We’ve all heard the line: “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see your own upkeep trigger lose you the game.” Wait…is that right?
The new Marvel Super Heroes set has officially arrived, and while packing a deck full of Avengers sounds like an inevitable victory, a few of these cards are carrying some seriously villainous downsides. Today, we’re stepping into the danger zone of usually detrimental triggers. Put on your judge shirts, grab your Infinit-MTR Guidelines, and let’s break down the cards where the drawback is entirely superheroic.
Triggers that Upgrade to a Warning if Missed
If you are looking for the absolute poster child for a Magic card with a devastating, high-stakes detrimental triggered ability, The Sentry, Golden Guardian (Robert Reynolds) is your guy.
He is essentially Marvel’s version of Superman, but with a massive, terrifying psychological catch: your opponent gets The Void, a 5/5 Villain with flying and indestructible, and must attack each turn.
There’s certainly a clever bit of synergy to appreciate when you look at the mechanics on paper: The Void is forced to attack each turn, while The Sentry stands ready with vigilance and indestructibility to block it all day long. It’s a flavor-win stalemate. But in practice? Handing your opponent an omnipotent, world-ending entity just to prove a point usually makes the card considerably less good.
Generally, our Guides exclusively focus on cards making their way into Standard. That said, we’re making a special exception for Limited here because Marvel Super Heroes features a dedicated slot for Borderless Source Material (MAR) cards right inside its Play Boosters. While there are roughly 60 of these classic MAR reprints up for grabs, Wizards of the Coast exercised some uncharacteristic restraint: they only included a single card saddled with a traditionally detrimental trigger. Ironically, that card is Horn of Greed.
Horn of Greed is what the IPG calls a symmetrical usually detrimental triggered ability. If you own and control the Horn, that triggered ability is great when you play a land, but it’s not so good when your opponent gets the benefit and you have to tell them they get to draw a card.
Side Note: Horn only cares when you Play a land, not when you put one into play due an effect like Archdruid’s Charm.
Here are some specific cards that are bound to cause a few multiverse altering moments.
You might encounter confusion with how to handle Black Panther, Wakandan King’s “Mine Vibranium” activated ability’s second sentence. The text reads, “If one or more…”, which some players might mistake for a reflexive triggered ability. However, this is simply a conditional check that happens during the resolution of the activated ability itself.
Because there is no separate trigger to be missed, a player failing to perform this action hasn’t missed a trigger. They’ve committed a Game Rule Violation (GRV).
Because the triggered ability requires two targets, players often wonder what happens if an opponent removes one in response. As long as at least one of those targets remains legal upon resolution, the ability will still resolve and do as much as possible.
Also, when Cloak and Dagger leaves the battlefield, it creates a second one-shot effect right then and there. It is not a delayed triggered ability.
When these troopers enter the battlefield, you either create a Villain token or mill two cards. At first glance, a forced mill might feel like a detrimental tax (after all, dumping your own cards into the graveyard in a vacuum isn’t exactly a textbook upside). However, this ability doesn’t cross the “usually detrimental” threshold. In this case, the ability could create a Villain or fuel the creation of other Villains. Hail HYDRA!
JUDGES, ASSEMBLE!
That wraps up our look at the trickiest triggers and deceptive downsides hiding in the Marvel Super Heroes set. Navigating these abilities requires the precision of Iron Man and the tactical mind of Captain America, but keeping a clean board state is the ultimate superpower. Until next time, keep your eyes on the stack, remember your conditional checks, and may all your triggers be completely beneficial. Judges, Assemble!