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There are a handful of phrases that, if said to a longtime reader of Spider-Man comics, will put them down a nightmarish Memory Lane. For some, that may be 'The Clone Saga,' while for others, it's 'One More Day,' "Peter gave Mary Jane cancer," or "the Spider Totem." Magic: The Gathering's crossover set with Marvel's Spider-Man isn't playing softball with Spider-Man fans when it comes to more controversial elements of Spidey lore (though I will say that the fact that MJ getting cancer from Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man canon is proof that there is a god, somewhere, who still cares about us).

So if the Spider Totem that was introduced in J. Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man makes you wince, then too bad! Because it's a part of Magic: The Gathering's Spidey set. On his Tumblr blog, Magic: The Gathering game designer Mark Rosewater answered a fan question about why the Radioactive Spider card in the set has an ability called deathtouch.

"They are deadly to anyone who’s not born as part of the Spider Totem," Rosewater began. "For those that aren’t deep into Spider-Man lore, the spider that bit him wasn’t an accident, and there was something core to Peter Parker that allowed him to survive the bite." 

I know, I know. Little ol' Peter Parker couldn't take a punch from Flash Thompson or read a book without his glasses on. But being bitten by a radioactive spider and living to tell the tale is no problem for him. The Spider Totem logic is controversial among Spider-Man fans for many reasons, and the Spider Totem agnostics within the fandom have been able to pretend that it was never introduced to Marvel Comics lore while reading most Spider-Man comics (provided that they aren't stories with Huge Cosmic Consequences). Case in point: the Spider Totem doesn't really come up in most Ben Reilly stories, which is great for me, because I am there just to watch Ben be ridiculous and emo.

Whether you are a Commander player, a regular at your local game shop's FNM event, or simply love collecting Magic: The Gathering cards, you've landed in the right place. From Universes Beyond to the furthest reaches of the Magic Multiverse, we've got you covered here at Popverse. 

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