SP//dr, Piloted by PeniSP//dr, Piloted by Peni | Art by Toni Infante

Hello, everyone, my name is Jonathan, and today I'll be going over the best uncommon legends from Marvel's Spider-Man!

As we know, this set brought along a ton of new possible commanders, and, while everyone's attention was focused on rares and mythic rares, this time I'll be looking at some of the numerous uncommon cards you might have overlooked among all of these new toys!

One quick side note before starting: I'll cover them in color identity order. This means that the order they are presented in does not reflect the quality of the cards at all. With this out of the way, let's dive into the best uncommon legends!

Chameleon, Master of DisguiseChameleon, Master of Disguise

I already talked about this card at length in another article, so I won't repeat myself too much, but I also really need to express how powerful this card is. In fact, when put into the right list, this is a three-mana clone effect that circumvents the legend rule, perhaps allowing you to have two copies of your commander in play at the same time. Retaining its name although it has another creature's textbox immediately puts this card in the same tier as staples of the format such as Spark DoubleSpark Double and Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces.

I wouldn't recommend playing it as your commander of choice, since the aforementioned Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces actually does its job better. Nonetheless, it's still a great legend to put in the 99, so if your deck cares about your commander (as it should), this is a card you should absolutely consider including, especially if you run discard synergies.

Madame Web, ClairvoyantMadame Web, Clairvoyant

Let's start with this card's glaring problem: its mana value. Before reading what it does, this is a six-mana mono-blue creature with no built-in protection. In other words, it's an expensive card in a color combination with little to no ramp and it requires additional cards to grant its survivability.

But hey, many great stories have a rough start.

Looking at its effects, that's where things get interesting. Madame WebMadame Web allows us to look at and cast noncreature cards from the top card of our library, and she also offers some top deck manipulation. Yes, I did omit the "Spider spells" part of its effect, but for a good reason: there are only 8 Spiders that can be played in mono-blue decks, so that's basically a non-existent line.

This card's effects are for sure interesting, for it basically grants unlimited card draw as long as there's a noncreature spell on the top of our library. Of course, it pairs extremely well with cantrips like BrainstormBrainstorm, PonderPonder and PreordainPreordain, which can both be cast from the top and help us manipulate said top of the library.

Nonetheless, its drawbacks are equally relevant. Mainly, if our deck is not stacked correctly, we've basically paid six mana for a vanilla 4/4 with quite the target on its back.

All in all, this is for sure an interesting commander to build around, perhaps including cards with flashback to take advantage of the light mill sub-theme. I could also see it as a secret backup commander in the 99 of certain decks; Kess, Dissident MageKess, Dissident Mage comes off the top of my head.

Spider-Man NoirSpider-Man Noir

This card makes for an interesting counter/reanimator commander. In fact, when reanimating, you usually end up with one scary creature attacking, and it's rather difficult to build a wider board. That's where Spider-Man NoirSpider-Man Noir comes in clutch, rewarding you for attacking with only one body. At the same time, it synergizes well with small creatures that put counters on themselves, like the evergreen Walking BallistaWalking Ballista.

Hence, the intended gameplan of the deck would be playing a bunch of small- to medium-sized creatures with a bunch of counters on them in the early game while filling the graveyard however you like. Then, in the midgame, our commander can start putting in some work, keeping the counters flowing and the graveyard full. Lastly, in the late game, our big monsters can come back form the underworld to close out the matter.

The clear problem with this idea is Spider-Man NoirSpider-Man Noir's mana cost. In fact, five mana is a bit too high for the whole engine to function without any effort. Of course, black's many ritual effects can help playing our commander earlier than usual, but that only goes so far.

SP//dr, Piloted by PeniSP//dr, Piloted by Peni

This one is among the most interesting cards we've discussed today.

Let's get the obvious critique out of the way: it's a bit overpriced for its effect, but that's a leitmotiv across all of today's cards at this point.

Now, getting to the juicy part of this creature: it grants an absurd amount of card draw. It's extremely easy to modify a creature, and everyone can choose their own preferred flavor: counters, Auras, or Equipment. Personally, I'd recommend the latter two in this specific case, for they offer more options to grant evasion to your creatures. In fact, considering we are playing a white-blue commander, not many of our bodies will have built-in ways to grant they'll connect in combat. Of course, we can count on flyers, but something as simple as an Aqueous FormAqueous Form or Loxodon WarhammerLoxodon Warhammer will most likely have more success.

The icing on this very tasty cake is the counter that SP//dr, Piloted by PeniSP//dr, Piloted by Peni comes with as it enters the battlefield: this allows any other creature to immediately become modified and, therefore, a draw engine.

Prowler, Clawed ThiefProwler, Clawed Thief and Vulture, Scheming ScavengerVulture, Scheming Scavenger

I wanted to cover these two cards together because they both fuel a new kindred strategy that this set has created: Villains. Actually, I had wanted to talk about another card first, namely, Tombstone, Career CriminalTombstone, Career Criminal, but I couldn't really justify it being at the helm of a mono-black Villain deck.

Instead, I'd like to refer to these three cards as the core of this new kindred deck, for they all bring something powerful to the table.

Starting with the last mentioned, Tombstone, Career CriminalTombstone, Career Criminal is a perfect pivotal card for such a build. It provides recursion in the mid-to-late game while also counting on a very good effect throughout the game.

Next, Vulture, Scheming ScavengerVulture, Scheming Scavenger is a very good aggressive card, making all of our Villains more difficult to block and giving us an incentive to enter the red zone as much as possible. The main problem with this card is, once again, its cost: six mana is way too much for such a simple effect, especially considering it doesn't have any kind of protection written in its text.

Last but not least, Prowler, Clawed ThiefProwler, Clawed Thief is the true star of the show. First and foremost, it's as cheap as it gets: a three-mana evasive creature that can start swinging early. Yet, the truly interesting part comes in the second half of the card. In fact, not only is it cheap, it is also very good when played early, for every subsequent Villain will grant us card selection and graveyard filling.

In addition, the latter two commanders truly benefit from their color identity. Being in Dimir colors vastly deepens the pool of Villains to choose from, which was the main reason that prevented me from considering Tombstone, Career CriminalTombstone, Career Criminal as a possible commander. Prowler, Clawed ThiefProwler, Clawed Thief in particular shines as a general option, both for the reasons mentioned before and because it fuels a graveyard-matters subtheme. Of course, both of the other two mentioned Villains perfectly fit in this strategy.

The only limiting factor I notice is the sheer number of creatures to choose from. It's true that the blue-black identity increases this quantity, but it's still far from many other established kindred strategies. As of now, there are 32 Villains in Dimir colors, which is not bad, but not excellent either. This implies we might end up including cards we don't really want to only for consistency's sake, and that's never a good sign.

All in all, I think this is a very promising deck idea, but it heavily relies on how much support the archetype will receive in future sets.

This is all from me for now! Do you have any additional thoughts on the commanders discussed today? Would you have included some more? Let me know in the comments down below!