Arachne, Psionic WeaverArachne, Psionic Weaver | Art by Steve Argyle

The most beyond of the universes is here, with the first of the multitudes of Marvel sets: Spider-Man. Yep, that's right!, Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, and the rest of the Spider-Verse is web-slinging their way into our game accompanied by much acclaim.

With a huge cast of Heroes, Villains, bystanders, and employers, we should be seeing a wave of brand new mechanics that bring this new intellectual property to life just as we saw with The Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy, right?

Or is the Spider-Man world possibly far too sensational, amazing, and spectacular for this 194 card set? Let's skydive into the mechanics of Marvel's Spider-Man.

Web-slinging

Thwip, Thwip, Thwip! Each and every rendition of Spider-Man, from one multiverse to the next, has the iconic web-slinging power. Video games, movies, comics, each of these mediums spend tons of time making sure that each flick of the wrist from your favorite web-head leads to that all too familiar taste of freedom Spider-Man enjoys.

Magic: The gathering, of course, is no different, as its lead mechanic this set is web-slinging, an alternative casting cost that allows you to play your creature for a reduced cost by also returning a tapped creature you control to its owner's hand.

That's really all there is to it! Take any creature that has web-slinging, which will usually be one of the nine cards that has web-slinging on it plus any tapped creature, pay a cost that's less than the regular casting cost, and then "Thwip!" "Thwip!" put that new webster onto the stack and return that tapped creature you control to its owner's hand.

This counts as a cast, so that means you need to follow all of the proper steps that casting a spell requires: cost increase or reduction, wait for responses from your opponents, "Whenever you cast" triggers, and so on. Resolve that, and now you have a brand new Spider-Man, Web-SlingerSpider-Man, Web-Slinger in play for just a and an old creature in hand to recast.

Now lets break this down a bit further, and try to figure out how we can have web-slinging ready to go every time. Having a tapped creature under your control is usually pretty easy, as having a creature attack will require them to become tapped - unless they have vigilance, of course. As long as that creature survives combat, you can now "Thwip" and get a new Spider person, and perhaps mana up to recast that initial creature as well.

Mana dorks like Llanowar ElvesLlanowar Elves, Avacyn's PilgrimAvacyn's Pilgrim, and Elvish MysticElvish Mystic can be used to both pay the mana cost for the web-slinging spell as well as be the tapped creature that you bring back.

Having a creature survive combat in Standard is something that we've been looking at ways to do for quite a while actually, ever since the survivalsurvival mechanic debuted in Duskmourn. So let's look at some of the ways we can tap creatures without having to risk them in combat.

Veteran SurvivorVeteran Survivor and Rip, Spawn HunterRip, Spawn Hunter love seeing an Enduring VitalityEnduring Vitality in play to turn them all into BOP!sBOP!s. The brand new Spacecraft from Edge of Eternities give every creature a way to tap themselves, and of course Vehicles make their own appearance in the set to make sure you have some free tap outlets too.

Bouncing things to your hand is also something that we can get quite a bit of value out of. Not only is it great that we get to recast creatures, which we've seen is pretty good with EOE's warp mechanic, but we have some cards that like when things leave the battlefield.

Dour Port-MageDour Port-Mage is a great card with every single card with web-slinging, as it'll draw us cards each time we do it. A great card to bounce back would be something like Anticausal VestigeAnticausal Vestige, getting you incredible value if you can cast it for its warp cost and then tap it to station or crew.

Three Tree ScribeThree Tree Scribe is just waiting to see all of these cards get bounced back and honestly, it's wild to think that we might actually get a decent Spider x Frog deck in Standard lead by Spider-Ham, Peter PorkerSpider-Ham, Peter Porker and Helga, Skittish SeerHelga, Skittish Seer... I can't wait!

However, the most iconic card with web-slinging is a card that actually doesn't have it itself. Peter ParkerPeter Parker himself will be the card we see carry on the mechanic throughout time. This commander gives each creature you control with one or more colors web-slinging for a mere .

Why does it say "one or more colors"? So everyone doesn't just toss Eldrazi at the table, leading to the most boring un-Spider-Manly games imaginable. However, I don't think we'll really get the full "Peter Parker and his Multiverse of Friends" until the rest of the Marvel sets come out.

For now, we'll get to cast a ton of legendary creatures from across the Magic Multiverse like *checks notes* Jin-Gitaxias, Progress TyrantJin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant, Vorinclex, Monstrous RaiderVorinclex, Monstrous Raider, and ...Elesh Norn, Grand CenobiteElesh Norn, Grand Cenobite.....

-sigh-

Mayhem

We can something something together Spider-Man!

Hey, remember madness? A mechanic that allows us to discard a card into exile as we are discarding it, then lets us cast that card from exile immediately, ignoring timing restrictions and so on? It's a pretty great mechanic, honestly. One of the most popular mechanics of all time, and perfect for a set full of GoblinsGoblins, JackalsJackals, and...Bees?Bees?, whom are all quite mad.

However, in this set we've got a new mechanic replacing madness that gives us a slightly different take on the beloved mechanic: mayhem.

When you discard a card with mayhem, you get the ability to cast that card for the rest of the turn from the graveyard for its mayhem cost. Short and sweet.

Now, how is this different from madness? Well, madness requires the card be cast right away at the moment of discard, while mayhem gives you until the end of the turn it was discarded. Madness, however, lets you cast the spell immediately no matter the timing restriction on it, so if you discard a creature card during combat, you'd be able to cast it at that moment.

Mayhem gives you a bit more versatility on when you get to cast it, so if you wheel your whole hand, you get to choose if those cards are worth casting after you get that fresh new hand. You'll need to follow the regular casting time rules though, so discarding non-instants on your opponent's turn has a lot less value than we're used to seeing in 2025.

Mayhem is on 13 cards in the set, with most of them being a creature, and none of them being an instant. Much like web-slinging, they really didn't want to give us any tools to make use of this mechanic without having to do a lot of work ourselves to get the max value out of its few cards.

Most of these cards don't really have many things going on for themselves, either. Many are just commons and uncommons, and only one card actually mentions it having been cast with mayhem. It's honestly a wonder as to what they're really trying to say or do with the mayhem mechanic since we spend such little time with it.

Mayhem goes hand in hand with any discard based mechanics or costs that we have in Standard with cards like Demand AnswersDemand Answers and Thrill of PossibilityThrill of Possibility. They've re-released the connive mechanic this set as the other Villain mechanic too, so we do have some cheap ways to discard and draw, making it especially nice that we can cast cards on main phase two.

In the battle between the better mechanics though, madness keeps my mind swimming with possibility.

Just like web-slinging, however, mayhem will be kept alive solely by the one legendary creature that's worth being a commander, and boy howdy is Norman OsbornNorman Osborn friggin' strong. He gives each nonland card that has been discarded this turn mayhem and also has cards cast from your graveyard cost less.

This mechanic feels like it was made for just him and honestly not much else, as simply giving cards an entire new ability makes the cards born with them a bit less notable. Yet if you're into this interesting take on what could easily be the new ultimate discard commander, having your entire graveyard that you just wheeled into be just an extension of your newly refilled hand is honestly pretty disgustingly strong.

You can see how far the Green Goblin can go in Harvey's cEDH deck tech here.

Typal

Villain

Villain is actually a new creature type in Magic, shockingly enough! I mean technically it was in an Un-set before this, but those cards were never legal. So in terms of legal play, this is the first set for Villains to debut and...what a set it is! There really isn't much to go off of here in terms of a unifying mechanic at all. They simply have the type Villain and that's more or less it.

Some cards, like Doctor Octopus, Master PlannerDoctor Octopus, Master Planner and Vulture, Scheming ScavengerVulture, Scheming Scavenger, care about creatures with this type attacking, but no real mechanics are happening outside of that. This is certainly just the beginning of this mechanic though, since it's something we'll likely see in every future Marvel set.

So keep an eye on these cards and be sure to pick some up before we start seeing some real good Villain choices in 2026!

Spider

Spiders are getting a glow-up, but the glow-up is by reducing the number of legs they have to two, it seems.... Now, much like Villains, you don't really end up getting too much in the way of typal support for Spiders in the form of unified mechanics. Just mainly in the form of trigger doubling and some combat add-ons. But after that, not too much to really make you feel like you've changed the game up for Spider decks or bringing the entire Spider-Verse to bear with one ultimate vibe.

Time will tell if we'll have to wait for the next Innistrad set in order to get any real Spider support of the eight-legged variety.

Conclusion

That's it in terms of new mechanics and certainly with mechanics that might not be explained on just about every card in the set. This set is extremely small, and it shows with how in-depth the mechanics get with the cards we have. Not every card could be a Villain with mayhem and connive, nor can every other creature be a Spider Hero with web-slinging. 

To make sure that there's a decent balance in the set you do need to have some commons and uncommons just be cards. Those cards just seem more dominating when the set is over 100 cards less than your average Standard set.

I hope that this has helped you be ready for pre-release, and more than anything I hope this can help you get your friends into Magic with this brand new product. Because that's why we have it, right?

Let me know what you think of the mechanics of Marvel's Spider-Man down below, and if you think we'll see more support for some of these in the future.

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