I had the privilege of playing in the Marvel Super Heroes Early Access Event and got to experience a few hours of our future Standard format.

Overall, I enjoyed myself, and had a blast with the new set. I think it really helped that the Marvel cards actually have Marvel art on them on Arena now. The fact that I didn't have to learn the names of an entire new set of cards made the experience much more engaging.

These are the quick-hit observations on some of the cards and strategies I saw that did well.

The Modal Dual-Faced Cards (MDFC) Play Better Than You Think

It's another thing entirely to see your opponent play a turn one Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk, and then use a turn two Airbender Ascension to flip Bruce into the Hulk by turn three. Jennifer Walters // The Sensational She-Hulk, King T'Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring, and Monica Rambeau // Photon, Living Light also stood out, as cards that are perfectly acceptable on their front side and become game winning once transformed.

Of all the decks I played with, or against, during Early Access, the one that left me feeling the most hopeless was a version that leveraged these MDFCs with Shiko, Paragon of the Way.

Shiko's ability targets cards with a mana value of three or less, but once you select your target, it doesn't care which side of the card that you actually cast. So, every King T'Challa you killed on turn three threatened to return as Black Panther, Hope Enduring. This is a deck we need to keep an eye on going forward.

Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor Was Incredibly Versatile

Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor was a dependable, solid card. The flexibility of taking out something bigger like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl or wiping out a fleet of Badgermole Cubs and Llanowar Elves made the card one of the best answers I saw being played. It was kind of like an, "I can go big or go wide" response in the form of a split card.

And, if that wasn't enough, equipping it to a Creature with Worthy turned it into a game-winning threat. It's been a while since we had an Equipment card as the backbone of a Tier 1 decklist, but Mjolnir might be the one to do it.

M.O.D.O.K. Was Impressive

M.O.D.O.K. performed very well, and it was one of the cards I absolutely hated to see on my opponent's side of the table. If they got him out early with a high enough life total, the Connive ability ensured that they would be drawing playable cards for the rest of the game, while setting up graveyard and discard shenanigans.

Additionally, the -1/-1 ability made going around the card almost impossible. I'll admit, I dismissed this card when it was first spoiled, but after seeing it in action, I'm a believer in its power.

Don't Forget the Uncommon Cards

It's easy to talk about the Mythic and Rare cards, but it's the Uncommons that sometimes become the most played cards in a set. Dark Deed, for example, was a great removal spell, and will be a welcome addition to the format. Especially as an answer to Captain America, Super-Soldier. It's not exciting, but if you play Black cards, I'd suggest stocking up on your playset as soon as the set releases.

Team Tactics will reliably end games. It provides another avenue to speed up the format. I hate to say it, but it plays as well as it looks.

Tigra, Feline Fury was the center piece of my most successful brew in the Early Access event. There is so much incidental life gain in Green right now that it's easy to have this grow into a game wrecker in just a turn or two. We've seen this effect many times before, but it's very rare to see this on a Creature with Trample.

Captain America, Super-Soldier Was Super Annoying

In preview season, it sometimes seems that the cards that get spoiled in the earliest press releases tend to get overlooked by the time the set gets released. We had a hype cycle for Captain America, Super-Soldier in the beginning of Marvel previews months ago, and then the excitement for the card dwindled as the rest of the set started getting spoiled.

But, once you see him in play, you realize that there's a reason this was one of the first cards spoiled. It was extremely annoying to see this hit the board. I don't know if Standard, as it is now, has room for an old school Creature deck focusing on efficient threats up the mana curve, but if it is viable, Cap will be a card to explore in that capacity.

Doctor Doom is a Great Villain

Doctor Doom and Plan cards worked much better than I thought they would. Like any great Villain, it was all about implementing a long-term strategy, leading with cards like Doom Reigns Supreme and slowly eking out an advantage through spot removal and henchman until the big guy arrives and abruptly ends things.

Doctor Doom is hard to kill, brings an army of Doombots with him, and even gives you card advantage, making it even harder for your opponent to climb back into the game. I know, six mana is a lot to ask in this lightning-fast Standard environment, but the power level is there to make it worth it.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Looked Great

Take this with a grain of salt. This was the Early Access, and for these events, people play decks that aren't competitively optimized in order to show off the new cards. I didn't play against anything remotely as tuned as an Izzet Lessons or a Jeskai Black control deck. That being said...

Yeah, the squirrels were a little nutty.

I saw every combination of colors try to use The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl to go infinite. I, myself, ran both a Selesnya version (to use Jennifer Walters as a way to protect Squirrel Girl from instant-speed removal) and a Golgari version (to capitalize on the Black squirrel cards from Bloomburrow), but there were also some Gruul (using cards like Enduring Courage in the image above), mono Green, Simic, and even three color versions being played.

Partnering Squirrel Girl with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu and Enduring Vitality was one of the more widely used strategies that I saw in the Early Access and it was consistently successful. I saw decks combo off with infinite squirrels as early as turn three.

I don't know if this will translate over to a competitive Standard, but the combo is powerful, and once it is finely tuned, it could present a unique avenue to attack the format.

Conclusions

After finally getting the chance to play with the cards, I would say that Marvel Super Heroes is a very interesting set. Unlike many of the recent releases, there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming, cohesive strategy that's pushed in the extreme (though the Villain decks sometimes came together like an evil, oppressive scheme).

The cards play very well, and there are a ton of options for brewing. I'm bummed that I have to wait to dive back into the set on Arena, but I look forward to the Prerelease in the meantime.

You can find more of my Magic musings and decks on Twitch and on Bluesky.