camera fits that bill and also seems quite a bit better. This is another card that just feels iconic in its Spider-Man flavor. Copying activated or triggered abilities can be a very strong ability. Imagine copying the trigger of a Griselbrand or an Atraxa for two mana. In a deck with Urza's Saga in it, you can even copy triggers from future Urza's Sagas, like making two Constructs!
Multiversal Passage
Multiversal Passage has shown itself to be one of the best cards in the set. It's a shockland, but of only one single color, but you get to choose that color! Multiversal Passage also has a basic land type and it will still cost you two life if you want it to enter untapped. So yeah, comically, just a shockland for the color of your choosing. People love flexible lands like this that can be exactly what you need. Think of how good the Kaldheim Pathways were/are. Those were lands that gave you the choice of one color out of two. Passage give you the choice of one color out of five, and it gains a basic land type.
Oscorp Industries
Rare versions of the Shards of Alara trilands that do more than just tap for mana are an interesting concept. In a deck with cards like Norman Osborn or Ultimate Green Goblin, this can often be a free land to just play from your graveyard thanks to mayhem, which is awesome. While it's competing with Xander's Lounge, the floor for this card is literally just a Crumbling Necropolis with upside, which seems pretty good.
Urban Retreat
Urban Retreat, similar to Oscorp Industries, is another land that's "strictly better" than Seaside Citadel. Whether it's better than Spara's Headquarters, I'm not sure, but it is a land that can turn any one-drop into a ramp spell on turn two if you have the right setup. If that creature is a mana dork, you not only have a great way to make sure it's tapped, but you can also recast it since you'll have a total of three mana. This is basically a land that has web-slinging, so that's pretty cute.
Well, that's it for Spider-Man! I think we'll take a look at some of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards next, while I question the world we're living in where I'm even able to type that sentence.
Thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
