Namor the Sub-Mariner | Illustrated by Chris Rallis

Whenever a legendary creature is revealed in Magic previews, even ahead of its set's preview season, there will always be someone hoping to build it in Commander. Let's face facts: There's always someone who wants to be ahead of the curve. Trendsetters exist, plain and simple.

But what happens when a set like Marvel Super Heroes gets previews? The property is clearly popular among comic book fans of many walks of life (except maybe for DC Comics diehards, but we won't get into that here). But are the legendary creatures previewed on December 9th exciting enough to build around?

According to our data, one shone above the rest in the past 24 hours, so let's dive into that analysis!

Spoiler Alert: It Ain't Namor

While cards like Namor the Sub-Mariner are, in fact, behind the most prolific Marvel Super Heroes legend previewed yesterday, the numbers are actually not close at all.

Right now, Bruce Banner, also known as The Incredible Hulk, leads 82 Commander decks databased by EDHREC. Namor, as well as Doctor Doom, both lead 19 decks. Baron Helmut Zemo leads 18 decks, and Super-Skrull commands a measly nine decks.

The Breakdown of Marvel Super Heroes Commanders

Why is this? There are a variety of reasons that the lower four of the top five decks are doing so poorly. There are also several reasons that Bruce Banner is doing so well:

Doctor Doom costs a lot of mana to cast. Right now, mana value three is the new mana value four in terms of ideal maximum mana value for a commander. As a consequence of this upswing in speed, a mana value of six often has no place in the command zone.
Namor has to deal with a ton of competition in the Merfolk typal department. Granted, this fact may be affected (or eclipsed) by how much we see from Lorwyn Eclipsed. He's decent and could work very nicely in any Merfolk pile's 99. However, as a monocolor legend, other legendary creatures with more colors at their disposal can often offer better resources for Merfolk themes.
Zemo is going to have stiff competition as well. Other mono-black commanders often recur cards, and they don’t exile to do it, especially with less of a devotion theme. Even at an easy mana value of three, players will inevitably prefer commanders like Toshiro Umezawa or Kaervek, the Punisher (a card with a potentially ironic epithet considering the source material we're talking about). Even at a higher mana value, some players might even prefer Chainer, Dementia Master. Heck, even Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is more conservative of resources if their playgroup is more chill with certain practices.

Super-Skrull has to contend with Kenrith, the Returned King, who is infinitely easier to cast and already has precedent as a massively popular commander. Currently, Kenrith is fighting tooth and nail to stay at the very bottom of the Top 10 Most Popular Commanders on EDHREC (Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is close to outpacing him, however, and we will report on that when she does). For whatever it's worth, both Kenrith and Super-Skrull can kill while on an infinite mana bender. However, since Kenrith only costs one white pip and the rest in generic mana, Kenrith does it way more easily.

We Have a Hulk

As for why Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk break this trend of semi-mediocre commanders so handily, one need only watch the WeeklyMTG stream from yesterday.

In it, Blake Rasmussen, Rachel Weeks, and Gabriel Luna go on pretty extensively about the ways you can combo off with the Hulk. These include the use of Pyrohemia and Caltrops to engage in either infinite or near-infinite combat steps with the Hulk.

In related news, the uncommon Caltrops spiked (if you'll pardon the wordplay) yesterday to almost $11. The foil iteration of Caltrops from Seventh Edition also skyrocketed to $108. This was almost certainly due to the stream's discussion of the card.

Does this mean anything for a card that comes out in June? It may be too early to tell, honestly. But frankly, my takeaway is that, even if Wizards of the Coast is unable to acknowledge the secondary market, they should play a bit less loose with cards that can soar like Caltrops now has.

Regardless of the spikes, Bruce Banner is clearly a hit with some Commander players. We'll have to see how well that sticks before June, but either way, the card is good.

Conclusion

And now, let's open the floor to you, dear readers! Why do you think Bruce Banner is the top Marvel Super Heroes commander at this time? Also, given that Captain America, Super-Soldier currently has no decks built around him, why do you think that is? Sound off with your speculations in the comments below!

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Analyzing Marvel Super Heroes' First Trending Commanders