Hey everyone! I hope you’re as excited as I am for the release of the Marvel Super Heroes set on MTG Arena. I know Universes Beyond products aren’t everyone’s favorite, but I have a soft spot for the ones that hit every square on my nerd bingo card. As a lifelong comic book fan, this set definitely does that. It also makes it much easier to convince some of my non-Magic-playing friends to give the game a try. In fact, I’m already preparing myself for my wife to spend far more money on this set than her usual strategy of picking up a handful of Commander singles.
Today, we’re breaking down all ten Limited archetypes in the set and providing archetype skeletons for each one. Thankfully, we’re back to a full ten-archetype format. While that does double the workload for this article, (I guess I need to earn my keep…) it also helps keep the format fresh for much longer. Sets with only five major archetypes tend to become solved quickly, with players fighting over the same one or two strategies once the data starts rolling in.
For those unfamiliar with archetype skeletons, think of them as realistic examples of what a successful draft deck might look like under average conditions. These aren’t dream decks packed with perfect rares and mythics. Instead, they’re designed to represent the kinds of decks you can reasonably expect to build from a typical draft seat while still maintaining a strong chance of success.
To keep things consistent, each skeleton follows the same construction rules:
No mythic rares
A maximum of two rares
Five uncommons, with no duplicates
No more than two copies of any common
No Source Material cards
We’re excluding Source Material cards because they appear at an average rate of only one per draft (roughly one in every 24 Play Boosters), making them too uncommon to build around for this exercise.
For simplicity’s sake, all mana bases will remain static. Each deck will include the appropriate dual land along with eight of each basic land. While some archetypes may technically require slightly different source counts for optimal performance, the goal here is to evaluate the structure of the archetype itself rather than fine-tune mana math.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the archetypes and see what Marvel’s Limited environment has going on under the hood. (Sigh, no low effort, bad pun here because they didn’t make a card for The Hood)
Teamwork makes the dream work—or at least that’s the idea behind Azorius in this format. The archetype revolves around Team-Up, a mechanic that allows you to tap creatures to enhance your instants and sorceries. If you’re looking for a point of comparison, think of it as crewing a Vehicle, except instead of powering up an artifact, you’re boosting a spell.
The challenge is that there simply aren’t enough Team-Up cards to support a fully dedicated strategy. As a result, Azorius often ends up playing more like a traditional blue-white tempo deck with a handful of Team-Up payoffs sprinkled throughout. Rather than forcing the synergy, you’ll usually find more success drafting efficient creatures, quality interaction, and solid card advantage. You can treat the Team-Up cards as bonuses rather than the foundation of your deck.
The life of a spy can be a lonely one. Most of the time they’re sneaking behind enemy lines with little more than their training and whatever gadgets they managed to slip into their pockets. Fortunately, a good support network can make all the difference.
That theme is reflected in Orzhov’s limited archetype, which rewards you for attacking with exactly one creature each turn. Rather than overwhelming your opponent by going wide, you’ll want to identify your best operative and send them on a solo mission turn after turn. If all goes according to plan, those single-attacker bonuses will quickly pile up and put your opponent in a position they can’t recover from.
Boros is officially labeled as the noncreature-spell archetype, a role that traditionally belongs to Izzet. In practice, though, this deck is still doing what Boros has always done: deploying a bunch of creatures and using spells to either clear a path or make those creatures hit harder.
For this build, I leaned more heavily into the removal side of the equation rather than loading up on combat tricks and equipment. The result is a deck that plays very much like the aggressive Boros strategies we’ve seen countless times before.
In other words, Boros is trying to convince everyone it’s suddenly a spells deck when it’s really just the same old Boros wearing a fake mustache.
Selesnya’s archetype is Heroes Matter, and the easiest comparison is the Ally decks from past Magic sets. The strategy revolves around filling your deck with creatures that provide additional bonuses whenever they—or other Heroes—enter the battlefield.
One of the biggest strengths of the archetype is that many of your creatures effectively function as spells while still advancing your board. Instead of choosing between developing your battlefield and generating value, you often get to do both at the same time. This allows the deck to maintain a high creature count and keep pressure on the opponent without losing the benefit of the extra effects.
I’ve always been a sucker for drawing extra cards. Considering my favorite card is Ancestral Recall, that probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. If an archetype promises to keep the gas flowing, there’s a good chance I’m going to lean heavily into drafting it.
Luckily for me, that’s exactly what Dimir is trying to do. The archetype revolves around drawing your second card each turn while rewarding you with a variety of payoffs. The cool thing about the archetype is that you’re already doing something you want to be doing anyway. Drawing cards is rarely a bad plan, and when your deck starts handing out bonus value for it, things can get out of control in a hurry.
Izzet is a spells deck again? Sort of. Am I going to come up with a new joke for this archetype? Probably not when the same setup practically writes itself every set.
This time around, the archetype actually focuses on artifacts. Technically, artifacts are still spells, so Izzet isn’t straying too far from its comfort zone. It’s just found a new way to disguise its favorite pastime.
Thematically, the deck is all about channeling your inner inventor. Whether you want to cosplay as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, or some other Marvel genius tinkering away in a secret lab, the goal is the same: build an arsenal of powerful gadgets and use them to outvalue your opponent. The deck rewards you for filling the battlefield with artifacts and crafting your collection of shiny new toys into a winning game plan.
Simic is changing things up a bit from its usual game plan of ramping your mana into oversized creatures. This time, the archetype revolves around piling +1/+1 counters onto your creatures and gradually building an overwhelming board presence.
Of course, when you really think about it, the strategy is still just “play a bunch of big creatures” with extra steps. Instead of spending your mana accelerating into huge dudes, you’re spending it turning your existing creatures into giant threats.
Despite the familiar end result, the archetype offers a different style of gameplay. There’s a lot more decision-making involved in where to place your counters. For players who enjoy watching their creatures grow into unstoppable monsters, Simic is right where you want to be.
If the Selesnya archetype felt familiar, that’s because Rakdos is essentially its evil twin. (or Doppelganger for those of you who remember the Infinity War comic series which is significantly different from the movie) Where Selesnya rewards you for assembling a team of Heroes, Rakdos asks you to do the same thing with Villains.
The overall game plan is remarkably similar: fill your deck with creatures that generate extra value when paired with the right character type to build an advantage on the battlefield. The difference is that black brings access to much stronger removal, allowing the deck to interact with opposing threats far more effectively while continuing to advance its own board.
In many ways, Rakdos feels like the more ruthless version of the Heroes deck. (They are villains after all) You’re still looking to create a critical mass of synergistic creatures, but you also have the tools to make sure your opponent’s best plans never get off the ground.
Golgarbage is doing exactly what longtime Magic players would expect a Golgari deck to do: fill up the graveyard and profit from it.
This archetype rewards you for having two or more creature cards in your graveyard, which is about as low a bar as a Limited deck could ask you to clear. You’ll usually turn on your payoffs without having to jump through many hoops between creatures trading in combat, removal spells doing their job, and conniving.
That ease of setup is one of this archetype’s biggest strengths. Rather than spending resources trying to force a complicated synergy, you can focus on playing solid Magic while your graveyard naturally accumulates value over the course of the game.
If you’re looking for subtlety, you’ve come to the wrong color pair. Gruul isn’t exactly known for reinventing itself, and this set gives it a game plan that fits perfectly within its usual philosophy: play big creatures, attack, and attack again. Keep turning dudes sideways until your opponent taps out.
Power-Up is a pretty sweet ability because it is basically Kicker the turn you play it. The difference being that you can still pay the whole cost later to get the effect. This lets you consistently add to the board without having to debate too hard about losing some potential value.
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
