Wizards of the Coast released a truly mind-boggling number of products for the Marvel Super Heroes release, including 4 precons, beginner boxes, jumpstart boosters, welcome decks, bundles, draft night, play boosters, collector boosters, gift bundles, scene boxes, secret lairs and more.
These cards are broken into two sets – “MSH” and “MSC” for Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes Commander respectively. MSH is the set you can actually pull from play boosters, that will be the focus of this article here. We’ll have another for MSC, which not only contains the cards from the commander precons, but also some of the scene boxes and jumpstarts as well.
So if you’re looking for cards like Swordsman’s Steel or Loki, Lord of Misrule – don’t buy play boosters! Those cards are MSC.
Without further ado, let’s hop into the best cards for the 99 from the MSH set.
Some quick picks:
Best Generically Good Card: King T’Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring
Best Sleeper: The Sentry, Golden Guardian
Best Archetype Accelerator: Hawkeye, Young Avenger
Best Planar Chaos Living Death: Worlds Within Worlds
Best Cheat-Into-Play-Your-Ur-Dragon-(or high-mana-value)-Commander card: World War Hulk
Burn & Spellslinger
Hawkeye, Young Avenger
$0.28 
I’m actually really excited for this card and am surprised it’s so cheap right now. Any spellslinger-pinger deck would benefit from Hawkeye, especially if you have ways to make her bigger. Imagine your Balmor, Battlemage Captain deck with a Guttersnipe out – just casting cantrips and card draw, each dealing progressively more damage to all your opponents. First cast would make Guttersnipe hit for 5 damage to the table! She’s the NOS for your pinger deck, especially if you have a pump spell or equipment to increase her power.
Being that she’s 
and not self-triggering, consider her a capstone support card in decks where the commander doesn’t itself ping. But if you’re running Vivi Ornitier, Kuja, Genome Sorcerer, Nekusar, the Mindrazer etc, she naturally synergizes with the deck and is an easy include. Worth your consideration!
The Scarlet Witch
Another card I’m really excited for, The Scarlet Witch is a huge discount on big spells and that discount can get even bigger when her power increases. The baseline discount of 2 for 
makes the floor of this card really high, and if you run pump spells or equipment it can get even higher. I’ve heard people complain about Vadrik, Astral Archmage‘s discount being nuts after even a single pump spell on him; The Scarlet Witch is in the same category, but mono-colored.
Rootha, Mastering the Moment, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor or any big-spells matter deck with red would likely benefit from this card. Or just a big X spells deck – time to Fireball someone out of existence after you’ve Monstrous Rage‘d, Bulk Up‘d twice (the flashback one only costs you ), and Double Trouble‘d for to make The Scarlet Witch 40 power.
Thor, God of Thunder & Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor
One of the most well-known names in the Marvel universe, Thor makes an appearance with one primary passive ability that spellslinger decks should consider in their lists. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, Thor deals damage equal to that spell’s mana value to any target. This makes your value plays – mana rocks, card draw, etc. – double up as board control or face damage.
There’s some nice flavor to this card with Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor – discard the hammer, then when Thor enters he summons it up for you to cast next turn and equip it. Once Thor has his hammer, his passive’s damage is doubled! The requirements for being Worthy are also comically low, allowing Mjölnir to find usefulness in many decks.
Artifact Synergies
There are lots and lots of cards in this set that care about Artifacts, primarily helmed by Iron Man-themed cards.
Tony Stark // The Invincible Iron Man
This Izzet artifact-matters card digs deep early game and cheats out artifacts late game. 
to dig 4 cards deep and put a card in your hand is pretty insane value.
The art on this card is wild, too – the Iron Man side looks like one of those ambiguous images where it could be one of two things. He’s either flying feet-first, rocket-propelled by his arms, heading southwest; or he’s the intended image, propelled by his boots with left arm cutting wind. I don’t know man, once you see both you can’t unsee it.
Ironheart, Clever Champion
Potentially cheap, and makes your noncreature spells potentially cheap. Mono-blue artifact love, pretty easy to find a good home for. Golbez, Crystal Collector, Urza, Chief Artificer, Mendicant Core, Guidelight etc. Clues, foods, thopters, treasures – time to turn those into mana.
Shuri, Wakandan Inventor
At worst, Shuri is a non-artifact Etherium Sculptor. At best, she’s turning an early game mana rock into a second copy of a late game powerhouse artifact until end of turn for .
It is a shame she’s not an artifact herself; otherwise she’d be a straight upgrade in most cases. Still though, a strong consideration for many artifact decks.
Vision Quest
I acknowledge this card is relatively narrow for a tutor, but it uniquely allows you to search both your yard and your library for an artifact creature, making it a good recovery card as well. I find myself hoping I can get out a Psychosis Crawler in many card draw focused decks, and this helps either get it out or get it back out.
Armor Wars
Armor Wars rewards heavy artifact generation by giving you the potential to draw a significant number of cards, though you do give one card to each opponent, because balance. We still do that sometimes.
The next chapter is an artifact discount, and the last chapter can be a single-player nuke depending on your board state.
I’ll be putting this in my Jackdaw deck, but your Breya, Etherium Shaper, Jhiora, Weatherlight Captain, Saheeli decks and more can find a home for this as well.
Scientist Supreme of A.I.M.
This for-some-reason-legendary Scientist can copy activated or triggered abilities from an artifact source. Being that he’s (she’s?) 2 mana value and the ability only costs 2 life, this Scientist is very easy to make use of. Portal to Phyrexia comes to mind here, though copying a Burnished Hart‘s ramp ability to get 4 lands sounds pretty dope too. Double up on your Time Sieve‘s extra turns, or mill someone for 75% of their deck with Terisian Mindbreaker. Lots of applications for this card, and definitely a fun build-around too given the plethora of artifacts you could tailor this to.
Cheating Mana Costs
World War Hulk
World War Hulk comes with two haymakers for 
. Its first chapter allows you to play your next green or red creature spell for free, and it doesn’t specify from your hand! So if you’ve got a pricey multi-color commander like The Ur-Dragon, Gishath, Sun’s Avatar or Progenitus this can not only be a discount but a significant color fixer as well.
The second chapter is modest, giving a creature 3 +1/+1 counters.
That synergizes well with the third chapter and second haymaker, which doubles the power and toughness of a creature and crucially, gives it trample.
Worlds Within Worlds
Did Simic players really need a way to turn their mana dorks into Eldrazi? I don’t think so, but I guess Wizards disagreed.
Worlds Within Worlds operates similarly to Living Death, but trades the creatures in your hand for creatures on the battlefield. It is a total of 7 mana, but hey, you’re in Simic, so you should be able to get this out by turn 4.
Cosmic Cube
At modest 5 colorless mana for an artifact with Ward 2, Cosmic Cube can help you cheat out fat spells the same turn it comes down. When you attack, dig 6 deep and cast a spell for free as long as its mana value is less than the highest power attacking creature you have. High power creatures are not hard to come by, and this cube doesn’t care how it got its power. Whether you have a natural monster like Yargle and Multani or are in a voltron or +1/+1 counters deck, you’re likely to pull ahead in value as soon as this cube hits the battlefield.
Super-Soldier Serum
Super-Soldier Serum is a very nice recovery card for equipment-matters decks. 
grants enchanted creature +2/+2, First Strike and Vigilance, and allows them to attach any number of equipment you control to it whenever it attacks or blocks.
I’m sure TwentyNine will find a home for it in his Adelbert Steiner deck. Your Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER could find a use for this, as could Arna Kennerund, Skycaptain, Wyleth, Soul of Steel and so many more.
Copy Themes
We’ve already covered Scientist Supreme of A.I.M. and Shuri, Wakandan Inventor in the artifact section, but they’re relevant for this theme as well.
Echo, Perceptive Prodigy
Echo reminds me of Errant, Street Artist as a legendary creature that copies stuff, but Echo is much easier to use. For and tap, you can copy an activated or triggered ability from a creature source. There are just so many applications to this – enters the battlefield triggers, dealing combat damage triggers, dies triggers; not to mention the activated abilities this could copy. Memnarch doubling up on making things artifacts or stealing artifacts, Arcanis the Omnipotent drawing an extra 3 cards for , pay for an extra free spell with Yue, the Moon Spirit; the possibilities are bountiful. Note that the creature doesn’t have to be blue, or have a color at all! Pick your favorite abilities and start doubling ’em up!
Taskmaster, Mercenary Mimic
Similar to Irma, Part-Time Mutant, Taskmaster becomes a copy of something once a turn, missing out on enters-the-battlefield effects but allowing you to become a clone of something new each turn. Taskmaster’s upside allows you to clone any creature on the battlefield or any graveyard, turning him into a potential menace for many Dimir mill decks. Someone milled their Valgavoth, Terror Eater or Toxrill, the Corrosive? Looks like Taskmaster is the big bad now.
Multiversal Incursion
Multiversal Incursion copies each non-token creature you control, except the copies aren’t legendary. In some decks, this could just lead to a combo win. In others, it can be a significant source of power.
7 mana is a lot to ask, but if it’s going to win you the game, it’s worth considering for your deck. It can also be fun in Dimir theft decks, like Etrata, Deadly Fugitive or Captain N’Ghathrod.
Ultron, Artificial Malevolence
Ultron’s modest casting cost of followed up by the ability to double up on any artifact spell for is pretty heavy on the value. Keep in mind that this triggers on nontoken artifacts entering, so even reanimating or cheating out artifacts trigger Ultron.
The fact that the copy is a creature removes the possibility of doubling up on equipment, but everything else is fair game – mana rocks, artifact creatures, value artifacts, even legendaries if you intend to have the original be sacrificed in your artifact reanimator deck. Copying vehicles makes them auto-crewed (but the power and toughness is set to 2)!
Budget Lands
Headquarters Dual Land Cycle
There’s a new land cycle to pay attention to this set, as it adds another effective way of producing two colors of mana with a land that doesn’t enter tapped. The lands always produce colorless, but they produce one of two colors if the land entered this turn or if you control a basic land. For many two color decks, these will slide in easily. There are only 5 color pairs: Training Compound for Red/Green, Gleaming Bastion for White/Blue, Gathering Place for Green/White, Dark Fortress for Red/Black, and Hidden Lair for Blue/Black. Keep your eyes peeled for the completion of this land cycle in future sets!
Card Draw
The Ten Rings
For 8 colorless mana, The Ten Rings keeps your hand full turn after turn. Making your maximum hand size 10 and filling your hand to 10 cards on each end step makes the 8 mana potentially worth it even to hard-cast, and even better to cheat in with commanders like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Kona Rescue Beastie or Sami, Wildcat Captain. You could get cards in hand at a better rate than 1 mana for 1 card, especially if it sticks around for multiple turns!
Super Intelligence
Listen, I’m not here to tell you blue has trouble drawing cards. But, this one deserves some consideration. A 1 mana blue Aura that draws enchanted creature’s controller a card each upkeep has a home in many decks.
Its wording also allows you to force another opponent to draw a card on their upkeep, which is maybe useful if you play cards that really care about others drawing a second card on a turn like King T’Challa.
Hex Magic
Hex Magic allows you to exile your hand and draw that many cards, letting you also play the exiled cards until your next turn. This is also an Arcane spell, if you care about Splice cards.
This type of effect can be good if you have a mid-sized hand and you’d like some card advantage, but it can also be a dead draw if you’re in top deck mode.
Faldon, Dread Wolf Herald, Prosper, Tome-Bound, Rocco, Street Chef, Pia Nalaar, Console of Revival and any exile-matters decks could find a home for this card.
Misty Knight, Hero for Hire
Misty Knight fits in really well in decks that care about discarding cards. Wheel decks, discard-to-reanimate decks, loot decks, etc.; all can benefit from Misty Knight’s ability to draw you cards for each card you’ve discarded this turn. That she’s mono-red for only makes her really easy to slot into those decks too.
Captain Howler, Celes, Rune Knight, Rielle the Everwise or even Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar come to mind here.
King T’Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring
Azorius Faerie Mastermind for more, but with lots of extra potential. First of all, this is a player not an opponent, so you can trigger King T’Challa yourself by drawing a second card on any turn. Second, you can flip him to Black Panther, Hope Enduring – a 3/3 double striker that prevents all damage (not just combat damage!) dealt to him. You do lose the insane passive but the card draw continues whenever he deals combat damage to a player.
Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards
This is pretty nuts – it doesn’t specify what type of token, you just need tokens to be entering. The downside naturally is the “one or more” but it doesn’t limit you to once per turn, turning your steady token generation into steady card advantage as well.
Teval, the Balanced Scale can turn his Zombie Druid engine into a card draw engine as well. Morska, Undersea Sleuth turns creating clues into cards; Kykar, Wind’s Fury makes every noncreature spell cantrip. A bit pricey at 
but can easily become a card drawing menace.
M.O.D.O.K.
M.O.D.O.K.’s ability to pay 3 life and connive during your turn as many times as you want has combo fuel written all over it. Combine it with ways to gain life when you draw or discard, or ping people when you do the same, to dole out damage as many times as you can pay for it on your turn while also churning through your deck. Or maybe you intentionally want to have a low life total for effects like Mister Negative or Repay in Kind.
Flicker Themes
The Sentry, Golden Guardian
Fundamentally I think this card is incredible. The stats are nuts for the cost and it comes with a soft goad effect. for a 5/5 flying indestructible vigilance? The “downside” is that an opponent gets a 5/5 flying indestructible Void that attacks each turn if able? If they decide to attack you, you can just block with The Sentry. But in a politics or pillowfort deck, there may be no incentive to attack you. Throw in a few flicker effects so all of your opponents get The Void and it’s a chaotic good time!
The Mighty Thor, Jane Foster
Jane Foster is a flicker and card draw engine that flies for only . You can flicker the job-select or for-mirrodin! equipment to keep getting dudes and cards, or you can flicker bomb artifacts like Portal to Phyrexia for backbreaking control effects.
This is supposed to be an article for “best of 99” and I will concede that Jane Foster is probably a better commander than a support card, as Azorius isn’t typically trying to be voltron. Still though, the value here is apparent, so any deck that can make use of both is likely to be better with her in it.
H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit
H.E.R.B.I.E. is definitely the happy bot to Solemn Simulacrum‘s sad bot, providing you some immediate card advantage and potential ramp for the same mana value. This card is worth considering in a flicker deck as his steady resource advantage builds over time in that archetype.
Landfall
Claim the Kingdom
Claim the Kingdom comes down for just and is a new type of enchantment, a Plan. It has Landfall – put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control and a plan counter on this enchantment. When it has 4 plan counters, you sacrifice the enchantment, then put an indestructible counter on a creature you control.
Landfall is very easy to proc, especially if you’re playing multiple lands per turn, fetch lands, lands from the yard, etc; getting an indestructible counter on your commander or critical creature is icing on the cake. Definitely a strong consideration for my Skullbriar, the Walking Grave deck, but consider it for your other landfall or counters-matters commanders like Tifa Lockheart, Erinis, Gloomstalker, Lord Windgrace or Hearthhull, the Worldseed decks.
Mole Man, Moloid Master
A strict upgrade over Ramunap Excavator (and a decent amount cheaper), Mole Man is designed like a fair version of Icetill Explorer. He gives you the ability to play lands from your graveyard – which is an excellent way to turbocharge landfall decks when combined with sac lands – and has a landfall ability that spits out Minion tokens that can mill you when they attack.
Other Solid Finds
Namor the Sub-Mariner
Merfolk that creates more merfolk when you blue things.
Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Thousand-Year Elixir abilities are quite rare and pretty pricey. Shang-Chi comes down early and can immediately pay for himself as he can tap for 2 mana for a creature’s activated ability. Commanders who want to start tapping for immediate value can definitely leverage Shang-Chi’s passive.
Some great examples of this synergy are Atla Palani, Nest Tender – Shang-Chi’s passive allows Atla to tap and his activated ability grants the two mana needed to activate Atla as well for that first Egg. Dina, Essence Brewer also needs 2 mana and a tap for her activated ability, and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard can start gathering verse counters and tutoring creatures a bit earlier with Shang-Chi’s help.
Jennifer Walters // The Sensational She-Hulk
Grand Abolisher-lite in Selesnya colors that can turn into a real beater. The Sensational She-Hulk turns fight spells into two-for-ones, giving you the option of taking damage dealt to your creatures and sending it to any other target. You only get to do it once a turn, so it’s not busted, but it also makes your opponents think twice about blocking with big creatures or casting spells like Blasphemous Act.
The Wondrous Wasp
Flash, flying, stax on a creature – this is kind of like Eaten by Piranhas or its equivalent but in creature form. Reminds me of Tishana’s Tidebinder but cheaper to cast and narrower in scope as it doesn’t counter the ability.
End Step
That’s a wrap on MSH’s best cards for the 99. Between the burn payoffs, artifact synergies, and landfall value, this set punches well above its weight for Commander. Stay tuned for the MSC companion piece covering the precons and jumpstart exclusives.