Norman Osborn / Green Goblin – Marvel’s Spiderman
Date Reviewed: September 22, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.88
Casual: 4.07
Limited: 4.17
Multiplayer: 3.83
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Norman Osborn and/or the Green Goblin is/are another card that was literally inevitable – in the context of a Spider-Man set, and arguably once Wizards of the Coast started doing the superhero genre at all. Both sides of the card also set a high bar for cards in their class to follow. The mono-blue front face is a surprisingly powerful looter variant, largely because it can grow to very threatening proportions with careful hand management. I do kind of wish they’d slow down with some of these power increases, because we just had Shoreline Looter which is already one of the best looter variants ever made.
Regardless, though, you also have the Green Goblin face, which you can access even if you originally chose Osborn, and it is a legitimately threatening creature-based combo card. It obviously works well with its own mayhem-granting ability, but it doesn’t have to be limited to that. It also attacks pretty well on its own and is quite aggressively costed for Commander on top of that; the downside is, of course, the comparative fragility, and perhaps even more than that, the fact that everyone will know you’re up to something when he is in the command zone. I don’t think that will hold him back too much, though – which is pretty fitting to the comics, if you remember that he’ been publicly foiled by Spider-Man over 9,000 times when he connived his way into becoming the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rest of the superhuman police force.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
I hope some of you will join me in lobbying for and/or manifesting a Batman set. The comics companies aren’t inclined to crossing over with each other in the current era, but I want us to be able to make a Green Goblin-Joker teamup deck one day.
Man, what is it with people having names that don’t line up? I know that making Green Goblin green would certainly be a stretch, because he’s definitely more of the typical Evil Scientist mold (and those are rarely green adjacent)…but at least he’s a goblin when he dons his villainous persona, right?
Let’s start at the top. Norman Osborn is a pretty simple creature, able to loot your way through your deck and grow bigger as you go. This also plays well after he flips, but more on that later. I will say that he’s a slow clock, but he can actually be quite dangerous if you keep swinging in turn after turn, though it feels like he ultimately wants to flip to really get going.
On that subject, Green Goblin himself is fascinating. Four mana for a 3/3 with evasion and haste isn’t so bad in a pinch, and while that’s hardly the best rate of return, he’s usable if you don’t have time to set up the front side and has a good payoff if you did have time to connive your way through the deck. Mayhem is an interesting complication and plays well with the connive trigger, and the cost reduction even helps out with getting a bit of leverage. Grixis is a color pairing given towards a lot of looting-style effects, and Green Goblin really enjoys those for being able to leverage them via mayhem.
I think both halves of our green villain are pretty good. One sets the stage well for the other, but they both can play well independently until then, and Green Goblin can certainly be a threat on his own. I’d be surprised if he blew up Standard, seeing as how he feels a bit too fiddly to really work, but he had a lot going for him as an enabler.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5 (Green Goblin might be enough to win on his own if you can flip him)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]:4 (Grixis shells might have use for him)
Thijs
Magneto, Lex Luthor, The Joker, Dr. Doom, Thanos, Ozymandias. These are some of the most iconic comic book villains of all time. Add to those Norman Osborn, also known as the Green Goblin. After a devastating chemical explosion in a factory belonging to his company Oscorp, Norman turns into the hooded green maniac we’ve come to love and hate so much. He’s a fiend on his flying skateboard and has been around since 1964!
I love this printing, in the iconic comic book lettering and the beautiful artwork, created by Steve Ellis, who has been working as both an MtG artist and a comic book illustrator. Best of both worlds, in my humble opinion.
Why this character, who is called ‘green’ for a reason, is housed within Grixis is beyond me. He’s green folks! Anyways, Norman Osborn is bringing connive back to the board and I for one love it. Connive debuted in New Capenna and was part of a few cards in Modern Horizons III as well. It seems right that this conniving criminal should have the mechanic as well. When it transforms, however, that’s when the real fun starts. Not only does it make an excellent 3/3 menacing flyer, it also lowers casting costs for cards in the graveyard and it gives nonland cards in the graveyard mayhem, a new mechanic in this set that works as a slower version of madness.
Packed with power and flavor, and when the itsy bitsy spider is gonna go up the waterspout, there the goblin will come and wash that spider out!
Constructed: 3,9
Casual: 4,2
Limited: 4 (even if it only connives, it’s a good cheap card)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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