I'm yet to find a Magic: The Gathering fan in real life who has a good word to say about the upcoming Spider-Man crossover set. While Final Fantasy delighted the masses, it seems the Magic crowd turns its nose up at friendly neighbourhood superheroes. However, a couple of the newest spoilers have been incredible flavor wins, and it's slowly bringing me back around on this release.
Personally, I've not been excited for this MTG set before now either. Whereas Final Fantasy and Avatar feel like fairly natural properties for a Magic adaptation, the superhero genre and real world setting of Marvel comics is an uncomfortable fit for the TCG. Even though the boundaries of what a Magic set or MTG plane can look like have been stretched in recent years, it still feels weird to see New York yellow taxis in my fantasy card game.
The promise of in-universe versions of these cards for MTG Arena is an excuse to tune out of spoiler season for Universes Beyond-haters, who are ready to turn the art into official-feeling proxies.
It also doesn't help that Magic: The Gathering's Spider-Man spoilers began with cards from the starter decks. Because these have some of the simplest designs, they're also some of the least flavorful cards, which meant our first look at the set was disappointingly generic.
But now we're getting some more interesting cards, including some designs that resonate much more in terms of flavor.
One of these is Daily Bugle Building. This land card is pretty simple; it has an activated ability that lets you give a legendary creature menace. It's nothing mindblowing, but it made me laugh, and then it made me look up the J. Jonah Jameson card. Suddenly, I was paying a little more attention to the set.
The second card that won me over was With Great Power. Sure, it's very much a 'they said the thing!' UB card, but while the Bugle building was a cheap joke, this is actually pretty fantastic card-based storytelling.
With Great Power is an aura card that gives the enchanted creature extra stats for each equipment and aura attached to them. It also causes them to take any damage that would normally be coming at you, the player.
It's a great way of showing the enormous weight of responsibility that comes with being Spiderman. It's a great fit for Peter Parker's character, this 'everyman' superhero who - compared to other favorites like Batman and Superman - has relatable struggles and burdens to shoulder.
Of course, how you'll use this card won't be all that flavorful. You probably won't put it on Spiderman at all. It'll go on Brash Taunter in commander or Anti-Venom in Standard - but I guess 'anyone can wear the mask'.
For more Magic reads, check out our MTG release schedule guide or list of the best MTG commanders. We also want to know what you think of the Spider-Man set - come and join the conversation in the Wargamer Discord.