Historic Brewing Review – Marvel Super Heroes

Hello and welcome back to Fun & Jank! My name is Plum, and it’s time for another Historic Brewer’s Review. As a reminder, we play the jank here. This isn’t a full set or limited review; instead, we are diving into the unique utility pieces, legendary enablers, and fun build-arounds coming to Arena on the 23rd with the addition of Marvel Super Heroes.

As we start looking at a these cards, keep a few overarching themes in mind. Firstly, this set is packed with legendary creatures, making Mox Amber a relevant card for a lot of builds. There’s also a ton of humans, which is well known and well loved archetype. I don’t want to go through every single human that might be viable for the deck, but I do throw in some highlights. Finally, there’s a new batch of flip cards which means Moonmist is back on the menu, but we’ve talked about that card to no-end in previous articles, so I don’t want to dive too in-depth about it here.

With those few points made, lets take a peek what MSH cards piqued my interest!

A two-mana 2/3 legendary human with an ability similar to Voice of Victory. Paying six transforms her into a massive 6/6 with reach, trample, and a repeatable damage-reflection trigger. She is a prime target for a Moon Mist shell. Dropping her on turn two, enabling an earlier Mox Amber, and flipping her on turn three gives you an immediate 6/6 beater that completely locks opponents out of interacting on your turn. She seems solid for the shell.

The second Infinity Stone to hit the format. It’s a two-mana, indestructible white mana rock that can later be harnessed for six mana to activate a powerful permanent end-step blink engine. Unlike the Soul Stone, there is no harness drawback here. This slots perfectly into a Big White Devotion we’ve played previosuly, or Bant blink shells featuring things like Skyclave Apparition and Soulherder.

An aggressive 2/1 for one mana that enables Mox Amber isn’t too shabby for white weenie or humans builds. The power-up ability doesn’t seem to crazy when Humans builds already have access to a rainbow manabase.

There’s a lot of value here even if you have a decent Hero to jam. Chapter two allows you to play two three-drops on turn three immediately followed by a pump for your whole board on turn 4. It might warrant another look at cards like Spider-Man 99 as it also gets around the cast restriction.

Actually quite similar to the card above. A lot of value for a cheap initial investment of just one mana. This is a fantastic turn-one play for go-wide token decks or aggressive strategies like Boros Convoke utilizing Ornithopter and Venerated Loxodon.

While usable in Auras or Bogles, this is a fascinating backup enabler for Hammer Time. Flashing or casting this onto an early creature allows you to immediately cheat a Colossus Hammer or Umezawa’s Jitte into action on offense or defense. First Strike and Vigilance ain’t half bad to add on either.

A one-mana 1/1 human that can draw cards, or transform into an $8/8$ trample, reach behemoth that grants additional combat phases when damaged. This is probably our main draw back to Moonmist. Turn one Banner + Mox Amber followed by a turn two Moonmist or Release the Wind gives you an 8/8 attacking threat on turn two or three. Sure it dies easily, but a beater of that size early in the game seems crazy.

powerful engine for high-powered artifact shells. Pairing this with token generators like Tamiyo Meets the Story Circle or Weapons Manufacturing allows you to tap clues and Munitions to power out massive non-creature spells or Kolaghan’s Commands for virtually free. A 3/4 Flyer is a solid body here too. There’s probably some other top-ends that I can’t think of right now, but she seems powerful.

This card was practically tailor-made to protect Psychic Frog. Discard a card to the Frog to give it a counter, and it instantly gains hexproof. Attacks from the frog then trigger Loki’s own growth. Kind of similar to Maruading Mako in terms of a cheap creature that grows for just playing your deck. Seems fun in an Eidetic Memory deck too.

Essentially a fixed, Nadu. You can repeatedly target him with zero-cost equip abilities like Lightning Greaves for a seamless, continuous card-draw engine. Relic of Progenitus is also a great enabler which happens to also play quite well with Ketramose. Maybe a new take on Esper Ketramose could work with these two paired together?

An incredibly unique effect for blue—part Oblivion Ring, part Shelter by Ghosts. It lets you temporarily remove a premium threat while simultaneously turning your weakest creature into a copy of their best card protected by ward. Not sure if there’s a deck that wants this kind of effect right now, but its cool to have nonetheless.

We’ve tried quite a few “Blue Steel” style decks in the past. Featuring cards like Thorn of Amethyst, Lodestone Golem, and Unctus. I like that this enabled some early stax pieces while also doubling up on win conditions later on by copying Golems or Smuggler’s Copters and such. Legendary also means she fits in alongside Emry and Tamiyo with Mox Amber.

A one-mana blue aura that forces the enchanted creature’s controller to draw a card during their upkeep. This can potentially be a cheap, hyper-efficient Phyrexian Arena variant when placed on hexproof or ward creatures like Slippery Bogle. It also has hilarious synergy with Lady Octopus, quickly ticking up ingenuity counters to cast high-cost artifacts for free. Also kind of a neat synergy with Tiger-Seal and Eidetic Memory decks. Neat!

While great for neutralizing blockers and attackers, I’m seeing this more as a strong tempo piece for UBx shells with Death’s Shadow. Flash this in, target your own Death’s Shadow, and because it loses its native stat-reduction ability, it instantly turns into a 13/13 for as long as Wasp is around. A nice 2/1 evasive attacker is a solid body too.

I think she’s highly reminiscent of Robber of the Rich, albeit with a bit more utility as she either grows or steals a card. I don’t she’s anything too crazy, but we have tried playing Menace tribal with Labyrinth Raptor, and this seems like a good addition.

A flexible red sorcery that lets you choose to deal three damage to all creatures, destroy a land (giving them a basic), or choose both options simultaneously. Excellent sideboard utility. Can help against aggro or decks with important lands like Scapeshift or Nykthos without taking up too many slots.

Another card that I don’t think is too special, but one that you can do some silly things with. If you use a card like Consign to Memory to counter the sacrifice trigger when it hits four counters, you get to keep the permanent enchantment on the board as a permanent treasure-generating engine. Tapped treasures aren’t that useful in decks like Storm, but its a cool interaction that this and all the other Plans have that could prove to be useful.

This card would probably be playable ~5 years ago but not its just been powercrept out. Hawkeye is still pretty sweet though. He pairs beautifully with Firebending Student to turn combat-generated red mana into instant utility triggers. It’s a lot of text for two mana with a relevant creature type.

Simple equipment but we do have an infinite combo available to us in Historic. Equip it to a Kiora’s Follower, and use a second Kiora’s Follower (or Mockingbird / Kelpie Guide) to continuously tap and untap each other back and forth for infinite ping damage. Seems like it could fit easily into a Birthing Ritual shell to help find the pieces more consistently. Plus, we Follower can be snagged of off Green Sun’s Zenith.

The creature removal and double damage is sweet and all, but I think the discard ability is actually more relevant here. An uncounterable, instant-speed pyroclasm is very strong This is a fantastic anti-aggro tech tool for mid-range or combo sideboards. Playable in Living End too!

A 1/1 is a not a great stat line but the fact that it’s free and can be played alongside a Swiftspear on turn 1 seems good. Starting with Quicksilver on the field lets you drop a land, cast Mox Amber, pump him with Monstrous Rage and Assault Strobe, and swing for eight damage before your opponent plays a land. Power-up is decent in the mid to late game too.

Works incredibly well with Ordeal of Nylea and landfall enablers like Akoum Hellhound. You can target it with Bargain enablers like Brave the Wilds to cash it in early for extra land ramp. I don’t think it has much impact outside of those neat little synergies but its still pretty cool.

My personal favorite card of the set, it’s literally Strangleroot Geist. This feels like an immediate staple for Mono-Green Aggro, contributing two devotion pips for Aspect of the Hydra and a best friend for Frenzied Baloth. Can’t wait to jam this with Syr Faren and Berserk in our old Greenie Weenie shell.

Shang-Chi feels like a good enabler for a lot of fun interactions in a variety of shells. It lets you instantly tap tokens from Insidious Roots and playes well with Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. In our case the Warrior typing is quite relevant as this plays well with both Audacious Knuckleblade and Savage Knuckleblade in our pre-existing Warriors build. Gornog is still an underplayed powerhouse and I’m excited to try some new variations of it.

A spectacular interaction with The One Ring. Because he retains his name while copying the Ring’s abilities, you can have both on the battlefield simultaneously. You can tap him to draw massive amounts of cards, but because he reverts back at the end of the turn, you completely avoid the cumulative upkeep damage while also keeping the burden counters. Of course the ability to copy Lands is relevant for Timeless (Dark Depths), but we can copy things like Lotus Field in Historic too which is awesome.

Perfect for looping high-impact, temporary attackers. You can swing with Ball Lightning or Dreadhorde Butcher, deal combat damage, and then use an instant-speed sac outlet to pop them before combat ends to safely return them to your hand and then you can play ’em again. Seems like it might be too many hoops to jump through to make it competitive though.

This can draw a looooooot of cards. Affinity is already drawing cards left and right, but this could find a home in a bigger artifact based shell like some of the old Tezzerator decks we’ve talked about this in the past. Playing it alongside high-CMC artifacts like Demonic Junker or Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge ensures chapter three closes the game instantly.

Beyond doubling vehicle crew values, he seems solid with mana dorks. Pairing him with Badgermole Cub allows you to tap your dorks for quadruple mana in a single turn, easily ramping you into massive late-game spells. Bant already has Noble Hierarch on color, so the challenge is just deciding what top end you want to hit.

A highly flexible upgrade over classic Tidehollow Sculler or Brain Maggot variants that gives Orzhov mid-range builds excellent hand control and life stabilization. This seems like a nice compliment to Juggernaut Peddler and Ketramose in BW builds. Deathouch/Lifelink are a great pair of keywords and the ability to exile something from hand or the field gives it relevance at every stage of the game.

A nice piece of utility, maybe for something like Yawg? Pairs nicely with Grist but with the upside of blowing up nonland permanents. Also tutorable of off Green Sun’s Zenith.

Another reliable, mid-cost legendary piece to bolster the consistency of the aforementioned Moonmist deck. The back seems like a solid beater and draw engine if it connects. I’m weary that it doesn’t have evasion but could still be strong for sure.

We don’t often see a toughness matters shell in BW colors but I welcome it. I think this could spawn a build of Butts with Mardu Ascendancy as a way to pump your whole board +3 “power” and go for a OHKO. Excited to have a brewing challenge like this since its outside the usual color combo for this archetype.

Jane seems like she has a ton of promise in the format in my opinion. It’s incredible value engine in Azorius Stoneforge shells. Repeatedly blinking equipment like Crypted Coat or Meteor Sword gives you free creature tokens, continuous removal, and an endless stream of card draw. Plus a 3/3 body is great for holding Hammers, Swords, or Jittes.

Solid, solid, solid. Great for artifact decks to have access to. A fantastic include for grinding out slow matchups, turning late-game scrap clues or treasures into a steady army of 3/3 threats.

Video Version

The video includes additional reviews of Jumpstart cards as well!

Closing Thoughts

To wrap things up, while Marvel Superheroes + Jumpstart might not completely upend the competitive meta with raw, Tier-1 powerhouses, it does have a ton of fun stuff for brewers. The sheer density of legendary creatures provides incredible new tools for low-to-the-ground aggro shells, giving decks like White Weenie and Mono-Green a massive boost in utility and speed thanks to Mox Amber synergies.

I think this set gives us a lot of tools to help breathe some power into old shells we loved playing on stream in the past. Nothing stands out to me immediately as format-breaking, and I think that’s a good thing. I’m just happy to have new cards to brew with without shaking up the Historic meta too much.

We’ll be diving straight into the deck builder as soon as the cards drop next week, so keep an eye on my Twitter and Moxfield pages for fresh lists before the official release on the 23rd!

Thanks for reading!

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Happy Brewin’!