Preorders are now live for Magic: The Gathering – Marvel Super Heroes, a crossover set that exists specifically to turn decades of comic book power fantasies into cardboard rectangles that will absolutely ruin friendships at kitchen tables across the world.
Wizards of the Coast has already pulled back the curtain with an early showcase featuring more than 30 cards, each sporting unique artwork inspired directly by the pages of Marvel Comics. In other words, they did not half-ass this. They whole-assed it. Hard.
The roster reads like someone dumped a Marvel encyclopedia onto a deck list generator. Bruce Banner is here. Captain America is here. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are here. Namor the Sub-Mariner shows up looking perpetually annoyed. Quicksilver is doing Quicksilver things. Galactus is present to remind everyone that “balanced gameplay” is a flexible concept. Sentry is also along for the ride, presumably bringing his usual emotional instability with him.
According to Magic head designer Mark Rosewater, this project was basically destiny.
“Getting to work on Marvel Super Heroes was truly a dream project for me,” Rosewater said, explaining that his last fifty years of reading comics were essentially long-term research for this exact moment. Which is either extremely inspiring or proof that comic nerds eventually inherit the earth.
The set spans a massive slice of Marvel’s universe, pulling in heroes and villains alike. Captain America anchors the lineup. The Fantastic Four make their presence known. The Thunderbolts appear. Doctor Doom is exactly where you expect him to be: menacing and probably overpowered.
One notable absence, however, is Spider-Man. And before anyone starts panicking, this is less “forgotten” and more “already handled.” Spidey received his own dedicated Magic crossover last year, which means Marvel and Wizards are apparently treating the wall-crawler like a premium subscription tier.
The end result is a set that feels engineered to short-circuit the brains of both longtime Magic players and lifelong Marvel fans, which, conveniently, is a heavily overlapping circle.
Magic: The Gathering – Marvel Super Heroes launches this June. Your wallet has been warned.
