We now know what MTG colors a bevy of Marvel and DC superheroes would be if lead designer, Mark Rosewater, ever got his hands on them. Answering questions on his ‘Blogatog’ blog on Wednesday and Thursday, Rosewater explained the color identity he’d give Magic: the Gathering cards for Superman, Spider-Man, and more.
Rosewater asserts that Superman is mono white. Presumably he’s thinking of the classic comic book version of the last son of Krypton, or perhaps the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, and not the gritty reimagining played by Henry Cavill.
A completely white MTG color identity certainly fits the original, uncomplicated, golden age superhero. Rosewater suggests more complicated MTG color combinations for characters from the silver age onwards.
As the character Spider-Man actually refers to several different heroes, Rosewater has a few different interpretations of his color identity. All the way back in June 8 2014 he asserted that “Spider-Man is green/white” and “Peter Parker has some blue”, and this Wednesday added that “Miles [Morales] is probably white/green/red”.
Rosewater thinks that both the Hank Pym and Scott Lang versions of Ant-Man found in the comics are green blue, but he says “the MCU version of Scott is more red and less blue”.
Plenty of fans asked Rosewater about supervillains too – perhaps the extreme villainy of MTG Phyrexia All Will Be One is playing on their mind. Rosewater says Batman villain Two-Face would be white, black, and red; Spider-Man nemesis Venom would be green and black; and Homelander, villain supreme of The Boys, would be black and red.
This round of superhero-themed questions started on Wednesday, after blogger Ragnar-Viking asked Rosewater when or if “a superhero and supervillain plane” would feature in an MTG set. Rosewater responded that he was in favour of the idea, but that it was still an “if”.
Magic the Gathering has had lots of crossovers with other universes recently, both in Secret Lair products and the Universes Beyond partnership programme. This year fans can expect a MTG Lord of the Rings set that will be legal in the MTG Modern format, as well as MTG Doctor Who commander decks – check back in with Wargamer for more information on both.
An MTG Marvel crossover strikes us as unlikely, at least any time soon. Marvel has its own fantastically successful digital card game in Marvel Snap, while the Marvel Champions living card game is published by Fantasy Flight Games and the Legendary deck builder series is published by Upper Deck Entertainment, either of which could preclude a deal with Wizards of the Coast.
The DC Deck-Building game from Cryptozoic has a fair few expansions, but there isn’t a DC living or collectible card game, so perhaps we’ll see a Superman secret lair yet.
If you want to bring something super-heroic to your game table soon, check out our list of the best Marvel board games.