Marvel needs no introduction.

Whether you’re in it for the films, comics, or video games (catch me running sets of Marvel vs Capcom), there’s a deep well to pull from. Marvel has been around since the 1930s. Now they step into a new medium. Trading cards.

This article will focus on the 379 Commanders across the Standard set, Jumpstart boosters, and Commander decks. We won’t go into every single one. But I hope to highlight the exceptional ones worth building a deck around.

Forced violence is one of my favorite archetypes. I love Slicer, Hired Muscle, and Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos. The Sentry, Golden Guardian, brings this effect to white. The Sentry has flying, vigilance, and is indestructible. They’re a monster in combat. But an opponent gets “The Void”. It’s a token with the same stats and keywords as The Sentry, but The Void attacks each combat if able.

This makes for a fantastic, aggressive deck. Your opponents are forced to attack. Sure, they can attack the Sentry player. But nothing happens. However, if they start attacking your opponent’s life totals will quickly dwindle.

Tables struggling with never-ending games need more effects, such as The Sentry. The only challenge is finding a Commander that can play The Sentry, Slicer, and Alexios. Basandra, Battle Seraph, could force other creatures into the fray, too. If you’re feeling generous, Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser, suspect, and goad creatures. Whenever an opponent hits one of your shared enemies, you both draw a card. There’s a fantastic Boros aggro deck here somewhere.

Continuing with the aggressive commanders. Black Panther is a great option. Whenever he is dealt damage, he deals that much damage to any other target. He is great in Stuffy Doll decks.

Block, or don’t. Lose, lose either way.

His second ability is a one-off buff to your team. Great later in the game when you want to push for more damage.

I love Entangler and Valor Made Real. They allow Black Panther to block any number of creatures. This means a huge Craterhoof Behemoth swing can be blocked by Black Panther, with all the damage being returned to sender.

This feels like what Nadu should have been. Vigilance and reach are great keywords at only three mana. No maximum hand size is mostly flavor text. I don’t particularly care for Reliquary Tower effects (despite showing up in 29.7% of decks on EDHREC).

But Kamala makes it worthwhile. Whenever you cast a spell that targets a creature you control, you draw a card. She then gets base power equal to the number of cards in your hand, until the end of the turn.

Cantrips that target become card advantage. Enter the Enigma draws a card, then draws a card for Kamala’s ability. Leap can be used on the offense or defense for a surprise burst of power. Even spells that “do nothing,” like Cerulean Wisps, become one mana draw 2.

A nice bonus, Kamala doesn’t care what creature is targeted. She just wants it to be one of your creatures. This makes her great with flicker effects. Illusionist’s Stratagem can bounce two powerful creatures, but Kamala can still sit in play, ready to swing.  It seems stretchy limbs correspond to maximum hand size. Reed Richards, Smartest Man also grants no maximum hand size. But he goes for card quantity without any inherent payoff.

This is another take on Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. I love clones. Removing the legend rule is powerful. For the low cost of casting a non-creature spell, you make a copy of the Council of Reeds. Exponential effects always tickle me. First there is one, then two, then four, and so on. It can get out of hand fast.

While the diehards will prefer Sakashima, I like the all-in-one package the Reeds provide. There is a lot of room to go all in on tokens, clones, legends, or spellslinger. An army of 2/2 in blue reminds me of Talrand, even if the means of getting there is a bit different.

The Doctor himself makes an appearance. This card can win the game. Tap him, draw a card. Then, if your deck has no cards in it, you win. This might be the newest member of the “Bracket Four only” club. The effect is powerful and invites you to bring out your combo side. No one is playing Doctor Doom as a Phyrexian Arena.

The empty library wins are confined to blue today. Thassa’s Oracle and Laboratory Maniac have been causing groans across the table for over a decade.

Black is the perfect color for this effect. Most Thassa’s Oracle decks use black to achieve the empty library. Tainted Pact and Demonic Consultation come to mind. Legacy gamers know another way to achieve this: Doomsday.

Doomsday is also found in the Marvel Jumpstart set. We did a whole article about the card before. 

Here’s a way to win with the Doctor and Doomsday:

• Doom needs to have haste, or survive a lap around the table.
• Cast Doomsday. Search for Corrupted Conviction, Stitcher’s Supplier, Shallow Grave, and two other cards.
• Tap the Doctor to draw and cast Corrupted Conviction, sacrificing the Doctor.
• Draw Stitcher Supplier and Shallow Grave. Cast the Supplier, mill your deck. Shallow Grave targeting Doctor Doom.
• Shallow Grave grants haste. Tap Doom for the win.

I don’t think this deck is good enough for CEDH. Mono black feels too restricted. It takes busted on the scale of K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth for that. But, I expect to see Doctor Doom in bracket 4 decks, or in the 99 of non-blue combo decks.

Ultron is a big, bad Grave Titan-looking legend. He makes a 2/2 artifact creature whenever he enters or attacks. He also drains whenever an artifact is put into your graveyard from anywhere.

He can fit into a classic artifact-style aristocrats deck no problem.

Alternatively, you can go for self-mill. There is a lot of potential to dig deep into your deck for huge damage. Stinkweed Imp, Dakmor Salvage, andDarkblast are a great start.

If you don’t mind a deckbuilding challenge, try building around Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer to mill your entire deck in one go.

Living Laser is a great spin on Wheel of Fortune decks. This deck is incredibly aggressive. There are so many ways to discard cards for benefit. Whether I love Burning Inquiry as a way to disrupt opponents, Fear of Missing Out can give extra combats and discards when it enters.

I might be reaching a bit too far. But have we found a Commander deck where Bazaar of Baghdad is good?

Discarding three cards means we can swing for 16 damage!

Making copies of Living Laser before he attacks, as long as you can get around the legend rule. Take Helm of the Hosts. You can make a copy of Living Laser. Attack with both of them. Now you make double the tokens.

This is what an aggressive commander looks like!

The Scarlet Witch reduces your high mana instants/sorceries based on her power. The sky is the limit here.

Big Score, Mana Geyser, Path of the Pyromancer, getting any cost reduction is fantastic. This makes a lot of the larger red spells easier to cast, and lets you chain smaller spells into larger ones.

This is all before we think about buffing Scarlet Witch. Buffs could make for a great Voltron build using instants and sorceries to power her up.

Honorable mention to The Vision and Scarlet Witch. They also want you to play lots of spells. They give you a one mana refund and a +1/+1 counter. This feels like a much fairer Vivi. Cast spells, get mana back, and swing.

Mole Man feels like a card that should have already existed. He’s a Crucible of Worlds in the Command Zone. Our closest approximation is Szarel, Genesis Shepherd. But that’s five mana, in three colors.

Mole Man is simple but incredibly effective. Playing lands from the grave is a cornerstone for green decks.

His landfall trigger is simple and effective. It makes a 1/1. They mill a card, hopefully a land, when they attack.

Mole Man has a high ceiling. He is incredibly effective with fetchlands. Even if you are not grabbing dual lands, a Verdant Catacombs will go very far in this deck. Budget fetches like Evolving Wilds and Fabled Passage are worth including, too.

Medusa is a simple effect. A +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a noncreature spell is pretty good. But, in green? It’s not something we see every day. There’s a lot of room to experiment here. Whether it’s a simple ramp deck makes Medusa bigger by casting Rampant Growth Effects. Or trying to build mono-green storm, Medusa invites you to try something you don’t usually see in green.

Vigilance and Reach are nice, too. They make a constant nuisance in combat.

I am surprised by how much support we got for four colors in this set. There are three new four-color legends. All of them are non-black.

The Fantastic Four commander deck makes this happen. The namesake card lets you choose between one of four abilities whenever you cast a spell with a mana value, power, or toughness of four.

Each member of The Fantastic Four gets their own card too. Each has a mono-colored casting cost, but an RGWB in the text box. This means the deck has five possible commanders.

• Invisible Woman makes 0/3 defenders and can make a creature unblockable.
• Mister Fantastic draws cards and copies triggered abilities.
• Human Torch grants keywords and spreads damage across multiple players.
• The Thing doubles counters.

Each one could make a worthy deck on their own. But, I think the face commander is the best one out of the box.

Outside the precon Crystal, Inhuman Princess is a four-color mana dork that turns non-creature spells into direct damage. A great boon for my five-color deck.

Finally, Power Pack is a big ball of keywords that steals instant/sorcery spells from your opponent’s graveyard and casts them for free. It has a high casting cost, and I am sure it will generate huge value over the course of a game.

Ink-Treader players rejoice, you have so many new options!

Lurrus of the Dream-Den is one of my favorite cards. So good, it was banned in Vintage for a while!

I adore this little cat. I am also keeping an eye out for commanders that pair with it. Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a one mana Commander with a five color ability. This makes him a potential pairing for the cat.

Nick has a “Power Up” ability. This is an activated ability that can only happen once. But, it is reduced by his mana cost if he entered this turn.

The ability puts two counters on Nick. Then, look at the top seven cards and put any of the equipment or vehicles into play. Any double-faced cards revealed this way may be transformed.

The double-faced cards excite me. Many of them have one or two mana on their front side, allowing you to play them in a Lurrus deck. Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, and Jennifer Walters are all powerful in their own right. But, can be played on their back side using Nick, or as a sneaky way to dodge the Lurrus’ companion condition.

Previous Marvel sets have helped us out here, too. Gwen Stacy, Norman Osborn and Miles Morales are all amazing choices, which are even better when we cheat them into play.

Hero is not a very common creature type in Magic’s older sets. If you want to transform your Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, or Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, you’re going to need a Maskwood Nexus to help you out.

Captain America has a really unique ability. The first time a creature you control is tapped, untap it.

This feels comically simple to abuse. The obvious use case is combat. Swing you, board. Cap will untap them. Congratulations, you gave your creatures weird vigilance.

How about Palladium Myr for four mana? Untap four legendary permanents with Ioreth of the Healing House. Activate Oswald Fiddlebender twice in one turn. Draw six cards with Arcanis the Omnipotent.

The real scary stuff happens on your opponent’s turn. Cap’s ability triggers on your opponent’s turn, too. Fatestitcher can tap the biggest threat on each player’s turn.

There is limitless potential here. That’s before the weirder examples like casting a spell with Convoke, then untapping all the creatures you used. Or even better, splash Cap in a green deck. Double up all your mana dorks.

Storm gives us a unique take on a forced combat archetype. Creatures with flying cannot attack you or block your creatures. She can then grant another creature flying by targeting it with a spell.

This can be used on the offence or the defence. Cast Giant Growth on your own creature. It gains flying. It cannot be blocked by your opponent’s flyers. The only way to block it now is with reach.

On the other hand, cast Martial Impetus on an opponent’s creature. It must attack. Can’t attack you. It gains flying and must attack someone. Suddenly, life totals are getting low.

All that, and anything that just so happens to have flying naturally, is having a bad time. The Ur-Dragon player looks a lot less scary all of a sudden.

Angels are less threatening with clipped wings.

No more chump blocking with a Birds of Paradise.