Captain America, First Avenger is one of the standout legendary Hero cards featured in the Magic: The Gathering Marvel x Secret Lair Superdrop. This special set includes five different collections of cards, each highlighting a unique Hero. Each collection contains four reprinted cards with fresh artwork and sometimes renamed, along with a new legendary creature that can be a great centerpiece for your next Commander deck.
Captain America, First Avenger focuses mainly on Equipment. This card can transform Equipment into damage against opponents and creatures, while also offering ways to bypass equip costs. These features make Captain America a strong choice for players who want to build a Voltron-style deck, where the goal is to enhance a single commander with many Equipment cards.
Decklist
The deck built around Captain America includes a total of 21 creatures, six sorceries, six instants, 25 artifacts, six enchantments, and 35 lands. Given its Equipment-centric strategy, many of the creatures and artifacts serve to support Equipment or are, themselves, pieces of Equipment.
Key Cards
Captain America, First Avenger
As the heart of the deck, Captain America, First Avenger can enter the game quickly and begin equipping Equipment right away, thanks to its ability that activates at the beginning of combat.
For just three mana, you can use your Equipment to deal damage after your attack while it was equipped. With powerful Equipment, this can lead to multiple removals as it targets up to three creatures. If your opponent is low on life, you might even close out the game by reducing their life total to zero.
Excalibur, Sword of Eden
One of the best Equipment cards for Captain America is Excalibur, Sword of Eden. Despite its high initial casting cost, the presence of numerous historic permanents can allow you to cast it at a lower cost, or even for free. It has a reasonable equip cost and grants an impressive power boost of ten to Captain America. After it deals damage, you can unequip it, sending 12 damage to any target. This is particularly useful for eliminating threats that could disrupt your plans, and re-equipping it is straightforward afterward.
Cloudsteel Kirin
Cloudsteel Kirin may not shine on its own as a creature, but when equipped, it offers tremendous value. Although its reconfigure cost is a bit steep, Captain America can navigate this effectively since it is classified as Equipment.
When equipped, the Kirin ensures that you cannot lose and your opponents cannot win, which gives you a tactical edge as you chip away at their life totals. Plus, it grants flying, making Captain America harder to block.
Chandra’s Ignition
Chandra’s Ignition is exceptional for acting as a one-sided board wipe in many instances. By targeting Captain America, the card deals damage equal to its power to all opposing creatures and players. Generally, since Captain America will have substantial stats bolstered by Equipment, this ability can result in significant damage.
Chandra’s Ignition enhances the damage dealt by Captain America and can bring down life totals faster than merely attacking.
The Reaver Cleaver
When it comes to ordinary stat boosts, The Reaver Cleaver falls short, but its ability to provide trample is notable, especially when combined with other Equipment that elevates stats. The real strength of this card lies in its capacity to generate Treasure tokens equal to the combat damage dealt by the equipped creature.
However, keep in mind that the damage must come from combat, meaning that damage dealt using Captain America’s ability will not produce any Treasure tokens. Jeskai colors often struggle with ramping up mana, so generating these tokens becomes crucial for boosting your resources, especially since other sources of ramp are limited.
How to Play the Deck
The Captain America, First Avenger deck’s main strategy is to equip Captain America with as much Equipment as possible to amplify its stats. The Equipment can be unattached at any time to deal damage to multiple targets, ensuring you always have removal options as long as you have enough mana.
While Captain America can work around the standard one Equipment attachment limit per turn, other cards help facilitate more Equipment attachments without spending mana. For instance, Forge Anew allows for a free equip activation each turn, Sigarda’s Aid attaches Equipment automatically upon entry, and Blacksmith’s Talent at level two also enables free attachment at the start of combat.
The deck offers a wealth of search options to maintain consistency. Using cards like Steelshaper’s Gift, Fighter Class, and Open the Armory allows you to quickly gather the needed Equipment based on the game’s state.
The primary method of winning with this deck is through combat damage, particularly Commander damage, as Captain America can easily reach the 21 damage threshold needed to eliminate opponents. Even if direct Commander damage isn’t an option, high stats and powerful effects can yield substantial damage outputs to end games quickly.
The main weakness of this deck is its heavy reliance on Equipment. While you can equip on other creatures if needed, without adequate mana, you might find yourself limited in what you can do during your turn, primarily attaching Equipment to creatures without achieving significant impact.