The $11 Marvel Card in Three of cEDH's Top Four Decks: September 2026 Meta Update

cEDH · by Andreas Graw · September 23, 2026

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu costs $11 and sits in 99% of Tayam lists, 95% of Sisay lists and three of cEDH's four most-played decks. Here's the one sentence on the card that explains it, the Sisay loop it now finishes in a single turn, the 27-cent commander converting like Blue Farm, and the Hobbit enchantment that's already in one in four lists.

The $11 Marvel Card in Three of cEDH's Top Four Decks: September 2026 Meta Update

Sisay puts Marvin, Murderous Mimic onto the battlefield, then Ioreth of the Healing House. On most turns, that's where the combo stops. Both cards do their work with , and neither of them was under your control when the turn began.

Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu fixes that with one sentence and pays for what comes next with the other. The two-mana green legend from Marvel Super Heroes costs $11, and it's in one in five cEDH decklists we've tracked over the last 30 days (1,644 of 7,999). It sits inside three of the format's four most-played decks: 94.7% of Sisay, Weatherlight Captain lists, 84.4% of Rograkh + Thrasios, 48.4% of Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy. Tayam, Luminous Enigma, the other deck built around creature abilities, runs it in 99.4%.

Pull on that one card and most of September comes with it. Sisay's share this month is her highest in our records. Tayam's share nearly doubled. Kinnan is the most-registered commander for the first time since June 2025. Meanwhile a white one-drop that wasn't legal before June 26 has become a top-12 commander that converts like the best decks in the format. Here's what changed, card by card.

Shang-Chi, exactly

Two lines, two jobs:

You may activate abilities of creatures you control as though those creatures had haste. : Add two mana of any one color. Spend this mana only to activate abilities of creature sources.

The first line is about summoning sickness, and it's narrower than haste. A creature that hasn't been under your control since your turn began can't attack, and it can't use abilities with in the cost. Shang-Chi lifts the second restriction and leaves the first alone. Nothing swings early, but every mana creature and every tap-and-untap engine piece works the turn it lands. That includes anything a tutor just put onto the battlefield.

The second line reads like a drawback until you list what cEDH actually spends mana on. Sisay's search, Kinnan's dig, Thrasios, Triton Hero's , Tayam's : every one of them is an activated ability of a creature. For those decks, "creature sources only" barely restricts anything.

Kinnan gets a bonus on top. Shang-Chi is a nonland permanent you tap for mana, so Kinnan adds one more mana of a type Shang-Chi produced, and Kinnan's own ruling settles the fine print: that additional mana "won't have any restrictions or riders." Three mana from a two-drop, and one of the three can be spent on anything.

Sisay: the loop that now fits in one turn

Here's the line from the opening. Marvin "has all activated abilities of creatures you control that don't have the same name as this creature." Ioreth has two: ": Untap another target permanent" and ": Untap two other target legendary creatures." Marvin, Ioreth and Shang-Chi are all legendary, so:

  1. Shang-Chi taps for two mana of one color.
  2. Ioreth taps and untaps two other target legendary creatures: Marvin and Shang-Chi.
  3. Marvin taps, using the first ability he borrowed from Ioreth, and untaps Ioreth.
  4. Repeat.

Each pass adds two mana, and you can name a different color every time. DeckCortex's engine flags Marvin + Ioreth as a complete combo ("infinite untap of legendary creatures you control; infinite mana legendary creatures you control can produce"), and Shang-Chi is the legendary creature doing the producing. His mana only pays for creature abilities, and Sisay's search is a creature ability. The loop becomes as many Sisay activations as the deck has legendary targets with mana value less than Sisay's power.

Without Shang-Chi, Marvin and Ioreth only work if they've been under your control since your turn began. The fetch has to happen before your turn, and the pieces have to survive until your main phase. With him, Sisay fetches and goes off in the same main phase.

That's the list that won the 123-player Nacional de CEDH 100K at WolfCon on August 29: Shang-Chi, Marvin and Ioreth among 29 legendary cards, counting Sisay. The engine finds seven complete combo lines in it, and the bracket-fit model reads it as cEDH (14 Game Changers, six fast-mana pieces, ten tutors).

The deck moved with the card. Compare the Sisay lists since August 1 (620) with spring (March to May, 917). Shang-Chi went from zero, since he wasn't legal yet, to 94.2% of maindecks. Ioreth climbed from 66.3% to 87.6%, Marvin from 66.8% to 85.8%. Sisay's monthly share sat at 3.3–3.6% from March to June; in September it's 4.8%, her highest month since our corpus starts in January 2025. Her top-cut conversion rose from 29.31% in spring (n = 795) to 33.27% since August (n = 520). Over the last 30 days it's 36.05% (n = 319), level with Blue Farm. She also won the 94-player Commander Invitational Qualifier at CCS Raleigh on September 12.

Tayam: more entries, same results

Tayam's engine is Devoted Druid: ": Add " and "Put a -1/-1 counter on this creature: Untap this creature." Tayam's own ability costs and three counters removed from among your creatures, and it will happily take those -1/-1 counters back off. Commander Spellbook lists the loop (infinite self-mill, returning permanents with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard) with two prerequisites beyond having both cards out. The Druid's toughness has to be raised by at least 2 without +1/+1 counters, and the Druid has to be free of summoning sickness. Shang-Chi deletes the second prerequisite, because the Druid's mana ability is a ability. His mana can also pay for Tayam's activation, which is a creature ability too.

The Tayam lists took him wholesale: 99.4% over the last 30 days, the same rate as Devoted Druid, with The Queen of Dale at 89.1%. Tayam's monthly share, 1.0–1.2% from March to June, reached 2.1% in September, another high for our corpus.

The results didn't follow. Tayam converted 28.40% of its entries into top cuts in spring (n = 250) and 26.58% since August (n = 222). Over the last 30 days it's 22.39% (n = 134), below the field's 26.85%. Shang-Chi made the combo faster and pulled more entries into the deck, but it isn't winning more often. If you're picking a creature-combo deck for October on these numbers, the conversion column points at Sisay, not Tayam.

The top of the table moved, but not the way it looks

Over the last 30 days Kinnan leads the corpus with 603 entries against Blue Farm's 546 (Kraum + Tymna). By calendar month it's 7.7% to 6.7% in September so far. Blue Farm had been the most-registered commander in 18 of the 20 months from January 2025 to August 2026.

It's tempting to read that as Kinnan surging. It isn't. Kinnan's monthly share has stayed between 6.5% and 8.3% all year. Blue Farm slid, from 9.5% in January to 6.7% now. And Blue Farm is still the better performer by the only results measure we track: 36.23% top-cut conversion over the last 30 days (n = 483) against Kinnan's 30.54% (n = 537).

| # | Commander | Share (30 days) | Entries | Top-cut conversion (n) | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy | 7.54% | 603 | 30.54% (537) | | 2 | Kraum + Tymna ("Blue Farm") | 6.83% | 546 | 36.23% (483) | | 3 | Rograkh + Thrasios | 4.80% | 384 | 30.37% (349) | | 4 | Sisay, Weatherlight Captain | 4.49% | 359 | 36.05% (319) | | 5 | Rograkh + Silas Renn | 4.33% | 346 | 27.21% (294) | | 6 | Thrasios + Tymna | 2.80% | 224 | 22.12% (208) | | 7 | Vivi Ornitier | 2.54% | 203 | 27.84% (176) | | 8 | Magda, Brazen Outlaw | 2.20% | 176 | 31.06% (161) | | 9 | Tayam, Luminous Enigma | 1.95% | 156 | 22.39% (134) | | 10 | Dargo + Tymna | 1.91% | 153 | 23.57% (140) | | 11 | Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. | 1.90% | 152 | 35.61% (132) | | 12 | Ral, Monsoon Mage // Ral, Leyline Prodigy | 1.81% | 145 | 21.64% (134) |

Blue Farm has no green in its color identity, so it can't play Shang-Chi. It plays the summer's other breakout instead: Gleaming Splendor, in 76.4% of its lists. More on that below. First, the commander on row 11.

Nick Fury: the commander nobody plays for his text

In July we told you to treat Nick Fury as noise. He was at 0.3% of entries and barely a month old, and our conversion-rate piece called "the Marvel set is seeding cEDH" a question for August. Here's the answer: in August he was the tenth most-registered commander in our corpus, and the numbers since then have only firmed up.

Look at the card and you'd never guess why. He costs , he's a 2/1, and his one ability is a power-up: for two +1/+1 counters and a look at the top seven cards for a Hero, Equipment or Vehicle. Nobody plays him for that. Those five colored symbols give him a five-color identity while he costs one white mana, and per Scryfall he's the only commander with a five-color identity at mana value 1.

Here's what one white mana on turn one buys you, in the 152 Nick Fury lists of the last 30 days:

The rest is a turbo pile: Ad Nauseam at 90.8%, Thassa's Oracle at 96.1%, Underworld Breach at 98.7%, and Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond in every one of the 152 lists. The list that won the 96-player Cookout Redemption Event on August 30 shows how little the commander's text matters. The engine finds seven complete combo lines: Thassa's Oracle with Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact, plus five Underworld Breach lines. The bracket-fit model counts 22 Game Changers, seven fast-mana pieces and eleven tutors. The power-up could find exactly two cards in it: Jennifer Walters // The Sensational She-Hulk and Paradise Mantle.

The adoption curve, in calendar months:

| Month | cEDH entries tracked | Nick Fury entries | Share | |---|---|---|---| | March–May 2026 | 26,604 | 0 | 0% | | June 2026 | 8,422 | 23 | 0.3% | | July 2026 | 7,731 | 118 | 1.5% | | August 2026 | 8,683 | 177 | 2.0% | | September 1–23 | 5,652 | 110 | 1.9% |

Since his release on June 26 he has 426 entries from 237 different players at 286 events, with 15 wins and 80 top-four finishes. His top-cut conversion over that stretch is 35.73% (n = 347), against 27.47% for the whole corpus in the same window. Over the last 30 days it's 35.61% (n = 132), right next to Blue Farm and Sisay.

We ran the same two checks we ran on Crystal. Small local events don't explain it: his share is highest at events with 64 or more players (2.02%) and lowest under 16 (1.38%). Neither does a handful of grinders: 151 of the 237 players registered him exactly once, and the ten most active account for 16.4% of his entries. His best finishes include wins at the Cookout Redemption Event (96 players) and Showdown XXXVI at San Japan (63, September 5), plus second places at Summer Classic 3 (206 players, July 18), the Breach the Bay 2 Redemption Event (182, August 23) and cEDH Nationals Deutschland (88, September 5).

For the record, edhtop16, which runs on Topdeck.gg data, shows him at 157 entries and 29.30% conversion on its default view (retrieved September 23; the page doesn't state its window). We count 426 entries since his release. Our corpus covers more events, as we found when we compared the two trackers on Crystal, so weigh the two sets of numbers accordingly.

The new staples: 2026's most-played new cards

Shang-Chi is one of five cards from this year's sets that have already become cEDH staples. Here are the cards first printed in 2026 that show up most in the last 30 days of lists:

| # | Card | Set (release) | Share of lists | Lists | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Hexing Squelcher | Lorwyn Eclipsed (Jan 23) | 35.5% | 2,841 | | 2 | Gleaming Splendor | The Hobbit (Aug 14) | 26.0% | 2,076 | | 3 | Formidable Speaker | Lorwyn Eclipsed (Jan 23) | 22.0% | 1,756 | | 4 | Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu | Marvel Super Heroes (Jun 26) | 20.6% | 1,644 | | 5 | The Queen of Dale | The Hobbit (Aug 14) | 19.5% | 1,559 | | 6 | Flashback | Secrets of Strixhaven (Apr 24) | 9.5% | 760 | | 7 | Jennifer Walters // The Sensational She-Hulk | Marvel Super Heroes (Jun 26) | 8.3% | 660 | | 8 | King T'Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring | Marvel Super Heroes (Jun 26) | 8.2% | 652 |

Two of the top five have been legal for less than six weeks, and both are white two-drops from The Hobbit.

Whenever an opponent draws their second card each turn, you create a Treasure token. : Two target players each draw a card.

The first line rewards the thing cEDH opponents do all the time: draw more than one card in a turn. Two rulings sharpen it. The first card doesn't need to have been drawn while you controlled Splendor; only the second one does. And it triggers at most once per opponent per turn, so the ceiling is one Treasure per opponent per turn.

The second line is the trick. The activation needs two different target players, so you can't point both draws at yourself. Point one at yourself and one at an opponent who has already drawn a card this turn, for example on their own turn after their draw step. You draw, they draw their second card, and the first ability hands you a Treasure. You get a card and one of your three mana back, at instant speed, and the opponent gets a card too.

It's in 76.4% of Blue Farm lists and 71.0% of Sisay lists over the last 30 days. By calendar month it's at 27.0% of all lists in September. Its August figure (18.4%) is only approximate: 149 lists dated before the August 14 release already contain it.

The Queen of Dale is a 2/1 legendary creature: "Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, you recruit," which means you draw a card, then discard a card, and get a 1/1 Human Soldier if you discarded a nonland card. One ruling to know: if an opponent has already cast a noncreature spell the turn she enters, she won't trigger for that opponent that turn. She's in 89.1% of Tayam lists and 85.6% of Dargo + Tymna, and she's at 21.2% of all lists in September.

Hexing Squelcher is the year's biggest hit, and the least surprising once you read it: "Spells you control can't be countered," on a two-mana creature that can't be countered itself. It hit 36.7% of lists in its first full month and has sat between 35% and 38% ever since.

Formidable Speaker tutors a creature to your hand when it enters (if you discard a card), and it has ", : Untap another target permanent." That's another ability that works the turn it lands next to Shang-Chi, and it shares its best homes with him: Rograkh + Thrasios, Kinnan, Tayam.

The difference between these curves is the story. Hexing Squelcher found its level in February and stayed there. Shang-Chi has kept climbing three months in (14.0% in July, 17.1% in August, 21.9% in September), and the two Hobbit cards are still rising. The white tax package is growing around them too: Esper Sentinel went from 37.1% of lists in March to 42.6% in September, while Rhystic Study stayed flat at around 60%, which suggests the rise is real rather than a change in what the corpus counts.

What to watch in October

If you play Sisay, Tayam, Kinnan or Rograkh + Thrasios without Shang-Chi, you're now in the minority of your own deck's pilots. Between 48% and 99% of those lists run him. On Blue Farm the equivalent card is Gleaming Splendor. And if you want to see what the Shang-Chi turn looks like in practice, the WolfCon Sisay list above is the place to start: find Marvin and Ioreth, then count the legends Sisay can still fetch.

Data: DeckCortex cEDH tournament corpus, 118,685 canonical entries (January 11, 2025 to September 22, 2026). 30-day window August 24 to September 23, 2026 (n = 7,999 entries, 494 events). Calendar months are disjoint buckets; September 2026 is partial (1–23). Share = share of tracked tournament entries, not field share. Conversion = top-cut entries ÷ entries with known standings, full-standings sources only, n shown. DeckCortex tracks no match win rates. Card presence counts the full 75 unless marked as maindeck. Some lists dated before a card's release already contain it (33 of 5,958 lists in June 1–25 for Shang-Chi, 149 of 2,355 in August 1–13 for Gleaming Splendor), so first-month figures for new cards are approximate. "First printed in 2026" is checked against Scryfall's print history. Card text and rulings are from Scryfall, pulled September 23, 2026. Prices are Scryfall paper market aggregates, not a live TCGplayer feed. Combo lines come from DeckCortex's combo engine; the combo count is one of six inputs to the bracket-fit model, a signal rather than the final 1–5 bracket. Commander Spellbook's combo prerequisites and edhtop16's figures are theirs, labelled where cited.

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