T'Challa, the Black Panther Leads Wakanda Into Commander
Marvel Super Heroes Commander released on June 26, 2026 (prerelease events started June 19), bringing four ready-to-play Commander decks built around Marvel's biggest names. Wakanda Forever is the Selesnya (white-green) entry, led by T'Challa, the Black Panther, built around artifacts, Vibranium tokens, and the Monarch mechanic. The other three decks — Avengers Assemble (Jeskai heroes and +1/+1 counters), The Fantastic Four (four-color noncreature spells), and Doom Prevails (Grixis villains and connive) — carry their own identities, but Wakanda Forever rewards going wide with artifacts while grinding out card advantage.
T'Challa himself is a lean {1}{G}{W} 2/2 that creates a tapped Vibranium token — a Powerstone-style mana rock that can only pay for artifacts — every time he enters or attacks. Cast an artifact with mana value 4 or greater and he grows by two +1/+1 counters on top of that. The precon gives him plenty to work with: 24 creatures and 24 artifacts out of the box, many doing double duty as artifact creatures. Reviewers have liked the set's direction overall, though the $75 price point drew criticism. Here's how to make Wakanda Forever hit harder.
What Works: Cards Worth Keeping
The precon isn't just filler around a flashy commander — a few inclusions are genuinely strong and should stay in almost any build.
Royal Talon Fighter Jet is the single best payoff in the box. It enters with X +1/+1 counters, and every time it enters or attacks it mints that many 1/1 Soldier tokens — a flying Vehicle that snowballs your board every combat once crewed. Okoye, Mighty and Adored is the other standout: she makes you the Monarch on entry for a free extra card every turn, then hands out +1/+1 counters and double strike to whoever's attacking the Monarch — usually you. Don't sleep on Heart-Shaped Herb either — a cheap damage-prevention artifact that can later be sacrificed to reanimate a creature with three counters on it while grabbing the crown back, a security blanket for a deck that wants to hold the Monarch title.
What to Cut First
The precon's power level is fairly even, but a handful of cards are clearly underperforming relative to their mana cost and should be the first things trimmed:
- Whispersilk Cloak — 3 mana plus a 2-mana equip just to grant unblockable is pricey on its own, and the shroud clause actively works against you: Equip is a targeted ability, so once this is attached you can't legally move any other Equipment onto that creature.
- Coveted Jewel — drawing three cards and tapping for triple mana looks great until any unblocked attacker hands your opponent both three cards and the Jewel itself. In multiplayer Commander this is a well-known trap that backfires the moment you're not around to protect it.
- Divine Visitation — a real Commander staple in the right shell, but it upgrades creature token production, and this deck's signature token (Vibranium) is an artifact, not a creature. With few real creature-token makers in the 99, the payoff rarely shows up.
- Panther Robot — a 10-mana vanilla body (discounted by affinity) with reach and trample and nothing else — a beater with no synergy with the rest of the plan.
- Panther Habit — 4 to cast and 2 to equip for a purely defensive damage-into-counters effect is slow; this deck would rather push damage than blank it.
Recommended Upgrades
Once you've made room, these are the additions that push Wakanda Forever from "solid precon" to genuine table threat.
The One Ring costs only generic mana, so it slots into any deck, but it's especially good here: a turn of total protection buys time to set up, and the card draw engine keeps refilling your hand as the game goes long. Smothering Tithe is one of the best white ramp pieces printed in years — every card an opponent draws either taxes them two mana or hands you a Treasure, and Treasures feed T'Challa's artifact triggers just as well as anything else in the box.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus is the biggest payoff of all: it doubles every token you make, so Royal Talon Fighter Jet, Kimoyo Beads, and even T'Challa's own Vibranium tokens start coming out in pairs. Beyond these three, Esika's Chariot and Teferi's Protection are worth hunting down — the Chariot adds more go-wide pressure with a built-in copy effect, and Teferi's Protection is the catch-all safety valve a Monarch deck wants once it's sitting on a commanding board and a target on its back.
Mana Base and Ramp
Precon decks usually skimp on fixing, but Wakanda Forever ships with a strong two-color base: Bountiful Promenade, Canopy Vista, Fortified Village, Razorverge Thicket, Scattered Groves, Sungrass Prairie, and Sunpetal Grove all produce both colors, backed up by Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Evolving Wilds, and Terramorphic Expanse. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Birds of Paradise, and Solemn Simulacrum round out a solid ramp suite already in the 99. The one gap worth patching is artifact-specific mana — since T'Challa cares about artifact spells, a rock like Mind Stone or Wayfarer's Bauble smooths your draws while feeding his counter trigger at the same time.
Final Thoughts
Wakanda Forever's biggest strength out of the box is that its core engine already works: T'Challa makes mana rocks, those rocks pay for more artifacts, and Royal Talon Fighter Jet and Okoye turn that momentum into a board and a hand full of cards. The upgrade path isn't about fixing something broken — it's about cutting a handful of clunky, situational cards and replacing them with ones that do the same job faster. Add The One Ring and Smothering Tithe for resilience and ramp, Mondrak for a token-doubling finisher, and this precon can comfortably hang with much pricier Commander decks at the table.