The new Marvel Commander precon, featuring Captain America is fairly strong right out of the box. However, there’s still room for improvement, as you’ll see in this Avengers Assemble Upgrade Guide.
Below you’ll find 10 suggested card swaps, each with the goal to make the deck play more smoothly and enable more fun scenarios. Except for a single card, all of the additions are set within the Marvel Universe, which is great if you like to keep your decks on theme.
Anyhow, before we get to it, let’s see what the deck is all about and check the decklist.
Avengers Assemble Game Plan
As the name suggests, you’re assembling the Avengers. Essentially, You want to put as many creatures with the Hero subtype in play as you can. There are many synergies with them and both your main and secondary commanders can be a reasonable option to lead the deck.
However in order to fully optimize the deck, you need to focus on one or the other. This article assumes you’re using Captain America, Team Leader as your commander.
Avengers Assembled Decklist
As mentioned, the original decklist is perfectly playable, but there are still a few outliers, cards that aren’t particularly powerful on their own. We’ll omit those in order to add more Heroes and Hero-based synergies.
Anyhow, lets get to the recommendations. Currently, these are without a commentary (it’s coming next week), but you can easily figure out why specific cards make sense here.
#1 Captain America, Super-Soldier
Replaces: Vision, Synthezoid Avenger
#2 Avengers Assemble!
Replaces: Gift of Immortality
#3 Captain America, Unbowed
Replaces: Captain America, Living Legend
#4 Champions from Beyond
Replaces: Hero’s Blade
#5 Hawkeye, Trick Shot
Replaces: Heroic Return
#6 Agent Phil Coulson
Replaces: Speed, Young Avenger
#7 Captain America, Wings of Freedom
Replaces: Firebird, Blazing Ranger
#8 Spectacular Spider-Man
Replaces: Patriot, Shield Wielder
#9 Araña, Heart of the Spider
Replaces: Tome of Legends
#10 SP//dr, Piloted by Peni
Replaces: Love on the Battlefield
Avengers Assemble Upgrade Recap
So, here’s a quick recap of the suggested changes. Of course, you can modify these as it fits you. If there’s a card in the remove column that you enjoy playing, just cut something else.
Cards to add:
Assembled Avengers
So, that’s it for Avengers Assemble Upgrade Guide. At least until next week, when we’ll add some additional ideas, so make sure to check back then.
Also, if you plan to upgrade this deck, it might be a good idea to pick up the Heroes United Scene Box. It contains a few cards that we’ve talked about today, as well as some additional goodies.
If you’re interested, you can find more details about Marvel Scene Boxes here.
Until next time, enjoy playing Magic and casting your favorite heroes!
Love the deck updates! I actually picked up the cards and made the changes you suggested—I needed a new Commander deck anyway.
Along with your recommendations, I made a few additional tweaks to speed the deck up even more.
Artifacts
Removed:
Talisman of Progress
Talisman of Conviction
Talisman of Creativity
Added:
Mox Amber
Chromatic Lantern
Lands
I removed all of the tap lands:
Irrigated Farmland
Coastal Tower
Glittering Stockpile
Furycalm Snarl
Port Town
Frostboil Snarl
Spectator Seating
Path of Ancestry
Added:
Flooded Strand
Arid Mesa
Scalding Tarn
Sacred Foundry
Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Guildmages’ Forum
Lotus Field
Mana Confluence
The difference has been noticeable. I was consistently casting Captain Commander on turn three, and with all of the counter synergies online, I was usually closing out games by turns five or six. The deck feels much faster and a lot more consistent now. Thanks again for the recommendations—they definitely paid off!