Commander Deck Tech: Miles Morales (Ultimate Spider-Man)

Miles Morales, a young student, was bitten by a radioactive spider and… Well, I think you already know the rest. Also known as Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles became a hero after Peter Parker passed away in his universe, and took the responsibility of protecting Brooklyn.

In this article, you'll find two lists with this incredible character: the main one centers around legendary creatures, and the second one centers around Spiders.

Without further ado, let's meet our commander!

Oh, but before that, why don't you enjoy some music to get into the Miles Morales mood?

To quote Miles Morales himself at the end of his movie, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse":

Charismatic and very funny, Miles is represented in a few Magic: The Gathering cards:

The version that matters for this article is:

This Miles is a legendary Naya creature, as well as a very generous commander. As Miles Morales, this hero gives up to two target creatures +1/+1 counters.

As "Ultimate Spider-Man", Miles's activated ability puts +1/+1 counters on him and protects him with hexproof until the end of the turn.

When you attack, he'll also double the number of counters of each kind on Spiders and legendary creatures you control. You can cast him as a "civilian", Miles Morales, or as a hero, "Ultimate Spider-Man".

Unlike what we did with other legendary cards in this set, like Norman Osborn (if you'd like to know more about him, check out our Deck Tech!), we won't build one list for his civilian side and another for his secret identity. Miles is actually very versatile in this sense, as you can use either of his sides in practically any list.

Our main list focuses on legendary creatures:

Buffs

When Miles comes into play, he gives +1/+1 counters to up to two creatures. When he wears the mask, he doubles the counters (of all kinds) on all your legendary cards and Spiders.

We can't rely solely on his ETB to buff our creatures, so, we also added other several buffs that work really well in this list and grow your creatures really fast. Furthermore, Naya colors are great at interacting with counters!

You can use legendary cards like Samut, the Driving Force, Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener, Aragorn, Hornburg Hero, and Halana and Alena, Partners as commanders in extremely fun decks. In this list, however, they're perfect to support Miles Morales, as they interact with counters, buffs, evasion, and even discount the cost of your spells.

Besides Rising of the Day, Spider-Punk's and Rhythm of the Wild's Riot will speed up your game plan, as you'll be able to attack with them on the same turn you cast them. You can also use Riot to give them +1/+1 counters that you'll then double with your commander.

We'll interact with counters constantly, so we had to add The Earth Crystal to this list. Besides doubling the +1/+1 counters you put on your creatures, this artifact discounts the cost of green spells, and its activated ability also puts +1/+1 counters on your creatures.

When The Seriema comes into play, it is a tutor, as it gets you different cards from your deck, like the buff support we mentioned before, or cards that end the game, like Shalai and Hallar.

Afterward, you can use its Station to turn it into a 5/5 with flying that makes your other legendary creatures indestructible.

Burn

In this deck, burn is a way to end the game.

When you use Miles's ability to double +1/+1 counters, Shalai and Hallar and All Will Be One will trigger and deal that amount of damage to an opponent's life points.

As for Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar, it burns your opponent's life points when your commander deals combat damage to a player.

Trample

A common weakness in counter decks or decks that buff creatures is that they don't have space for evasion or cards that give trample, in general. After all, a giant creature is worth nothing if it can be stopped by a 1/1 Squirrel.

Kodama of the West Tree will ramp for you, as it will bring more basic lands into play whenever your modified creatures deal damage to opponents. It is quite similar to The Reaver Cleaver, which also relies on dealing damage to opponents, but it uses that to create treasure tokens.

Drix Fatemaker is one of the few nonlegendary creatures in this list, and that's because its Warp lets you cast it more than once. This way, you can take advantage of its ETB to put counters on a target creature.

Card Draw

Finally, another detail we focused on when we built this list was card draw. It may not seem like it, but you'll run out of cards fast when playing this deck, particularly if you get a lot of ramp early on.

We added cards that draw constantly, like Reki, the History of Kamigawa, Terrasymbiosis, and Guardian Project. However, spells like Inspiring Call, Rishkar's Expertise, and Greater Good were a must in this list. Call also protects the board, Rishkar's lets you cast a spell for free as well, and Greater Good creates value from a creature that would be removed, or when you really need to.

This alternative list centers around Spiders and plays lots of cards from this specific set, like Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, Radioactive Spider, Spider-Man India and many others.

As it is more flexible, we also added nonlegendary cards that we couldn't add to our main list, like Abzan Falconer.

This list has a lot of fun with Spiders and more cards from this set (which is perfect if you're a Spider-Man fan) but it still plays classic cards for counter decks, like Forgotten Ancient and Rishkar, Peema Renegade.

If the Miles Morales movies conquered your heart, this Magic: The Gathering version should be a lot of fun.

Miles is a talented and passionate kid who leaves his signature whenever he goes, including Commander pods if you play him in your commander zone.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!