Magic and Marvel are coming together, starting with five secret lairs that are releasing in early November. Five iconic Marvel characters are getting unique Magic: The Gathering cards in their own secret lairs, paired up with reskins or new arts of other cards to complement them.
A Secret Lair gives you some good cards, but we’re going to go through how to build a Marvel MTG deck around the commanders, starting with Captain America, First Avenger
Examining Captain America, First Avenger
Our first step is to examine Cap, who is appropriately Red, White, and Blue (in a nice flavor nod, they rearranged the normal order of color display from blue, red, white to fit the traditional America order). He comes with a solid body as a 3 mana 4/4 and has two abilities, in ‘Throw…’ and ‘…Catch’.
Throw… is the more unique ability of the two, letting you unattach an equipment to deal damage equal to the equipment’s mana value divided among up to three targets. Few cards have ever used unattach in rules text, and none ever in this way. As for …Catch it is a free equip trigger, letting you give Captain America a piece of equipment at the beginning of combat on your turn at no cost.
What this shows us is a commander who is equipment focused, like any number of Boros commanders. Part of what makes Captain America special is that he adds blue to the mix, opening up new cards for this archetype. Combine that with providing a potentially unique take on the archetype, Captain America, the First Avenger provides an interesting tweak on a well known archetype.
Captain America’s Equipment
It’s time to suit up Captain America! There are a lot of equipment that can be included but I’m going to focus on a handful that you should look at including in your own Captain America deck.
Excalibur, Sword of Eden is from the Assassin’s Creed Universes Beyond set, and is the highest mana value equipment in Magic: The Gathering. It also comes down cheaper based on other historic permanents you control (aka legendary cards, saga’s and artifacts). It is perfect for Captain America, First Avenger to throw, but it’s also good for him to wield in combat as it gives the equipped creature +10/+0 and vigilance.
Sword of War and Peace is an automatic inclusion, in its Shield of War and Peace styling that comes with the secret lair. You’ll probably want to include at least one other Sword of X and Y, as they are very good. I recommend Sword of Feast and Famine in particular as it untapped lands when you deal damage to an opponent, letting you do some more throwing post-combat or cast more spells, and gives protection from green and black.
Illusionist’s Bracers, and Battlemage’s Bracers are for doubling activating abilities. These are helpful for getting more out of Captain’s Throw… ability, making it far more lethal. Grafted Exoskeleton is a way to turn those throws into extra lethality by making that damage all poisonous, letting only ten damage wipe out a foe - one Excalibur toss becomes lethal.
Captain America’s Support
To get Captain America to battle takes more than just a few weapons however. Luckily, there’s no lack of support that we can supply for him.
With one piece of equipment we really want in Excalibur, Sword of Eden, we need quartermaster’s to fetch the goods. That’s why we are looking at tutors like Stoneforge Mystic, Kellan, The Fae-Blooded, Steelshaper’s Gift, Open the Armory, Fabricate, Fighter Class, and Enlightened Tutor. These all can grab Excalibur, or whichever piece of equipment is most useful at any given moment.
For other equipment support we’re looking to a mix of creatures, and enchantments to get extra value, cheapen the cost and return them. Forge Anew is a staple of equipment decks for good reason, resurrecting one equipment, giving instant-speed equipping, and giving you a free equip each turn. Puresteel Paladin lets us draw cards for playing them (just like Sram, who’s also invited to the party), and skip equipment costs as long as we have three or more artifacts.
Reinforcing Captain America, First Avenger we also bring Zirda, the Dawnwaker to cheapen the cost of his ability, and of all of the equip costs. Ertha Jo, Frontier Mentor provides another ability doubler, as well as a pair of bodies to pick up dropped equipment. Codsworth, Handy Helper is an under the radar helper as well, as it can freely equip things once a turn, gives Captain America Ward 2, and can tap for two mana to play equipment.
Captain America also needs protection, and for that a mixture of creatures and instants come to mind, in addition to some equipment you can include. In the realm of creature cards, there’s the likes of Skrelv, Defector Mite (who I prefer here over Mother of Runes due to being an artifact, and a legendary creature), and Pippin, Guard of the Citadel who can cheaply stop removal spells. A relatively new option is Hydroelectric Specimen which can redirect a single target spell to itself, and as a modal dual-faced card, is optionally playable as a land instead.
Spellwise we have some counterspells and protection spells. The counterspell suite should look at Arcane Denial, Counterspell, Fierce Guardianship, and the modal card Sink into Stupor (another bonus land option), though you can modify this for your preferred counterspells, with the focus being stopping spells that can remove Captain America or key equipment. Protection spells should complement that and include options like Teferi’s Protection, Flawless Maneuver, Sejiri Shelter, and Deflecting Swat.
Using what's above I made an example list, and included a list of later cuts in the maybeboard. Here is the list for your use to consider ideas for your own list.
Budget Marvel MTG Options For Captain America, First Avenger
A lot of the options above aren’t necessarily the cheapest so let’s do a quick budget ($2.00 or less) rundown of cards for some areas.
Equipment
Argentum Armor: A solid expensive equipment you can use to help deal with problematic permanents.
Bladehold War-Whip: A way to give double strike, and cheapen equip costs.
Basilisk Collar: This gives Captain America, First Avenger deathtouch, and lifelink, making his throw a board wipe.
Hexplate Wallbreaker: Getting free combat’s each turn is useful if you are relying more on voltroning.
Support
Trophy Mage: A tutor for expensive artifacts that can also wield the weapons itself.
Forging The Tyrite Sword: A slow tutor that also provides a couple mana.
Bureau Headmaster: Cheapen Equipment, and equip costs.
Brass Squire: Can tap to attach equipment and bypass equip costs.
Danitha, Benalia’s Hope: Resurrect or cheat out equipment, and get them attached for free.
Akiri, Fearless Voyager: Provides the ability to protect equipped creatures, and draw cards.
Bastion Protector: Grows Captain America, and makes him indestructible, even if a 3/3 is a bit vulnerable itself.
Negate: Cheap, solid protection in counterspell form.
Hindering Light: Counters stuff that targets your stuff.
Hopefully all of this helps you build the best Captain America, First Avenger deck to lead against all the challengers you will face.
A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don
