Meet Narset, the Woman of Steel herself. She may bunch first and be hard to kill, but we all know the Superman (or woman!) is known for his/her powers. Well, those are next. But we’ll have to do a speed round to get through them!
Flight - Flight, Arcane Flight
Frost Breath - Frost Breath, Cyclonic Rift
Super Speed - Messenger's Speed, Need for Speed
Super Strength - Giant Strength, Volcanic Strength, Holy Strength
Indestructibility - Indestructibility, Shielded by Faith
These first several were obvious choices, the power is in the name, and the effects all match the power, and surely Superman is strong enough to blow a Cyclonic Rift, and while he might not exactly be shielded by faith, he sure is indestructible.
Heat Vision - Volcanic Vision
This one is almost too perfect, capturing both the name of the power and the effect of the power, as well as being very strong in this deck that is somewhat less known. One of my favorite includes, by far.
X-Ray Vision - Sight Beyond Sight
X-Ray Vision is definitely seeing beyond mere sight, another perfect power for our perfect hero!
Super Hearing - Cave Sense
This one may not be obvious, but Superman has similar hearing to that of a bat, which are the most well-known cave creatures, as well as a sense needed for long term living in a cave.
Now, we all know Superman is cool and all, but what about the villains and tales he is a part of? Well, we all know of Bizarro World, where Superman encounters a Clone Legion, and even faces a Spark Double of himself. And in the Kingdom Come storyline, Superman returns from retirement to find a World at War. In yet another universe, we meet an alternate universe Superman, the Red(less) Son, represented here by our alternate universe Super(wo)man Narset Transcendent. Superman also fights against the famous super villain Lex Luthor, an old artificer that bears some resemblance to Urza, Lord High Artificer. He fights Superman using kryptonite, a rare element. Actually, dozens of battles have occurred between the two, and thus a lot of kryptonite is needed, as shown by the Izzet Cluestone, Azorius Cluestone, Boros Cluestone, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, and Worn Powerstone. Once, Superman even ran so fast he traveled through time, as represented in card form by Karn's Temporal Sundering.
One of his most famous stories was of his death. Of course, he didn’t really die, he soon had a Resurrection where he had to escape the regeneration matrix he was trapped in, as shown by Chronomantic Escape (Which also references his escape from the exploding Krypton, as seen described later). But during the Relentless Assault, an entire city was destroyed to make way for a new city. Luckily, Superman can protect his home of Metropolis, as shown by Teferi's Protection.
With the villains and most famous stories out of the day, we should return to our hero and their powers. Superman gets his power from the sun, so we should mirror that in our deck using The Immortal Sun to power up our general, and Approach of the Second Sun to give our commander to push the limits and become Superman Prime, powering up in the sun and winning on the spot. Normally, Approach takes 7 turns, but our Superman speeds that up faster than a speeding bullet. Additionally, while it doesn’t specifically reference the sun, Spectra Ward uses the light of the sun to protect Superman. And Superman sure would hate to be exposed to a Blood Sun, as Superman cannot gain power from a red sun, but perhaps he would be a little more open to the idea of a Blood Sun if he had a Lotus Field in his hand.
Superman is great and all, but what about the completely unrelated, random reporter Clark Kent? Now, Superman sure needs some ways to transform into his alter ego, perhaps using Metamorphic Alteration to change his identity. His lover Lois Lane helps protect him as Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, a card that represents her role as a journalist. As a reporter, Clark Kent's job is to See the Truth and report it. But when Superman is needed again, he just must don his Whispersilk Cloak supersuit and get back into crime-fighting action.
Not only does Superman have a suit, he also has a home base, the Fortress of Solitude, depicted here by Glacial Fortress and Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. To really get at the spirit of his lair and his many one on one battles with countless villains, I included Single Combat here as well. Another famous location associated with Superman in the Phantom Zone, a prison-like pocket universe perfectly encapsulated by the card Prison Realm, another plane used to capture one of Magic’s greatest villains. Superman is also committed to protecting the city of Metropolis, shown here as the City of Brass.
But Superman didn’t come from nothing, he came from the planet Krypton, which faced an Extinction Event from its uranium core exploding, but Superman escapes as depicted with the card Escape Velocity. Not many other Kryptons survived, but notably, one city was shrunken and put into a bottle, just like the city depicted in the art of the card Bottled Cloister. Another ship was sent along with Superman, that of his faithful dog Krypto, the Superdog, shown here by the nigh-invulnerable Pack Leader (Also, may we take a moment to admire the art of the promo version?)
