Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Marvel Super Heroes, once again encourages players to get chocolate in their peanut butter as Universes Within and Universes Beyond dovetail in surprising new ways.
From surprising commons to the infinite combo with The Incredible Hulk and Caltrops, there’s a lot to dig into. And, if yo’ve ever wanted to know how one of the smartest men in the Marvel Universe can combine with a legendary god of, uh, bugs, then this Izzet (red-blue) combo is worth a look.
Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, is a new four-cost uncommon card from the set that is a 2/4 with reach. Whenever tokens enter, it allows you to draw a card. That ability is very welcome in any capacity, and Richards himself is a nice cheap card, too, sitting at around 50 cents on TCGplayer at the time of writing.
The other side of this combination is The Locust God, a six-cost 4/4 with flying. There are a few printings, but you can expect to pay around $7 — but it’s well worth the investment. That’s because whenever you draw a card, you can create a 1/1 insect creature token with flying and haste. You can probably see where this is going.
When you draw your first card of the turn, you’ll trigger The Locust God for a 1/1 insect. This then triggers Mister Fantastic, drawing another card and so on and so forth. You’re essentially getting infinite card draw and infinite creature tokens with which to overwhelm your foes. And, thanks to haste, you don’t need to wait another turn to do big damage. Thankfully, Mr. Fantastic’s ability is a “may,” meaning you won’t deck yourself.
The Locust God can trigger card draw on its own, too, with its activated ability. It won’t go infinite, of course, but it might just draw you Mister Fantastic at the moment you need him. In fact, if you get everything going your way, you could play this combo by turn six — sooner if you have some handy ramp. Also pretty scary is that your opponents will need to exile The Locust God to get rid of it for good. That’s because once it dies, it returns to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step.
If you can get some protection on Mister Fantastic like Swiftfoot Boots or something similar, you can rest a little easier knowing that The Locust God can come back to your hand next turn. The Fantastic Four leader is just a great card for Commander, where token production is abundant. Expect to see “Stretcho” pop up in this type of combo quite often.
If you love comic book continuity in your Commander decks, or maybe you’re just a staunch defender of Universes Beyond, then consider adding Red Ghost, Intangible Genius. This classic Fantastic Four villain is a 2/3 that can’t be blocked and has ward 2. It creates 3/3 red Ape Villain tokens with haste when you draw your second card each turn. And, wouldn’t you know it, it’s also an Izzet card so it nestles nicely alongside the unlikely pairing of The Locust God and Mister Fantastic.
