Rent is Due – Marvel’s Spiderman
Date Reviewed: September 9, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.58
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 3.63
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This is another trope or concept that we were arguably bound to see in card form at some point. I’m serious – Troy and Abed had their video game where you eat food, drive a car, and enrol in community college, and we can already do two of those things in Magic card mechanics. But that is, of course, talking about the flavor side, and the mechanical side of the card is even newer. It boils down to an incremental advantage of an extra card each turn, much like Phyrexian Arena and Bitterblossom, except in mono-white. There was a time when this could have been game-breaking, but in the modern tournament context it’s less universally spectacular and more contextually good. There are certain matchups where it’ll be just too slow, especially since you have to forgo using Treasure tokens or creatures for their real purpose. But it’s a novel design and an interesting option to build around for decks that don’t want to splash in the really high-power blue or black spells. It’s also a good use for Treasures that came at the wrong time or early 1/1 tokens that have since been outclassed.
And from a game design point of view, I feel like cards like this could actually be healthier in a way than something like Bitterblossom, that just takes over a game without its controller having to move muscles other than those that put a card in their hand in the draw step. It all depends on what you want to promote in your cube, not to mention the added complexity: some people will look at a card like this and simply not feel like jumping through hoops for it.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4 (maybe optimistic, but it might dig out of board stalls)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
A potential card draw engine of sorts in a color lacking somewhat in it, Rent is Due, despite costing one mana, doesn’t want to come out particularly early, since you need to tie up creatures or treasures to meet the requirement. You can guarantee immediate benefit (at the cost of maybe not being able to make use of that card immediately), but considering this is a white enchantment to draw cards, this looks a fair bit better than it might in other colors (excepting red). If you’re able to support this, this can be the salve to get you across the finish line with a bit more gas, but always be cautious of this card’s particular demands.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.75 (not sure if you’ll have creatures to spare, but card advantage wins a surprising number of Limited games)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Thijs
In terms of storyline, the Spider-Man set is trying very hard (and so far succeeding quite well) to stay close to the lore of the comic books. I love the Urban Retreat land and there are plenty of other cards that drag you into the stories and take you back to reading those comic books as a kid.
That being said, this is kind of a peculiar card. It does enable card draw (and keeping in mind the EoE cards that give you stuff if you control two or more tapped creatures) and especially in aggro decks this can go quite fast. In Cloud decks this works really well, since you’re making Treasures basically every turn. On its own however, it doesn’t really do much. It will have to be used in accordance with other cards, but once enabled it can go well.
This also may become one of those cards that at first you think ‘meh’ and then in two years everyone plays one in their deck. We’ll see!
Constructed: 3,5
Casual: 3
Limited: 3,5
Multiplayer: 3,5
Commander [EDH]: 3,? (again, let’s see what happens)
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