Spider-Man is Magic’s second attempt at a Standard legal Universes Beyond set. Instead of the usual set review format, let’s do something a little different. This set will not feature any Commander preconstructed decks. So, let’s make our own! I’ve prepared two Spider-Man-themed decks to highlight the new cards and mechanics.

The first is a five-color Spider-Man hero deck, the second is a Norman Osborn villains deck. These two decks will showcase the major mechanics of the set and give you a direction to build your own deck.

I will also have some honorable mentions for those cards that did not make it into either deck.

Our first deck features Cosmic Spider-Man at the helm. He is a 5/5 for WUBRG with a flying, first strike, trample, lifelink, and haste. At the beginning of combat on your turn, he grants these abilities to your other spiders.

Our plan is simple:

1. Fill the board with spiders
2. Then Cosmic Spider-Man will make combat a nightmare for our opponents thanks to all those abilities

I tried to fill the deck with as many Spider-Man cards as possible; however, some older cards were included for their utility.

You can check out the full decklist here!

Let’s look at some of the cards and packages we included.

Web-Slinging is an alternative casting cost. You can cast a spell for its web-slinging cost by returning a tapped creature you control to its owner’s hand.

Arachne, Psionic Weaver costs three mana, or one mana to web-sling. She looks at an opponent’s hand and makes a chosen card type more expensive. Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary, searches for a basic land when he enters. He can be cast for as little as three mana with web-slinging.

This deck runs seven cards with web-slinging. Silk, Web Weaver, and Spider-Man India are some of my favorites. Together, they make tokens and +1/+1 counters. They can easily overwhelm your opponents, especially if you can cast multiple spells per turn.

Seven web-slingers feel a bit low. Here’s where Peter Parker//Amazing Spider-Man comes in. Peter can be cast for two mana or four mana. The front side makes a spider token when he enters, and for four mana, you can transform him. As Amazing Spider-Man, all your legendary spells gain web-slinging for green, white, and blue. This can give us a huge discount on some of our larger spells! Amazing Spider-Man becomes an engine for re-using enter the battlefield triggers, too!

To take advantage of web-slinging, we need to enter/leave the battlefield triggers. Spider-Bot is a nice role-player. It searches for a basic land and puts it into your hand. It’s essential to get your colors in a WUBRG deck.

Spider-Girl, Legacy Hero makes a 1/1 whenever she leaves the battlefield. At two mana, it’s easy to replay her and keep getting value. For a bigger buff, try Spider-Man, Miles Morales. When he enters or attacks, you put a +1/+1 counter on all your creatures and give them trample.

With all those counters, SP/dr, Piloted by Peni will keep your hand full of cards!

This section has lots of room for flexibility. Going outside Spider-Man, you could play Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, or, in my case, Ishkanah Grafwidow. She makes three 1/2 spiders if you have delirium and has an activated ability that deals damage for each spider you control.

If you really enjoy the web-slinging gameplay, I would lean into Peter Parker//Amazing Spider-Man as the commander. You are sacrificing red and black to do that, though. Your mileage may vary.

Web-slinging needs a tapped creature to work. We can obviously attack to tap our creatures, but that can be difficult if our opponents’ creatures are in the way. To help, we included some ways to tap into our own creatures. This can be useful on those slow turns when no one wants to attack. This lets you web-sling without worry.

Springleaf Drum taps itself and a creature for mana. Smuggler’s Copter has a crew 1. You can crew a vehicle as many times as you like. This can be a great way to tap multiple creatures in one turn for multiple web-slinging casts. Scene of the Crime is a land that taps a creature for one mana of any color. Finally, Supportive Parents taps two creatures to add one mana of any color.

It doesn’t matter what deck you’re playing; interaction is essential. Spider-Sense and Amazing Acrobatics are solid counterspells that play into our theme. Spider-Man No More is a great way to eliminate an opponent’s Commander without letting it go back to the command zone. For some more classical removal, check out Mystic Confluence and Leyline Binding. They both received comic book art as part of the “Marvel Universes” bonus sheet. These cards are great ways to stay on brand with classic, powerful Magic cards.

Miles Morales//Ultimate Spider-Man has a lot of abilities. We’re most concerned with the last ability on the back. Whenever you attack, you double each counter on each spider and legendary creature you control. I like this design. It makes him useful outside of strict spider decks!

Roaming Throne is a great role-player in any kindred deck. At the bare minimum, this will double all the enter-the-battlefield effects for your spiders.

Lastly, Shelob, Child of Ungoliant makes our spiders hard to deal with. Deathtouch and ward 2 are a headache. Their final ability gives us a food copy of any creature that dies to our spiders. This could give us access to some unique effects! Shelob always leads to weird board states.

Norman Osborn is a double-faced card. For two mana, you get a 1/1 that connives and cannot be blocked. His other side reduces the cost of spells in your graveyard, and gives spells in your graveyard mayhem!

Mayhem is a new mechanic for the villains of the set. As long as a card with mayhem was discarded this turn, it can be cast from your graveyard.

Norman is an open-ended commander. We could go Voltron. Use the 1/1 unblockable body to get in for commander damage. I am more excited by the Green Goblin side. There is great potential here for an awesome storm deck similar to Kess, Dissident Mage. However, I’m going to keep in the spirit of Spider-Man and focus on using as many cards from the main set.

With that in mind, I’m going to lean into discard synergies and reanimator. Green Goblin is our card advantage and reanimation enabler!

To turn on mayhem, we need to discard cards. We have so many ways to do that here! Shadow of the Goblin lets us discard and draw a card every turn. It’s also a win condition if you can cast multiple spells from the graveyard. Shriek, Treblemaker, and Ultimate Green Goblin also let us discard cards at the start of the turn to enable our commander.

While not part of the Spider-Man universe, Birgi, God of Storytelling, Putrid Imp, and Skirge Familiar let us discard as many cards as we want, whenever we want!

Besides Green Goblin, we need discard payoffs. Green Goblin, Nemesis, and Hobgoblin, Mantled Marauder give us great payoffs for discarding.

Sometimes we won’t have access to our Commander. To help, we also run cards that already have mayhem. Rocket-Powered Govlin Glider and Scarlet Spider, Kaine, are good role-players to keep the pressure on.

In the wider Magic card pool, Monument to Endurance, Surly Badgersaur, and Bone Miser are classic discard-payoffs you should look to!

The removal spells featured on the Marvel Universes bonus sheet are some of my favorite art in the set. I love the bold yellow Counterspell. Infernal Grasp is over-the-top villainy. Terminate is gorgeous, I love the sense of movement!

Moving back to the main set, we have removal spells that synergize with our graveyard-villain theme. Venom’s Hunger gets a discount if you control a Villain. The Spot’s Portal is a weird take on a removal spell, but I love seeing it in colors outside blue/white!

Villainous Wrath is a five-mana board wipe that might kill a player! Target opponent loses life equal to the number of creatures they control. Then you destroy all creatures! I cannot wait to sneak a kill with this.

Our ramp package is slim. The Green Goblin already gives us a huge mana discount. We have an assortment of Talismans, but you can play Signets if you prefer. The one major mana rock in Spider-Man is The Soul Stone. It’s a two-mana legendary artifact that taps for black. That’s a serviceable mana rock at worst. For seven mana and exiling a creature, you can “Harness The Soul Stone”. This gives you access to its final ability. At the beginning of your upkeep, reanimate a creature.

I love early-game cards with late-game relevance. The Soul Stone is solid on turn two or turn ten.

Be careful with The Soul Stone. It costs black to play and only generates tap. You might not want to put this in every deck unless you reliably have access to black. In our case, this deck is 50% black.

Norman already gives us an easy way to reanimate creatures. This package is compact. Reanimate appears on the Marvel bonus sheet with an awesome comic scene. Prison Break is a simple five-mana reanimate. Behold the Sinister Six reanimates six creatures. This is a great top-end to get you back in the game! Finally, Carnage, Crimson Chaos reanimates a three mana creature. That creature is then sacrificed whenever it deals combat damage.

Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, and With Great Power… are here for similar reasons: Stuffy Doll decks!

• Anti-Venom reanimates a creature when he enters. Any damage dealt to Anti-Venom is converted to +1/+1 counters instead. This means you need a true removal spell. Combat damage won’t remove them.
• With Great Power… converts damage directed at you to the enchanted creature. Pair this with Anti-Venom, Stuffy Doll, or Brash Taunter to burn your opponents out! I have been running a Stuffy Doll deck for about a year now. It’s a fun take on burn.

Electro is a great storm Commander that’s rarely useless. Every instant and sorcery generates a red mana. You no longer lose red mana as steps and phases end. Birgi, God of Storytelling, is the obvious comparison. Electro’s key advantage is his final ability. When he leaves play, you can pay X mana to deal X damage to any player. You can spend multiple turns banking mana. Even if you do not get to cast your big pay-off, you can always zap someone with Electro. It’s a great self-contained package.

Sandman is a big beater who cannot be chump-blocked. His power will continue to grow as you cast lands. You rarely feel bad paying the commander tax here because he is always growing. But, Sandman doesn’t care about the commander tax! For five mana, you return him and a land from your graveyard to the battlefield. He returns any land. You can use this to ramp, make Sandman bigger, or grab a utility land. This deck can be built on a shoestring budget or go all out with Boseiju, Who Endures, Field of the Dead, and Gaea’s Cradle.

Doc Ock’s Tentacle is the perfect addition to any deck that craves combat. It freely equips to five mana or higher creatures. It grants +4/+4. Otherwise, it equips for five mana. Any commander with seven or more power is now a two-shot kill for commander damage. Honorable mention to Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, who now dishes out eight poison! Particularly flavorful with his new Marvel Universe printing.

Our last card is Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade. We have been spoiled for colorless commanders recently. Iron Spider is Steel Overseer in the command zone. I love this go wide-artifact angle. Arcbound Ravager and Patchwork Automaton have a new home! On top of that, we can remove counters to draw cards. Repeatable card draw in a colorless deck is incredibly rare. I cannot wait to see how Iron Spider plays!