Magic: The Gathering‘s first big Marvel crossover is missing one big thing: pre-constructed Commander decks. However, if you’re worried this could set a new precedent for Magic publisher Wizards of the Coast, we’ve got good news: While the upcoming Spider-Man set may not feature any precons, future Marvel/MTG collaborations will offer 100-card decks with some of your favorite Marvel heroes (and villains) leading the charge.
Polygon recently talked to the team at Wizards behind the Spider-Man set, which launches on Sept. 26. We’ll share more from that conversation soon, but for now, here’s some good news for Commander players from Magic‘s head designer, Mark Rosewater.
“We will be doing Commander decks for Marvel in the future,” Rosewater says. “So for Marvel fans who want to play with Commander, we’re making that. It’s just not going with this Spider-Man set.”
If you’re wondering why you can’t buy a Spidey precon, the reason has to do with this set’s unusual development process. Wizards originally planned to release Spider-Man as a much smaller set with just 100 cards, but shifted that strategy in the middle of the development process. The team ultimately designed 188 cards in total.
“Spider-Man started in a very different shape than it ended up,” Rosewater says. “It was a smaller set with fewer cards, and so it just didn’t make sense at that size set to have Commander decks. Then, during design, we realized we wanted to be bigger, but we weren’t able to then add in decks. It was just too late in the process.”
Of course, that shouldn’t stop you from building your own Commander decks around a new Spider-Man card. The set’s design lead, Corey Bowen, suggests Doctor Octopus, or Symbiote Spider-Man if you’re feeling particularly adventurous. As for Rosewater, he has a suggestion of his own: “Spider-Ham, Peter Porker.”
