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Magic: The Gathering Marvel’s Spider-Man Review
Image Credit: Wizards Of the Coast/Marvel
Loading...As 2025 starts winding down, we find ourself with the second most anticipated set from Magic: The Gathering this year: Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Like Final Fantasy earlier this summer, this is the latest set in the Universes Beyond series that is legal in Standard play. However, unlike in Final Fantasy, there just doesn’t seem to be as many wowing cards with this set.
Overall, the Spider-Man set features 186 cards in the main set and 20 cards that can be found only in the welcome decks. These don’t include the large amount of variant art cards that can be found featuring artwork from the comics, amazing full-arts and more. Like the Final Fantasy set, these unique arts are definitely one of the highlights of the set to enjoy.
We do have a few new mechanics to recognize from the set. First up is Web-slinging (Enweb if you’re playing on MtG Arena thanks to some legal issues). Web-slinging is a good way to shuffle tapped cards off the field for fresh cards from your hand.
By paying a discounted cost, you can return a tapped creature you control to your hand and put a new creature on the field ready to go. Based on the timing of the card’s ability, it can only be used during the main phases, but pared with some other abilities it’s a good way to use up a card, shuffle it back into your hand and have a new card ready to defend on your opponent’s turn.
The other ability making a debut is Mayhem. If a card has been discarded this turn with Mayhem, you can cast it from the graveyard for a discounted rate, with all timing rules still applying. Going great with Mayhem is the returning mechanic Connive, which lets players draw a card, discard a card and get a +1/+1 for a nonland card discarded that way.
The chase card of this set definitely has to be the first of the Infinity Stones introduced to the MtG universe: The Soul Stone. Coming in 3 different variants, the Indestructible stone is great for Black players, adding a Black mana when tapped. Once you have enough mana to exile a creature and Harness the Stone, that’s when the true effect comes out; allowing you to return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield during the start of each upkeep you have.
The other sought-after card so far appears to be one of the 8 variants of Spectacular Spider-Man (including my personal favorite: Bag-Man). Spectacular Spider-Man comes in with Flash, and by using an additional mana can either gain flying or be sacrificed to let all other creatures under your control gain hexproof and indestructible until the end of the turn.
Personally, I like the art of how some of the saga cards are handled in the set. The cards give 3 panel highlights of images from the comics, and look great. Several other cards also get the comic book treatment, coming straight from the panels of past comics. Honestly, the alternate arts are probably the best highlights of the set.
Finally, there are 5 double-faced cards in the set to watch for. Each one features the main person at a lower cost that can initially be used, as well as the secret identity that can be transformed into later on (or used initially if you have enough mana already). Given the source material, having these cards makes perfect sense.
