While Magic: The Gathering has enjoyed a streak of successful set releases and good player reception and retention since Tarkir: Dragonstorm this year, including both Final Fantasy and Edge of Eternities, things may change with the upcoming Spider-Man set on September 26. Unlike Final Fantasy, Spider-Man is much harder to defend as a Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond set that fits into the game and has its fair share of controversies already. Still, despite being of a relatively small size for a main set, it packs quite the punch with some powerful cards, and one of them is bound to become a staple for many decks in the game.
Magic: The Gathering's new Peter Parker's Camera is a great example, as it does some world-building work for the Spider-Man set while also being a very powerful card that can be used in any deck thanks to its generic mana cost. Another is Spider-Sense, which can be a 1-mana counterspell that can also work against triggered abilities, and its downside may not be one at all depending on the deck it's used in. Another great card coming from the Spider-Man set is the "problematic" Soul Stone, which may mean five more Marvel sets are coming, but it's still one of the best cards out of the set.
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Why Magic: The Gathering's Soul Stone is Technically Unbeatable
The Soul Stone is an S-tier card because it's an indestructible mana rock with a late-game reanimation option, making it a must-have in most MTG Black decks or decks that use Black as one of their colors. The card costs 2 mana (1 generic and 1 Black), it's indestructible, it adds 1 Black mana when tapped, and by tapping it and paying 7 mana (6 generic and 1 Black), it allows the user to exile a creature they control in order to harness The Soul Stone. When harnessed, The Soul Stone allows its controller to return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield at the beginning of each upkeep.
Indestructible in MTG means that a card is immune to "destroy" effects, and in the case of a non-creature card, it can only be removed if sacrificed, exiled, or bounced back to the hand.
Magic: The Gathering's Spider-Man set already has a focus on playing from the graveyard with cards like Green Goblin and mayhem effects, so this card can fit right in. More importantly, any format where The Soul Stone is legal will most likely make use of it, as mana rocks always come in handy, and a 2-mana artifact that produces mana is already very strong, let alone if it can also reanimate creatures later in the game.
Marvel's Avengers franchise uses the Soul Stone as part of its Thanos arc.
The main drawback in the case of The Soul Stone is that it is a Legendary artifact, meaning that players can have two or more copies on the field at once, as they will need to be sacrificed due to MTG's Legendary Rule, regardless of the card's indestructible ability. Still, this card can be incredibly strong in multiple formats, as some decks can use the early ramp of a cheap mana rock or the late-game disruptive potential of a constant reanimation engine - or even both.
MTG's Spider-Man Soul Stone Can Be Great in Commander
Magic: The Gathering's Commander decks can be some of the best for The Soul Stone, as it's not really affected by the Legendary Rule due to the inherent limit of 1-copy cards, but it retains the value of both its mana-producing effect and its ability to reanimate. For example, a self-milling deck that can win with Thassa's Oracle could use the free reanimate effect if things go south, and the same holds for combo decks, or even Terra, Magical Adept decks in MTG. The possibilities are near-endless, and it's why The Soul Stone is almost never a dead card in any deck that can play it, unlike other cheap mana rocks with no value in later turns.
Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
- August 5, 1993
- Publisher
- Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- Richard Garfield
- Player Count
- 2+
- Age Recommendation
- 13+