Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes Mechanics
From Avengers Tower to the Wakandan throne room and beyond, Magic's collaboration with the Marvel Universe is expanding. Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes brings the Super Heroes and Villains from Marvel's most storied battlefields across the ages to your games of Magic. Ready to save the day, thwart some evil, maybe find a super team to back you up? Or perhaps you're a little more … Doom-oriented? Either way, the time for the mundane is over. It's time to be super. Let's take a look at the mechanics that await you in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes.
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AMAZON ↗Power-up
What good are special powers if you can't impressively unleash them at a crucial moment? Power-up abilities give some creatures added punch at just the right time to overcome any foe.
Each power-up ability is an activated ability that can be activated only once. You'll put one or more +1/+1 counters on the creature. These serve as a handy reminder that you activated the power-up ability. There may also be other effects, some of them quite devastating.
If the creature enters and you activate the power-up ability all in the same turn, you get a discount on the power-up activation. That activation cost will be reduced by the creature's mana cost. For example, if you activate Human Torch's power-up ability on the turn he entered, the ability will cost
As a shortcut, think of the power-up ability cost as how much mana you'd have to spend to cast the spell and activate the power-up ability all in one turn. If you activate a power-up ability on a turn after the creature has entered, you'll have to pay the full activation cost.
Teamwork
Not everyone's a cosmic being soloing entire planets. Sometimes we need a team to watch our backs. Spells with teamwork call upon your comrades to provide a little something extra.
Teamwork is found on a selection of instants and sorceries in this set. It represents an optional additional cost to cast those spells. If you choose to cast a spell with teamwork, check out the number included in the teamwork ability and tap any number of untapped creatures you control with total power equal to or greater than that number. For example, to pay a teamwork 4 cost, you could tap a creature with 4 power, two creatures with 3 power, or five creatures with 1 power. You could even tap a creature with 6 power, a creature with -1 power, and a creature with 0 power. Look, Hulk doesn't always strategize. Sometimes he just …
Casting a spell with teamwork can mean all sorts of things. On HULK SMASH!, you'll be able to choose both modes, SMASHing with reckless abandon. On other instants and sorceries, teamwork can provide either an additional effect or an upgraded effect. Read each teamwork card carefully so you know exactly what you're signing your squad up for.
Plan
Well. That's certainly a lot of heroism going on. Fear not, champions of chaos. We have a plan.
Plan is a new enchantment subtype found on a group of enchantments that, appropriately enough, lay out a plan for you. Each has a triggered ability that tells you what action you need to take to advance the plan. For Doom Reigns Supreme, that's having Villains you control enter. Summoning henchpeople is good! This triggered ability will put a plan counter on the enchantment and give you a minor reward as it resolves.
A second ability will reward you for bringing the Plan to fruition, triggering when a certain plan counter is put on the enchantment. For Doom Reigns Supreme, that's the fifth plan counter. As that triggered ability resolves, you'll sacrifice the Plan and unlock your ultimate reward.
As a subtype, Plan can be referenced by other spells and abilities, which is perhaps something Doom specified in his contract. He's always up to something.
Connive
Speaking of evil machinations, connive returns to help your card flow and may give your minions a little edge over any do-gooders they may encounter.
If a creature you control is instructed to connive, first you draw a card then discard a card. If you discard a nonland card this way, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that connived. Discarding a land card won't result in a counter, but if you're discarding excess lands, you're probably in a good spot. You have enough lands, right?
One important note: If a creature isn't on the battlefield as an ability that tells it to connive resolves, the creature will still connive. You'll still draw a card and discard a card. You won't be able to put a +1/+1 counter on the creature no matter what you discard, as it's no longer on the battlefield.
Modal Double-Faced Cards (That Transform!)
Secret identities—okay, sometimes not-so-secret identities—are a key part of the Marvel Universe. If you're not saving and/or threatening the world, sometimes you just want to go grocery shopping in peace. Concealing your identity allows that to happen, and it also allows us to bring you more sweet modal double-faced cards that present two very different identities.
Introduced in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man, these cards offer maximum flexibility. Each one has two card faces, and if you're casting one, you choose which one you're casting. If one enters the battlefield without being cast, it enters with its front face up. The Release Notes for this set will have additional information on more complex interactions with double-faced cards.
But wait! There's a twist! (But it's the same twist as Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man's double-faced cards.) There used to be a rule that modal double-faced cards couldn't transform, but that rule is long gone. Now, any modal double-faced card that's instructed to transform will, and many such cards in this set include abilities to make that happen.
The next two sections feature mechanics that are found only in this set on their cards, one new and one returning. Although they're not set mechanics that you can build an entire deck around, they're impactful and worthy (sorry, jumping ahead) of their own sections.
Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor and Worthy
Whosoever reads this article, they be worthy. Your creatures, however, have slightly stricter requirements.
Thor's hammer is selective about who can pick it up. The average civilian, elevator, or Super Villain would be hard-pressed to will it to budge. A creature is worthy if it's a legendary creature that's red and/or white and not a Villain. Note that only Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor's equip ability checks if a creature is worthy. The hammer can fall into non-worthy hands if it becomes equipped through means other than its equip ability. Also, if a creature already wielding Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor somehow falls from grace and stops meeting all the worthy requirements, Mjölnir will remain attached.
The Mind Stone and Harness
The next Infinity Stone is here! Like The Soul Stone before it, The Mind Stone is an incredibly powerful artifact from the dawn of the universe. It merits a little conversation.
As soon as you control The Mind Stone, you have access to its mana ability. That's helpful to be sure, but not really what all the fuss is about. The next ability allows you to harness The Mind Stone. Once The Mind Stone is harnessed, its ∞ ability becomes active and will start triggering at the beginning of each of your end steps. As with The Soul Stone before it, you can activate the ability that harnesses The Mind Stone multiple times, but it can become harnessed only once, so there's really no reason to do so.
Enter the Marvel Universe
Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes previews have begun, True Believers! The set releases on June 26 and is available for preorder from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold. Everyone assemble … at the Prerelease!