Commander Deck Tech: Spider-Man 2099

Miguel O'Hara, that is, Spider-Man 2099, came straight from the future and is the star of today's Commander deck tech! He was first introduced to us in the Universes Beyond: Spider-Man set and stands out because he can't come into play on turns 1, 2, or 3.

In this article, we'll show you two Commander lists with him. The first one focuses on casting spells from the exile and buffing Miguel in several ways, and the second focuses on cards that let you look at the top of your deck and sneak a peek at what you'll be able to play in the next turns.

Now, let's meet our commander!

Commander: Spider-Man 2099

This legendary Izzet creature has an ability that came straight from the future (quite literally) and has been bamboozling us ever since he was first revealed. Because of this ability, we can't cast Spider-Man 2099 on our first, second, or third turn. He can only leave the command zone from turn 4 onwards.

And that makes sense!

If he could come into play earlier, this futuristic hero would be extremely strong and unbalanced. Now, let's go back to his abilities.

Miguel has double strike, vigilance, and a passive ability that triggers at the beginning of the end step. This ability lets you deal damage equal to his power to any target, as long as you cast or play a land from outside your hand in that turn.

For this reason, our main list focuses on buffing his power and casting as many spells from outside our hand as we possibly can.

This is our main list:

The main strategy centers around playing several spells that interact with the exile, foretell, and even plot to make sure our commander deals damage in our end step. We've also added several cards to buff Spider-Man 2099 and thus also deal more burn damage with him.

Now, let's meet the cards that make it work!

Casting Cards from Outside Our Hand

As we mentioned before, to make sure Spider-Man 2099 deals damage in the end step, we need to play a land or at least cast a spell from outside our hand that turn. As Miguel doesn't do this by himself, we'll add cards that do. The best thing about them is that most of them also do something else, like buff our commander!

If you've always wanted to explore mechanics like foretell and plot, then you have just found the perfect deck.

Let's start with our multifunctional Bonehoard Dracosaur. Its effect, at the beginning of your upkeep, exiles the top cards in your deck and lets you play them. It also creates tokens according to what it exiled (lands or nonlands).

This card is great with other creatures that exile the top of your deck, such as Etali, Primal Storm, Cait Sith, Fortune Teller, Fblthp, Lost on the Range, Inti, Seneschal of the Sun, Laelia, the Blade Reforged, Professional Face-Breaker, and Wild-Magic Sorcerer, which gives cascade to the first spell you cast from exile each turn.

Another valuable creature is Urabrask, Heretic Praetor, a scary version of this Phyrexian Praetor that was released in New Capenna. Besides exiling the top card in your deck at your upkeep and letting you play it that turn, it forces the opponents to exile the top cards in their decks instead of drawing them.

For us, casting cards from the exile is an advantage, but, considering not every deck benefits from that, your opponents might end up losing valuable cards because of this creature.

Speaking of exiling the top cards in our opponents' decks, let's go through the very fun Plargg and Nassari. This creature exiles the top card in each deck at the beginning of your upkeep until it exiles a land.

Then, an opponent chooses a nonland card exiled this way and you may cast up to two spells from among the other cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.

This ability makes the most out of the top spells in your opponents' decks for no extra cost at all. Furthermore, it also exiles the cards you don't cast, so your opponents won't be able to play them either.

To discount the cost of spells you'll cast from outside your hand, we added Sage of the Beyond. This Spirit will be a lot of help in this list.

Bohn, Beguiling Balladeer

Our dear bard has a very unique ability that makes him particularly special in this list: it gives each spell in your hand foretell.

If you're not familiar with this mechanic, all you need to know is that foretell lets you pay two mana to exile a card from your hand, face-down. In a later turn, you can cast the spell you "foretold" this way.

Furthermore, Bohn also goads enemy creatures, which could save your board from the most threatening of them.

Burning the Opponents

Our commander himself burns opponents, but obviously we had to add a few more cards to deal even more damage.

Passionate Archaeologist is another great card in this list. When this enchantment and the commander are in play, for each spell you cast from the exile, Spider-Man 2099 will deal damage equal to that card's mana value to a target opponent.

This deck also plays lots of buffs that will make Miguel considerably more powerful, so we also saved a spot for Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar. All you need to do is attack the opponent that you know can't or won't block this Spider, and there you go: all the others will take damage too.

Buffs, Protection, and Evasion

Though you'll cast exiled spells and burn your opponents, commander damage will still be your main way to win with this list.

If, by any chance, your opponents stop Mr. O'Hara from attacking, buffing him will still allow you to deal more burn damage in the end step. Some cards that will buff him are:

Spider-Man 2099 deals damage equal to his power, so giving him lifelink is a great idea. We added Witch's Clinic, Shadowspear, and Basilisk Collar to that end. By the way, Collar's deathtouch makes any damage Miguel O'Hara deals to enemy creatures fatal.

In terms of great buffs, we must highlight Blackblade Reforged, Excalibur, Sword of Eden, and Wrecking Ball Arm, which also gives us some nice evasion.

We also can't forget about protection! In this list, you'll find Commander's Plate, Champion's Helm, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Forge and Frontier, and Sword of Once and Future.

With this list, you'll show your opponents how fun playing "cards from the future" is. It was built entirely around Spider-Man 2099!

Jokes aside, for this list we swapped the exile cards for cards that let you see the top cards in your deck and even cast them, such as:

A deck that messes around with the future would never be complete without the counterspell with the funniest name in all of MTG:

The overall game plan resembles our main list: you'll make sure to cast at least one spell from outside your hand every turn to get the most out of Spider-Man 2099. However, this list plays more control tools, like Counterspell, and strong card draw, like Mystic Remora.

Spider-Man 2099 isn't easy to build for, but he definitely rewards all the effort you put into him.

Our commander "from the future" is a strong, fun Izzet strategy that can be a lot more than just the classic Izzet Spellslinger we are all used to. He can be quite different and aggressive.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!