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The global release of Magic: The Gathering’s Lorwyn Eclipsed set is only days old, but on Jan. 25, images claiming to show four preconstructed Commander decks for the upcoming Marvel Super Heroes set — due out in June — began circulating across Reddit and other social platforms.
Wizards of the Coast confirmed during an early December preview that Marvel Super Heroes would include “multiple” Commander decks starring Marvel heroes and villains. At the time, Wizards revealed that one would focus on the Fantastic Four. The newly surfaced images show packaging for that deck, along with three others. While Wizards has not confirmed the images’ authenticity, that hasn't stopped players from dissecting what the decks mean.
Potential spoilers follow for Magic: The Gathering's Marvel Super Heroes set
One Reddit user who shared the images said they originated from a Magic community Discord server: “I would normally be skeptical myself, but the art seems to be unique unless someone finds otherwise,” they wrote. “It’d be a notable amount of work to fake this kind of thing that most people wouldn’t bother to do.”
What do the Marvel Commander leaks show?The images depict boxes for four preconstructed Commander decks, each showing the color identity, title, mechanical focus, and art featuring Marvel characters.
The Fantastic Four deck is a red-green-white-blue build focused on noncreature spells and protective effects. A red-white-blue Avengers Assemble deck leans into equipment and counters, with Captain America and Nick Fury on the box art. A villain-focused blue-black-red deck titled Doom Prevails shows Doctor Doom and Loki, with mechanics described as “connive for power” and “drain life.” The fourth deck, Wakanda Forever, is a green-white build starring Black Panther, centered on artifacts and the monarch mechanic.
What are fans saying about the leaks?Despite the lack of official confirmation, the community response widely assumes that the images are legitimate — the box art looks virtually indistinguishable from typical Commander products.
One of the most upvoted comments on a Reddit post discussing the leaks criticized the Fantastic Four deck’s four-color identity: “Can they just STOP with non-black four-color legends? Make some of the other four-color pairings, WotC!” While some described the colors of that deck as “elegant” for the Fantastic Four, others point out that among four-color legendary creatures, this particular combo is already by far the most common.
Similar frustration emerged around the villain deck’s blue-black-red color identity. Several commenters noted that previous crossover decks with Warhammer 40,000, The Lord of the Rings, and Doctor Who all featured villain-focused preconstructed decks in the same colors.
A number of fans voiced excitement to see the monarch mechanic returning as part of the Black Panther deck. Monarch is a player designation status granted through certain cards, and several cards also grant additional effects. When a player becomes the monarch, they draw an extra card at the end of their turn, but if an opposing player deals combat damage to them, they become the new monarch. It essentially simulates one player being the king, so it fits for a deck focused on King T’Challa of Wakanda. Monarch is often associated with blue and black cards. Of all the colors, green actually has the fewest monarch cards.
In this way, some called the Wakanda Forever deck unique, especially because green is also historically anti-artifact. Blue-white is most commonly associated with artifact-based strategies, so a green-white artifact deck with monarch is something we haven’t really seen before.
Criticism did surface around who and what isn’t represented in these decks. Several fans questioned why Wakanda received a dedicated deck while other major Marvel groups or characters, such as the X-Men or the Guardians of the Galaxy, are nowhere to be seen. Wizards previously described Marvel Super Heroes as part of a “multi-year team-up with Marvel,” leading many to assume that additional Marvel-themed sets are already planned.
Image: Wizards of the Coast
Early promotional art for Marvel Super Heroes has included characters like Scarlet Witch and Wolverine, and Wizards has already revealed a card for Quicksilver, who is canonically a mutant. Even so, the current leaks have only intensified speculation about how Wizards might roll out Marvel’s sprawling cast over multiple releases. After all, the Spider-Man set included a card for the Soul Stone, so with five more Infinity Stones — and the Infinity Gauntlet — expected at some point in the future, Magic could spread them out across multiple sets.
For now, the leaked images remain unconfirmed, even if Marvel Super Heroes is expected to have four Commander decks when it's released in June. Until then, we have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover set due out March 6, followed by Secrets of Strixhaven in April.