We’re on the cusp of the release of Magic: The Gathering’s next major set, Edge of Eternities, next week, but that didn’t stop Wizards of the Coast from swinging into San Diego Comic-Con to show off its next big crossover: Spider-Man. And in our first major glimpse at what to expect from the set, we got treated to a whole spider-verse of new cards—and, of course, some very nifty comic book-themed variants to get your wallet’s spidey senses tingling.
It’s no surprise that transforming cards are going to be the name of the game in Spider-Man, given the plethora of secret identities and alter egos of friends and foes at play here. While seemingly not every Spider-Hero included in the set will get that treatment, major players like Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Gwen Stacy will all be able to flip between their civilian identities and their hero forms. Another recurring mechanic? Summoning spider tokens—a cute nod to the origins of many a Spider-hero, although in Magic it turns Pete and his friends more into a Spiders-Man than anything else.
One new mechanic coming to the set that we know of thanks to these new cards is web-slinging, although it’s more that the flavor is new rather than the actual mechanic. Drawing on a plethora of other quickening mechanics from Magic‘s past (and its present, given the arrival of Warp in Edge of Eternities), web-slinging lets a player pay a reduced mana cost for a card at the expense of returning a tapped creature you control back to your hand. Think of it like Spidey using something—in this case, a creature on the battlefield—to zipline into the action with haste! Metaphorical haste, rather than mechanical haste, that is.
Aside from introducing key heroes and villains coming to the set, the new reveals also showcased a host of variant card treatments—although with a slight twist that Spider-Man will be the first crossover set that removes the distinctive triangular border frame that has defined “Universes Beyond” cards in the past, further enmeshing Magic‘s crossover experiences with original sets. Variant treatments for Spider-Man include, of course, stylized webbing frames and comic-panel-inspired alternate art, but also special comics art variants that leverage decades of Marvel Comics artwork—in some instances, turning cards into iconic comic covers, framing their rules text into a front-page spread.
Magic: The Gathering‘s Spider-Man set begins releasing September 26. Check out even more cards revealed at SDCC below!
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