Captain America, First Avenger is one of the five unique legendary Hero cards included in Magic: The Gathering’s Marvel x Secret Lair Superdrop. This Secret Lair features five different sets of five cards, each centered around a different Hero, with four reprints with new arts (and sometimes names) along with a mechanically unique legendary creature, who can be the face of your next Commander deck.
Captain America, First Avenger is a commander that is all about Equipment. It can turn Equipment into burn damage to opponents and creatures, as well as cheat around equip costs. All of this makes Captain America an excellent Voltron commander (a commander focused on loading it with a ton of Equipment).
Decklist
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Commander: Captain America, First Avenger |
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Akiri, Fearless Voyager |
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist |
Brass Squire |
Bruenor Battlehammer |
Bureau Headmaster |
Cloudsteel Kirin |
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Codsworth, Handy Helper |
Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders |
Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms |
Kellan, the Fae-Blooded |
Komainu Battle Armor |
Lion Sash |
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Lizard Blades |
Nahiri, Forged in Fury |
Pippin, Guard of the Citadel |
Puresteel Paladin |
Sram, Senior Edificer |
Stoneforge Mystic |
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Stonehewer Giant |
Urza, Lord High Artificer |
Zirda, the Dawnwalker |
Blasphemous Act |
Chandra’s Ignition |
Gift of Estates |
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Open the Armory |
Single Combat |
Steelshaper’s Gift |
Chaos Warp |
Dispatch |
Flawless Maneuver |
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Generous Gift |
Inventory Management |
Swords to Plowshares |
Arcane Signet |
Argentum Armor |
Basilisk Collar |
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Batterskull |
Bladehold War-Whip |
Colossus Hammer |
Commander’s Sphere |
Excalibur, Sword of Eden |
Fellwar Stone |
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Hammer of Nazahn |
Hexplate Wallbreaker |
Kaldra Compleat |
Lightning Greaves |
Loxodon Warhammer |
Masterwork of Ingenuity |
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Nazgul Battle-Mace |
Quietus Spike |
Sol Ring |
Swiftfoot Boots |
Sword of Feast and Famine |
Sword of the Animist |
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Sword of War and Peace |
Talisman of Conviction |
Talisman of Creativity |
The Reaver Cleaver |
Blacksmith’s Talent |
Fighter Class |
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Forge Anew |
Forging of Tyrite Sword |
Sigarda’s Aid |
Training Grounds |
Academy Ruins |
Adarkar Wastes |
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Ancient Dent |
Archway of Innovation |
Axgard Armory |
Battlefield Forge |
Buried Ruin |
Cascade Bluffs |
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Clifftop Retreat |
Command Tower |
Deserted Beach |
Exotic Orchard |
Glacial Fortress |
Great Furnace |
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x3 Island |
Monumental Henge |
x4 Mountain |
Mystic Gate |
x4 Plains |
Prairie Stream |
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Rogue’s Passage |
Rugged Prairie |
Seat of the Synod |
Shivan Reef |
Stormcarved Coast |
Sulfur Falls |
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Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion |
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The decklist contains 21 creatures, six sorceries, six instants, 25 artifacts, six enchantments, and 35 lands. Since the deck is heavily focused on Equipment, most of the creatures and artifacts are ways to support Equipment or are Equipment themselves.
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Key Cards
Captain America, First Avenger
The commander of the deck, Captain America, First Avenger is naturally the most important card in it. Captain America can hit the battlefield very early, and immediately start equipping Equipment onto itself since its …Catch ability will trigger at the start of combat.
For three mana you can use your Equipment as a way to deal damage after attacking while it was equipped. With Equipment with higher mana values, this can turn into multiple forms of removal as it can target up to three creatures. Alternatively, if your opponent is low on life, it can be used to close out the game for them by bringing their life total to zero.
Excalibur, Sword Of Eden
The best Equipment you can give Captain America is Excalibur, Sword of Eden. While it has a high base casting cost, since you’ll have a lot of historic permanents, you’ll be able to cast it for low mana, sometimes even for free.
It has a low cost to equip, and gives a massive ten power boost to Captain America. After it deals damage, you can unequip it with Captain America’s effect to have 12 damage head towards any target. It’s great at taking a pesky player out of the game that could hinder your strategy, while being very easy to re-equip after its use.
Cloudsteel Kirin
Cloudsteel Kirin is a creature that as a creature isn’t anything special, but fantastic when equipped to a creature. The reconfiguring cost can be a bit costly, but luckily, Captain America can cheat around this since Cloudsteel Kirin has the Equipment typing.
Permanents that let you equip Equipment for free can be used with reconfigure creatures. For example, Sigarda’s Aid will let you equip it right away when it enters the battlefield, and Captain America can equip it with its …Catch ability.
While equipped, you won’t be able to lose the game and your opponents can’t win, making it easier to slowly dwindle down your opponents life totals, or take them out of the game with commander damage. As an added bonus, it gives flying to make it harder for your opponents to block Captain America.
Chandra’s Ignition
Chandra’s Ignition is going to act as a one-sided board wipe a lot of the time. You can target Captain America and have its power be dealt to all other creatures and opponents, as Captain America will often have high stats thanks to all the Equipment on it, especially ones that give large stat boosts.
The strength of Chandra’s Ignition comes from being able to deal damage to each opponent. Captain America’s effect can do a lot of burn damage after attacking with a large Equipment, and Chandra’s Ignition can come in after to deal even more burn to bring everyone’s life totals down much quicker than just attacking.
The Reaver Cleaver
While that stat boost of The Reaver Cleaver isn’t anything too special, giving trample is a solid effect, especially when paired with other stat-boosting Equipment. The strength of The Reaver Cleaver comes from its ability to create Treasure tokens equal to the combat damage the equipped creature dealt.
The damage to make Treasure tokens has to be from combat damage, meaning dealing damage with Captain America’s effect will not create Treasures.
Jeskai (red/white/blue) can struggle a lot with ramp, so the Treasure generation is very useful for pushing ahead on mana. Without it, your only source of ramp are mana rocks, so you want to get The Reaver Cleaver going as soon as you can.
Related
How To Play The Deck
A Captain America, First Avenger deck wants to load Captain America with as much Equipment as possible to give it massive stats. The Equipment can also be unattached at any point to deal damage to multiple targets, allowing you to always have a source of removal so long as you have three mana to spend.
Captain America can cheat around the equip cost of one Equipment per turn, but there are other cards in the deck to make it easy to equip Equipment without spending mana. Forge Anew lets you pay zero mana for the first equip ability you activate a turn, Sigarda’s Aid attaches an Equipment automatically when it enters, and Blacksmith’s Talent at level two lets you attach an Equipment at the start of combat for free.
There is a lot of searchability in the deck for consistency. Steelshaper’s Gift, Fighter Class, and Open the Armory all get Equipment into your hand, allowing you to easily tutor out for whatever Equipment you need given the gamestate.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through combat and commander damage. Since Captain America will have high stats and multiple abilities granted by Equipment, it is very easy to deal 21 combat damage to an opponent to take them out of the game through commander damage.
Even if you can’t close out with commander damage, the high stats allow for large damage outputs, with the …Catch effect on Captain America able to handle creatures or close out games.
The biggest downside of the deck is heavy reliance on Equipment. While you ideally want them on Captain America, they can go on any creature. However, if you’re low on mana you won’t be able to equip them, and it’s made even harder if you don’t have ways to discount the equip cost. As such, you may find yourself not doing much on your turn but putting Equipment on creatures.
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