The Gathering’s Spider-Man Cards are Truly Spectacular

Last year, a set of Marvel-themed cards came to Magic: The Gathering—one of the card game’s many ongoing brand crossovers—and featured A-list heroes like Black Panther, Wolverine, and Captain America. But Spider-Man was missing from the illustrious lineup, because he’s getting a set all to himself.

During this weekend’s New York Toy Fair, Wizards of the Coast unveiled six cards from the upcoming crossover set. Along with the main man Peter Parker, the preview below shows three classic villains—Venom, Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus—and specific cards built around Goblin’s pumpkin bombs and Ock’s tentacles. As “Legendary Creatures,” Spider-Man and his villains have different abilities like removing up to three stun counters (Peter) or exiling a target creature card from a graveyard (Venom), while Ock’s tentacles puts an artifact card from an enemy’s graveyard under your control. If that sounds exciting to you, that’s just the tip of the web—other cards will feature other villains and fellow Spider-heroes like Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and potentially Miguel O’Hara, who’s on the cover of a welcome pack.

Wizards’ executive producer Max McCall told IGN that Spidey needed his own set because the team wanted to really “do justice to the character, and incorporate the many villains he’s come across over the years. Picking characters from the Spider-Man canon as part of a wider set would leave far too many characters on the cutting room floor. We could probably have found room for Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales in a non-Spider-Man specific set, but there wouldn’t have been room for Aunt May.”

If the idea of a full Spider-Man set excites you, Wizards has a variety of bundles for you to buy. Prices range from $38 (for a Collector Booster box) to $42 (Scene Box) or $210 (30-pack Play Booster box). You can pre-order whichever you want on Amazon or at your local game store now ahead of their release on September 26.

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