The Commander
Whenever a Spider you control enters, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Mary Jane Watson anchors a GW Spider tribal deck that floods the board with arachnids while drawing an extra card each turn one enters. You curve out cheap Spiders, deploy token-makers and anthems, and grind incremental card advantage into a wide, reach-heavy board that out-values and overwhelms opponents.
Strengths
- Steady, free card advantage in colors that historically struggle to draw
- Cheap commander (MV 2) that comes down early and immediately enables value
- Spiders bring built-in reach to play defense and block fliers
- GW offers excellent token, anthem, and go-wide support
Weaknesses
- Real Spider tribal is shallow, so you lean on token-makers and changelings to fuel the trigger
- Draw is capped to once per turn, limiting explosive card flow
- No evasion or built-in protection makes the board vulnerable to wraths
- GW lacks interaction for combo and fast non-creature threats
Key Cards
- Arasta of the Endless Web — A repeatable Spider token generator that punishes opponents' instants/sorceries while feeding MJ's draw trigger.
- Ishkanah, Grafwidow — Drops multiple Spider tokens at once and provides a defensive wall plus reach for the whole team.
- Maskwood Nexus — Turns every creature you make into a Spider, so all your token-makers reliably trigger MJ's draw.
- Obelisk of Urd — A scalable anthem you can convoke out cheaply with a wide Spider board to push damage.
- Intangible Virtue — Buffs your token-heavy Spider army and lets attacks close games quickly.
- Skyshroud Poacher — Tutors an Elf each turn—pivot toward repeatable creature fetching, or use changeling synergies to chain bodies.
Upgrade Path
Lean into Maskwood Nexus and changelings (Realmwalker, Universal Automaton, Chameleon Colossus) so every token-maker reliably triggers MJ, then add efficient token engines like Parallel Lives and Doubling Season. Tighten the mana with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and GW dual lands, and include protection like Heroic Intervention and Teferi's Protection to guard against wraths. For a higher ceiling, add a finisher package—Craterhoof Behemoth, Overwhelming Stampede, or Cathars' Crusade—to convert your card advantage into explosive lethal turns.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Overwhelming the table with a buffed, wide Spider board through anthems like Obelisk of Urd and Intangible Virtue
- ▸Grinding card advantage into inevitable threats and out-valuing opponents
- ▸Reach-heavy beatdown that punches through and blocks key attackers
- ▸Craterhoof Behemoth or similar overrun finisher on a wide board
Archetypes
- Tribal Tokens — MJ rewards flooding the board with Spiders, and GW excels at mass token generation and anthems.
- Go-Wide Aggro — Cheap reach creatures plus anthems convert a swarm into lethal combat damage.
- Value Midrange — The once-per-turn draw grinds incremental advantage to out-resource the table.
- Defensive Control — Spiders' reach and high toughness let you stonewall fliers and aggressors while building inevitability.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GW), by popularity.
