Mary Jane Watson – Marvel’s Spiderman
Date Reviewed: September 16, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 3.57
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.37
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Peter Parker and MJ are probably one of the most iconic couples in comics, if not the outright most. So MJ was always going to get a card in the set; it was just a question of which exact part of the timeline they would portray, and in particular which facet of her place in spider-lore they would draw on to design her.
And as Thijs points out, they seem to have dodged that question entirely. I would also like to mention that the fastest, easiest, cheapest, and arguably lamest way to get Magic players to use a card is to give it some way to draw extra cards, ideally more than one at once or more than one over multiple turns. It’s the equivalent of WWE wrestlers praising or criticizing the local sports team. You might be tired of hearing me point out that the playerbase, on average, likes drawing cards way too much. And I’ll only add that Wizards of the Coast seems to like it even more, if such a thing is possible – it’s the meme about designs converging on “Whenever you draw a card, draw a card”. I’ve tried to lean away from this in my cube and Jumpstart design, and it’s not always easy because they print so many cards that draw a card whenever you draw a card and you sometimes have to do serious digging for the equivalent type of advantage that plays more interestingly.
That’s kind of a tangent, of course, so – is MJ a good card? Yes, especially now that the Spider-Man set has the Spider type in all five colors and up and down the mana curve. Is she a good card for a good reason? I would say no. It seems very reductive to distill the fun and action of superhero comics into just more card advantage, the most mechanical and mathematical part of any TCG. Not to mention the issue of MJ’s character depth – scroll down after this, because Thijs covers it really well. Should you play her anyway? I leave that one up to you.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
The erstwhile love interest of everyone’s favorite web shooter, Mary Jane Watson is pretty good at standing by her man, as it were. She’s nothing special on the face, but adding a cantrip to every Spider you play is a pretty good deal, especially since her 2/2 body is right on curve for a deck and can shine well. She won’t ever be the star of a deck, but that extra card each turn can add up steadily, and it’s not out of the question for her to more than pay back any investment you make.
Constructed: 3 (her upside really only shines if you play with a Spider-Man heavy deck, since spiders do not naturally dwell in these colors)
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Thijs
To me, comic book heroes are forever connected to the people surrounding them. Who is Batman without Alfred? Who is Superman without Lois Lane? Who is Charles Xavier without his pupils? And in the case of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man: who is he without MJ? The red-haired love interest was first shown to readers in 1966, a year after she was first talked about in the comic books. She has since become the archetype of a superhero’s partner, a strong and confident character who doesn’t take any crap. Kirsten Dunst played MJ in the Spider-Man trilogy of the early 2000’s and Zendaya portrays the current iteration, named Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson.
In the comic books, she does not appear to have any special powers or abilities, but she does eventually go on to become a version of Red Sonja, one of the hosts of Venom (and Carnage) and she even goes on to become Spider-Woman for a while.
For her card, it was decided that she would be put in the Selesnya guild. It’s a choice, let’s keep it at that. She’s a 2/2 for 1W/G and gives you a card whenever a Spider you control enters.
And that’s it.
My thoughts? They could have done so much more with this card. Loads and loads more. She is not just a tiny card draw engine, she could have been a wonderful support piece, or even a card to build a deck around. Why not?
Constructed: 3
Casual: 3
Limited: 3,5 (a good support card for a Spider deck, for sure)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3
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