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It's Morlun Time!
When Marvel's Spider-Man was announced as Magic's next foray into Universes Beyond, there was a certain segment of the population that grew excited about a certain vampire in the Spider-Man universe that has become the focus of many a meme. However, when he was finally spoiled, the excitement died down. Morbius, the Living Vampire isn't a bad card, and it has a shot at seeing play, but it didn't inspire the, "It's Morbin time!" chants like the masses had hoped.
But, fortunately, Morbius isn't the only vampire in the comic book lore, and it turns out there is a vampire in the Spider-Man set that does excite me. Morbius may not be up to snuff, so it's Morlun time!
Morlun Time | Standard | Travis Hall
- Creatures (20)
- 1 Disruptive Stormbrood
- 2 Cecil, Dark Knight
- 2 Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel
- 3 Mosswood Dreadknight
- 4 Morlun, Devourer of Spiders
- 4 Icetill Explorer
- 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
- Spells (9)
- 2 Long Goodbye
- 2 Shoot the Sheriff
- 1 Urgent Necropsy
- 4 Esper Origins
- Enchantments (5)
- 2 The Death of Gwen Stacy
- 3 Virtue of Strength
- Artifacts (1)
- 1 The Soul Stone
- Lands (25)
- 4 Swamp
- 5 Forest
- 1 Escape Tunnel
- 1 Fountainport
- 2 Restless Cottage
- 4 Blooming Marsh
- 4 Fabled Passage
- 4 Wastewood Verge
Card Choices
The deck's namesake and the card from Spider-Man I'm the most excited to try out. I have long been a fan of Siege Rhino, and Morlun steps into the longtime favorite's shoes admirably. He trades Trample for Lifelink, admittedly a downgrade in combat, and he doesn't hit quite so hard as exactly a 4 drop. But, he makes up for it in versatility and game ending power. He can come down on turn 2-3 in you're in need of a blocker (and can be returned to your hand via Overlord of the Balemurk or Garenbrig Growth), and at turn 5 he pretty much matches the Rhino. But, at turns 6+, Morlun shifts, from just your normal Siege Rhino into a Siege Rhino packing a Fireball, able to end the game immediately...
... so I wanted to see what cards existed in Standard to help push through enough mana to turn Morlun into that Fireball. Virtue of Strength has seen play, albeit briefly, in some versions of the Aftermath Analyst deck last year. Since then, it has been waiting for a card to bring it back to relevance. Combining Icetill Explorer and Fabled Passage to grab all of the basic lands in the deck means this can easily get Morlun into the 20+ damage range. The adventure part of the card, Garenbrig Growth, should also work very well with the rest of the deck, allowing you to play Morlun early for value and still have access to the Fireball in the late game via graveyard recursion.
And, here we have a card that interacts very well with the other pieces of the deck. It lets you make incredible jumps in land counts, fueling a bigger Morlun. With the landfall ability it helps you grind out matches, as it mills cards like Esper Origins and Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel into the graveyard (effectively, "drawing a card"), or other creatures to enable the, "return" abilities of Overlord of the Balemurk and the Garenbrig Growth side of Virtue of Strength. Icetill Explorer is already seeing occasional play in Standard, and this could be a deck to really showcase the raw power of the card.
Man, was I wrong about this card. I found it wholly unexciting when first spoiled, but since Final Fantasy was released it has lowly made its way into more and more decks. It enables extra graveyard shenanigans here, as the surveil can stock lands in the yard for Icetill Explorer/Garenbrig Growth. With flashback, when Summon: Esper Manduin enters it can find most of your deck, even a removal spell in our next card.
I'm primarily giving this one a go as a removal spell that's easier to sneak into your hand since it is a permanent. The second and third levels of the Saga are just gravy (although, they may be very relevant gravy in some matches).
Does this deck want Black mana? Does it play creatures? Okay, one copy of the Soul Stone it is.
If we're already going for a theme of lots of lands + graveyard synergies, then this is one of the cards form Spider-Man that definitely warrants consideration. This will often be the largest creature on the board, and will be very difficult to kill. And, when they do, it will just keep coming back, while fueling a larger Morlun in the late game.
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The early game, "hold the line" creatures. Cecil can block anything, and with Overlord/Garenbrig to return him, I'm not afraid of using him as a de facto removal spell. Mosswood Dreadkinght is just the best, all-purpose Golgari card in the format. It doesn't interact with most of the other components of the deck, but it's probably the best 2 drop the colors have to offer. It also adds another grindy component to the deck.
This deck feels like it has a lot of interesting synergies going for it, and I can't wait to take it for a spin once Spider-Man hits Arena (and I have to relearn/rename all of the cards).
You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/anakinsdad.bsky.social
