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Magic: The Gathering Card Analogues For Batman's Gadgets

Welcome, Magic: The Gathering players and fans of the Batman franchise alike! This week was Batman Week here at Bleeding Cool, and today is our last entry into the hypothetical "Batman Series" of Magic card analogues. On Monday we went over the heroes of the Batman canon, and on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we covered its villains. This final entry will deal with a few of Batman's trusty gadgets and tools which he uses to thwart crime in Gotham City.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are that of the author alone – neither Wizards of the Coast nor DC Comics have any public plans to pursue a Batman Series at this time. Wizards of the Coast did recently partner with TOHO CO., Ltd., in order to create the Godzilla Series which inspired this article series, however, so anything is in the realm of possibility here, really.

#17. The Batmobile

The Batmobile is one of the more iconic tools that Batman uses in order to patrol the streets of Gotham City when he isn't looking down upon Gotham from the rooftops. This entire series would probably not be possible without enough concepts to look at and analyze with good comparisons to Magic: The Gathering cards, and so without the Batmobile, this entire idea would be a tough sell. This is also true of a recent addition to Magic: Vehicles.

As it stands, Vehicles were only introduced in 2016 with the Kaladesh block and expanded upon ever since (albeit more sparingly after the Aether Revolt set). Compared to other kinds of concepts in Magic: The Gathering, Vehicles are very new. Daredevil Dragster, in particular, captures the essence of the Batmobile in that it's a high-speed chase kind of Vehicle and few other cards in that subtype are as apt a comparison. We had also considered Ovalchase Dragster for this spot, but we decided upon this one because it has Crew 2, which felt more fitting when one considers both Batman and Robin working in tandem.

#18. The Bat-Signal

The Bat-Signal isn't something that belongs to Batman, Bruce Wayne, or any company that Bruce owns, per se. It is owned by the Gotham Police Department in most if not all versions of the Batman canon and is used by Commissioner Gordon to provide a beacon for Batman to come to their aid.

The best analogue we could find for the Bat-Signal was Glaring Spotlight, a card from Gatecrash, a Magic set that is set (among many others) in a cityscape, and honestly was probably directly inspired by the Bat-Signal.

#19. Batarangs

Batman is known for having a variety of personal items and weapons which he will use to subdue enemies. Batarangs are a good example of one of the many bat-themed items we see him using to these ends.

This particular item has only a few options for a good case to compare it to. One, Razor Boomerang, is not quite at the caliber that Batman would aspire to have his equipment be at. The other, Boomerang, is a simple instant-speed spell. Which one was our pick?

The main thing that makes us consider Boomerang over Razor Boomerang is that Boomerang is actually a good card. Razor Boomerang has far too many hoops to go through to get it to work, whereas Boomerang is a simple and straightforward card with an efficient effect. That's the simplest answer we can give you. Both technically follow the general flavor of a boomerang, even if neither follows the idea of a Batarang that well.

#20. Batman's Utility Belt

And now we come to the last entry in this article and the Batman Series as a whole: Batman's trusty utility belt. A mainstay since the beginning, Batman's belt has held a plethora of useful – and sometimes oddly specific – tools for the Bat to make use of in his caped crusade against injustice.

So what do we use as a valid analogue to wrap up this series? In light of a good comparison that's strictly a Magic: The Gathering property, we look to the Bag of Holding, a card designed after the magical item from Dungeons & Dragons lore:

The fabled Bag of Holding can hold anything within it, short of another Bag of Holding. Therefore it is an invaluable utility tool for Dungeons & Dragons players. With this in mind, why wouldn't a Bag of Holding be the perfect analogue for a Utility Belt? What did you think of this series? Was it a fun read? Do you have any characters or concepts that we missed and have suggestions for? Let us know in the comments below!

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