Magic: The Gathering’s Spider-Man set is scheduled for release on September 26, and it has already proven to be a polarizing one among fans of the TCG and the superhero alike. Spider-Man is possibly the set with the highest number of Legendary creatures compared to the total number of creatures in Magic: The Gathering’s history, and it comes with a controversial package regarding some cards and decisions surrounding the set as a whole. Still, there are some very good cards in MTG’s Spider-Man set, and one of the very best is only $24 on TCGPlayer for the time being.
Considering that the prices for Spider-Man cards are likely to change considerably, especially before launch and about one week after release, the $24 pricetag on TCGPlayer is not guaranteed to hold, for better or worse.
The Spider-Man set is filled with cards that are meant to expand on the IP’s lore and world-building elements, such as the Daily Bugle acting as a Legendary land card or the fact that the set includes a simple pigeon as a creature called City Pigeon. As such, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Magic: The Gathering’s Spider-Man card list includes an artifact called Peter Parker’s Camera, dedicated to the web-slinging hero’s job and civilian persona. However, this card is more than meets the eye, and it’s already busted.
Magic: The Gathering’s Spider-Man Set Has a Virtually Unbeatable Card
Peter Parker’s Camera is a 1-mana artifact that enters the battlefield with three film counters on it. Players can then pay 2 generic mana, tap the card, and remove a film counter from it in order to copy an activated or triggered ability under the owner’s control, with the ability to also choose new targets for the copy. This is an incredibly strong effect for such a cheap cost, and it could end up buffing Magic: The Gathering’s Vivi Ornitier from Final Fantasy, among many other cards.
Why Peter Parker’s Camera is Secretly OP in MTG
Since a lot of cards in the game have activated or triggered abilities, Peter Parker’s Camera can fit into almost any deck, especially considering its generic mana cost, which doesn’t make it difficult to cast at all. It can be great in various formats, as having access to multiple copies of the card can create incredible loops and combos in Magic: The Gathering Standard decks, as much as it can shine as a single copy in a Commander deck.
There are a lot of possible combos with Peter Parker’s Camera. One of Magic: The Gathering’s most expensive Edge of Eternities cards is Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, and its second ability is a powerful tutor that can proc twice in a turn with this artifact, or it can be used to retrieve Peter Parker’s Camera from the deck in the first place. It can also be used in combination with Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Toph, the First Metalbender, which normally has earthbend 2 at the end of the turn, meaning that players can use Peter Parker’s Camera to either put four +1/+1 counters on one land or two counters on two different lands.
Since triggered or activated abilities are usually one of the most powerful tools in Magic: The Gathering decks, the fact that the Spider-Man set is printing a card that can universally work with them can be a blessing or a curse. It can create new and interesting deck archetypes, but it can equally end up empowering the so-called “bad actors” of the meta, such as MTG’s Izzet Cauldron deck getting multiple Cauldron procs or multiple Vivi procs with a single card. Yet, this is clearly one of the best all-rounder cards of the set, and it’s one that players shouldn’t sleep on when Spider-Man launches.
Original Release Date
August 5, 1993
Designer
Richard Garfield
Player Count
2+
Age Recommendation
13+
