The Fantastic Four Upgrade Guide: 5 Best Cards and 5 Budget Picks

The Fantastic Four is the four-color (white, blue, black, red) Marvel Super Heroes precon and the first four-color Commander product since 2016. Mister Fantastic is the commander most players settle on, because his activated ability copies a triggered ability you control twice. Fix the mana first: five budget upgrades - Storm-Kiln Artist, Archmage Emeritus, Monastery Mentor, Goblin Electromancer and Third Path Iconoclast - cost about $4 combined.

The Fantastic Four is the most ambitious deck in Marvel Super Heroes: a four-color (white, blue, black, red, no green) precon, the first four-color Commander product since 2016. It comes with four legendary commanders, one for each member of the team, and the whole deck is built around casting noncreature spells and then copying or amplifying the triggered abilities you get for doing so.

Of the four, Mister Fantastic is the build-around most players land on, because his activated ability copies a triggered ability you control twice. That flexibility is the core of the deck. The upgrade plan is to feed him cheap spells, cost reducers, and "whenever you cast a noncreature spell" payoffs, then fix your mana well enough to actually power his combat activations.

This is a spellslinger value engine wearing a superhero costume. You chain instants and sorceries, trigger payoffs off each cast, and use Mister Fantastic to double the best triggers. The biggest weakness of any four-color deck is its mana, so fixing comes first, and cost reduction close behind.

Best in slot, price aside. Prices fluctuate, so treat these as estimates.

Fierce Guardianship (around $58). A free counterspell that protects your commander and still counts as a noncreature-spell trigger. Close to an auto-include in any spell-focused commander deck.

A true untapped fetchland such as Misty Rainforest (around $37). Fetchlands are the premier fix for a four-color manabase, letting you hit your colors on curve so the commanders' colored activations come online when you need them.

Sword of Feast and Famine (around $39). The classic evasive-Voltron equipment. A connected hit forces a discard and untaps all your lands, giving you a second main phase to keep chaining spells.

Rhystic Study (around $30). One of the two best passive card-advantage engines in the format, and it slots cleanly into the blue half of this deck to keep your hand full.

Lithoform Engine (around $7). It mirrors Mister Fantastic's entire identity, copying triggered abilities (plus spells) on repeat. The perfect backup amplifier when your commander is not on the board.

All under about $5 per copy, and all within the deck's WUBR colors.

Storm-Kiln Artist (around $1.50). Makes a Treasure for every instant or sorcery you cast or copy, snowballing the mana you need for those costly combat activations.

Archmage Emeritus (around $1). Draws a card on every instant or sorcery you cast, and that draw is itself a trigger Mister Fantastic can double.

Monastery Mentor (around $0.50). Spits out a prowess Monk token on each noncreature spell, turning your spell chains into a real board.

Goblin Electromancer (around $0.50). A cost reducer that makes your noncreature spells cheaper, leaving mana open for the commander's activations.

Third Path Iconoclast (around $0.50). Another cheap go-wide engine, making a 1/1 artifact creature whenever you cast a noncreature spell.

For mana fixing on a budget, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Prismatic Lens, and Commander's Sphere all do honest work for about a dollar each.

The iconic cosmic cards look great and play slow. Galactus, Devourer of Worlds is a high-cost colorless payoff with no noncreature-spell synergy, and Silver Surfer, Galactus's Herald relies on the same slow setups. First Family is a tempting draw spell, but it rewards five-color permanents while this deck's cards are nearly all mono-colored, so it underperforms here. Tapped fixing lands like Evolving Wilds also slow a four-color curve more than they help.

The Fantastic Four is a fun, flexible value deck once the mana cooperates. Prioritize fixing, add a couple of cheap payoff engines, and lean on Mister Fantastic to double your best triggers. The five budget picks here cost roughly $4 combined and meaningfully raise the floor, while Fierce Guardianship, a fetchland, and Rhystic Study are the premium adds that take it to the next tier.

Mister Fantastic, for most builds. His activated ability copies a triggered ability you control twice, which is exactly what a deck built on noncreature-spell triggers wants. Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing are all playable alternates included in the box, and whichever you bench stays in the 99.

Mana first, payoffs second. Feed Mister Fantastic cheap spells, cost reducers and cast-trigger payoffs, then fix the four-color base well enough to power his combat activations. About $4 buys Storm-Kiln Artist, Archmage Emeritus, Monastery Mentor, Goblin Electromancer and Third Path Iconoclast, which meaningfully raise the floor.

Lead with cheap rocks: Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Prismatic Lens and Commander's Sphere, about a dollar each. Then add untapped duals and, as budget allows, a true fetchland such as Misty Rainforest (around $37). Avoid tapped fixers like Evolving Wilds, which slow a four-color curve more than they help it.

Yes, if you like spellslinger decks or four-color brewing. It is the most ambitious of the four Marvel precons and includes several reprints and new cards that see play elsewhere. Its weakness is the mana, which is normal for four colors and is the first thing your upgrade budget should address.

Upgrading more than one Marvel deck? Start with the Marvel Super Heroes precon upgrade kit hub, which carries the paste-ready 100-card lists for all four decks. Here are our other guides:

Sources: Card Kingdom upgrade guide, PreconForge upgrade guide, MTG Rocks deck breakdown. Prices approximate as of June 2026.