Marvel Super Heroes Is Here: The Big Precon Update for Release Day
Marvel Super Heroes is finally on shelves — and the real question isn't what's in the boosters, but which of the four Commander precons to buy. We break down all four decks, from the value-packed but unfocused Doom Prevails to the beginner-friendly Avengers Assemble, with full lists, key cards, and a clear power ranking.
It's finally here: as of today, June 26, Marvel Super Heroes is on shelves – and for most Commander players it all comes down to a single question. Not "what will I pull from the booster?", but: "which of the four precons should I get?" That's where things get genuinely interesting. The set ships four preconstructed Commander decks, each with roughly 30 brand-new cards and about 70 reprints. That's a remarkable amount of fresh material: classic in-universe precons usually come with far fewer new cards, so here you get almost a third of every list new – thanks to the licensed set. On top of that comes the usual Marvel effect: decks that pull not just Magic players but also comic and MCU fans off the shelves. We'll go through all four decks one by one, each with the complete list right there to click through, and at the end we'll say clearly which one is worth it for whom.
The Four Decks at a Glance
- Avengers Assemble · (Jeskai): Hero typal with equipment and +1/+1 counters, led by Captain America, Team Leader and Director Nick Fury.
- The Fantastic Four / "Marvel's First Family" · (four-color, no black): a value deck built around noncreature spells – with four selectable commanders (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, The Thing).
- Wakanda Forever · (Selesnya): a defensive artifact deck with Vibranium tokens, led by T'Challa, the Black Panther, Shuri, the Black Panther and Storm, Queen of Wakanda.
- Doom Prevails · (Grixis): Villain typal with connive and life drain, led by Doctor Doom, King of Latveria and Loki, the Deceiver.
Mechanically, Marvel Super Heroes brings three things you should know about. Power-Up is a one-shot activated ability that puts +1/+1 counters on a creature plus a bonus effect on top – and the kicker: it gets cheaper if the creature came into play this turn. So it rewards exactly what aggro decks want to do anyway, namely deploy creatures quickly and in sequence. Plan is a new enchantment subtype that gathers plan counters over the turns and, once it hits a certain threshold, delivers a fat payoff – a long-game engine effect for the more patient kind of deck. And finally, connive makes a familiar keyword return (at its core: draw, then discard), driving the whole villain theme around Doctor Doom and Loki. One more word for the collectors: each deck also comes in a Collector's Edition fully in Surge foil. And because the Marvel license tends to attract people who otherwise never buy Magic, store stock can run out faster than usual. If you absolutely want a particular deck, you'd better not wait too long.
The Most Sought-After Precon – With a Catch
If you look purely at demand and value, Doom Prevails is the star of the show. Doctor Doom is the face of the entire set, the villain par excellence – and accordingly, most rankings peg him as the strongest of the ten new commanders. Once you look at what Doctor Doom, King of Latveria actually does, the hype makes sense: whenever you discard land cards, each opponent loses 2 life, and at the beginning of your combat he gives one of your Villains menace and lets it connive – so you draw and discard, and if you discard a nonland card, the creature grows with a +1/+1 counter. Doom basically turns your trash into damage and board presence at the same time. His partner in crime, Loki, the Deceiver, adds another layer: when Loki attacks, he copies one of your other Villains as a tapped, attacking token – and every time your Villains deal combat damage, you draw a card. Connive feeds the counters, the drain turns every card swap into reach, and Loki provides tempo and resupply. On paper, a textbook Grixis plan.
On top of that comes by far the highest reprint value in the whole set. With Luxury Suite (one of the coveted "Bond land" duals and the most valuable single reprint in the deck), Kindred Dominance (a one-sided board wipe along a creature type) and Kindred Discovery (one of the best typal card-draw engines around), this simply holds the most money per box. These three cards are exactly what draws collectors and flippers – and what makes the deck a good buy even if you never so much as sleeve it up.
And now the catch: of all things, as a deck to actually play, Doom Prevails scores the weakest in reviews. The problem isn't the commanders – those are first-rate – it's the creature base around them. It pulls in too many directions at once: copy effects here, Villain tokens there, plus mill and drain, and everything wants to be served at the same time. The result is a deck that, out of the box, feels a bit like three half-decks in one – nice to look at, but without the single through-line that actually decides a game. Concretely: anyone who loves Doctor Doom buys it anyway. But you should plan from the start to swap in a few cards, to forge one clear plan out of the many good ideas.
For Those Who Just Want to Play: Avengers Assemble
The biggest positive surprise after the full list reveal was Avengers Assemble. Beforehand, many had written it off as the most boring of the four decks – "heroes hit things, yawn." By now it's considered the strongest deck to start playing right away, and for good reason. Captain America, Team Leader is a little snowball machine: every time another Hero enters under your control, it gains vigilance and haste until end of turn and a +1/+1 counter – and Captain America himself gets one as well. So you deploy cheap heroes, they attack immediately, and your commander gets a little bigger with each one. Add Director Nick Fury, who makes your Hero spells cost less and, on each attack, shows you the top four cards of your library to fish out another hero – cost reduction and card advantage in a single card. And for the top end of the curve there are heavyweights like Iron Man, Armored Avenger, who hands out counters whenever you draw a card and even grants flying to your modified board. The deck can decide games before the rest of the table has even warmed up.
The only real weakness: vulnerability to board wipes. A deck that commits so much to the board and works with counters falls hard when a sweeper gets through – and of all things, the obvious insurance like Teferi's Protection is missing out of the box. That, however, is exactly the kind of gap you plug with two or three targeted cards. For beginners and for anyone who just wants to attack, Avengers Assemble remains the clearest buy recommendation of the four.
The Most Potential: The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is by far the most flexible precon – and the only one where even the choice of commander is a genuine design decision. Four possible commanders mean four different builds out of the exact same box, and all four share one thing: they reward casting noncreature spells and share a powerful "Cosmic" activation for that pushes their respective effect to the extreme. That's precisely why the deck is four-color.
Mister Fantastic (Reed) is the engine variant: if you've cast a noncreature spell this turn, you draw a card at the beginning of combat, and his activation copies a triggered ability twice over – a feast for anyone who likes to stack triggers. Invisible Woman (Sue) plays defensively and controlling: she puts up 0/3 walls and, on attack, can pay the Cosmic cost to make a creature unblockable and huge – the surprise finisher from behind your own defenses.
Human Torch (Johnny) is the tempo-and-burn plan: with a noncreature spell behind him he gains flying, double strike and haste, and his activation spreads his combat damage to the whole table at once. The Thing (Ben), finally, is the only green one of the four and the counters variant: he puts four +1/+1 counters on himself at the beginning of combat and can use the Cosmic activation to double the counters on all your permanents – anyone who likes big creatures will be happy here.
That makes The Fantastic Four the perfect playground for everyone who enjoys tinkering, and the best starting point for a long-term upgrade project: you can turn the same box into four completely different decks over the weeks, simply by swapping the commander. If you like spellslinger, you'll definitely find your favorite here.
Solid, but Specialized: Wakanda Forever
Wakanda Forever is the classic "just don't get too close to me" deck: defensive, token- and artifact-heavy, built around Vibranium and soldier swarms. T'Challa, the Black Panther is the heart of it – he creates a Vibranium token (an indestructible artifact that produces colorless mana for more artifacts) on entry and on every attack, and grows as soon as you cast pricier artifacts. That's ramp, defense and wincon setup in a single card. Shuri, the Black Panther then turns that mass of artifacts into cards and pressure: with three artifacts she draws on attack, with six she gives your whole team +2/+2 – and brings lifelink along the way. And Storm, Queen of Wakanda supplies air dominance: she lends another attacking creature flying plus a hefty power boost and shoots enemy fliers right out of the sky.
That builds a wall behind which the engine runs in peace. And once the token machine meets Divine Visitation, the game tips fast: every soldier or Vibranium token you'd normally create becomes a 4/4 angel instead. A nice bonus especially for collectors is the new Birds of Paradise variant with fresh Marvel artwork – one of the secret stars in the entire reprint lineup.
The only fly in the ointment: Selesnya just isn't the most popular color pair, and that dampens demand a little. Gameplay-wise, though, that means nothing – out of the box, Wakanda Forever is perfectly usable and, against aggressive tables, surprisingly tough.
The Power Ranking
The reviews don't agree on every detail – but the rough consensus across most rankings looks like this:
- Avengers Assemble – the most polished out of the box. Clear plan, instantly playable, the strongest "just start playing" quality.
- The Fantastic Four – the most flexible and the best upgrade foundation. Four decks in one box, if you're willing to tinker.
- Wakanda Forever – solid and surprisingly robust, just a touch less in demand due to its colors.
- Doom Prevails – the strongest commanders and by far the highest value, but the most inconsistent deck out of the box.
Important, so no false impression takes hold here: 4th place does not mean "bad buy." On the contrary – value-wise, Doom Prevails is actually the most attractive box of them all. 4th place only means this deck needs the most work before it shows its obvious potential on the table, too.
What Does This Mean for Deckbuilding?
The real strength of these precons lies, anyway, not in playing straight out of the wrapper, but in their upgrade paths – and this time they're pleasantly clear. Doom Prevails is crying out for a more focused creature base: make one of the three approaches (copying, Villain tokens, drain) the main line and thin out the rest. Avengers Assemble wants more equipment, a few extra cheap heroes for the curve, and two or three insurance pieces against board wipes. And The Fantastic Four needs, above all, a decision – commit to one of the four commanders and the deck gets direction immediately. This is exactly where a focused deckbuilder comes in: instead of blindly swapping twenty cards, it pays to optimize the deck around one clear line – and to put the expensive reprints straight to work as trade capital for precisely those upgrades. The Luxury Suite from the Doom deck easily funds a handful of targeted cards for your actual favorite deck.
And for the competitive corner? You shouldn't expect a cEDH revolution from the precons themselves – they're built far too broadly for that. But individual cards from the main set are already making the rounds, first and foremost the combo-friendly The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Her squirrel production – a token on entry and on attack, plus an activation that doubles the entire population in one go – is exactly the kind of effect players love to build combos around. And she'll likely show up in high-power builds faster than WotC would like.
More on that, and on the most exciting individual cards for brewing, in a separate article.
Bottom line: Avengers Assemble is the safest pick if you just want to play tonight. The Fantastic Four is the best base if you enjoy tinkering and want to develop a deck over the weeks. Wakanda Forever is the solid underdog for everyone who likes defense and token synergies. And Doom Prevails is the collector's and Doctor-Doom highlight with the greatest upgrade need – the most expensive box, which at the same time calls loudest for your own handwriting. Four very different decks for four very different player types – and, all told, probably the most exciting precon drop since The Lord of the Rings.