March Of The Machine: Pre-Release Notes

magic: the gathering mtg strategy

A new Magic: The Gathering set is being released, and this week will be the first opportunity players get to open packs and build decks with March Of The Machine.

This set continues the story of the Phyrexian invasion (a machine/toxic world within the MTG folk-lore), which sees their army attempt to take-over and corrupt life on all other planes.

While the fast pace of the previous set (Phyrexia: All Will Be One) was fun for a while, it got a little boring.

There wasn't that much opportunity for creative deck-building, and if you didn't play aggressively, the game could be over before you got a chance to do anything fun.

So, with this new set having not only a new card-type, but also lots of interesting colour-pairings, I'm looking forward to some interesting and fun game-play...

Also, the story includes different characters coming together to defend against the Phyrexians who, for some or other reason, believe that everyone would be better off if they became part machine...

They are a little unwell...

Not much opportunity for love-making on Phyrexia, me thinks.

Anyway, in preparation for the event, I'm going to write some notes about the main colour-pairings that I hope will help you too.

Let's get into it.

White/Blue: Knight Tribal

This colour-pairing looks to be high tempo. Marshal of Zhalfir is the sign-post uncommon, which has a 'lord' effect (giving all other Knights +1/+1) and also has a way to tap down creatures for only 2 mana.

Xerex Strobe-Knight looks great too, and with the addition of some cheap spells, this deck could get the job done quite quickly. Some nice commons are Kithkin Billyrider and Protocol Knight.

Blue/Red: Convoke

In this set, blue/red's major theme is 'convoking' (tapping creatures helps pay casting costs). That means getting creatures in play early is early important, otherwise you might have some expensive spells that aren't so easy to cast

Joyful Stormsculptor is the sign-post uncommon, which is a little expensive, but does give you two 1/1 Elements tokens to help with convoke costs (and gives you a bonus bit of damage when you do).

I think Captive Weird and Ral's Reinforcements will be important cards for this deck, and if none of those creatures are killed, you can get a Thunderhead Squadron into play by turn 3. Not a bad curve. Also, Stoke The Flames is a premium removal card that can take your opponents by surprise.

White/Black: Phyrexian Tribal

This colour pairing cares about the 'Phrexian' creature type. There are at least two cards that give all other Phrexian's +1/+1, and all incubator tokens transform into Phrexian artifact creatures.

There are A LOT of cards that have this 'incubate' ability in one form or another, so these are going to be a big part of the format.

My feeling is that this colour-pairing will be at it's best when it is also with another colour. White, Black, Red; or Blue, Black, White; or even White, Black, Green. Some combination of Phrexian Sacrifce or Phrexian Graveyard I think will be good.

Green/White: +1/+1 counters

+1/+1 counters are everywhere in this set, and G/W is where they show up the most.

Botanical Brawler is the sign-post uncommon here, which gives you the chance to add an extra +1/+1 counter to it each time you put +1/+1 on another permanent you control. It could get quite beefy, but it's obviously less good in the late game.

The 'Backup' ability is particularly relevant for Botanical Brawler; no matter what, a +1/+1 counter is going somewhere. This is also true for 'Incubate'; you're creating an artifact and putting +1/+1 counters on in, so the Botanical Brawler's ability will trigger. This is worth remember when looking at 3-colour deck combinations, which I'm sure will be very popular.

Black/Red: Sacrifice Value

Black has some really good removal, and there are a lot of very good creatures in this set that will need to be dealt with.

It also looks like B/R has little bit of everything available to it: +1/+1 counters, Phyrexians, Incubate, Backup, and Convoke...I think this colour pairing might end up being one of the most powerful, and it will be especially strong if you can take advantage of the value gained by the sacrifice effects.

Stormclaw Rager is the sign-post uncommon, which gets not only a +1/+1 counter if you sacrifice a creature or artifact (incubator tokens included), but it also draws you a card. There's no limit to the amount of times you can do it in a turn; you just can't do it at instant speed.

There are plenty of ways to sacrifice creatures here, so the key will be getting enough value from the creatures that die. Furnace Reins will feel very good when you gain control of your opponent's creature and sacrifice it to, say, draw a card. Etched Familiar, Furnace Goblin, and Ichor Drinker are all good sacrifice options too.

Black/Green: Incubate

More Phyrexians and more Incubator tokens.

Elvish Vatkeeper is the sign-post uncommon, and it not only incubates on ETB (Enter The Battlefield), but it can help make those tokens massive, it's a 3/3, AND its a Phyrexian; all for only 3 mana. It's a great card.

I think this colour combination won't be strong enough by itself as there aren't that many stand-out commons and uncommon that make the deck; so this might a splash. Also, paying 5 mana is a lot, even if it does double the amount of +1/+1 counters on your phyrexian aritifact; this alone won't be enough to gain a dominating advantage (it's a vanilla creature, after all), and often you'll just end up paying 2 mana to transform them instead.

This is probably the weakest colour pairing that I've looked at so far, but it does add something to the phrexian deck and the sacrifice deck. For example, Converter Beast is a good sacrifice target, and also gives you a nice sized Phyrexian token ETB.

Blue/Black: Graveyard Spells

Graveyard is the name of the game with Blue//Black. You're going to want to mill your opponent and yourself, and then gain the advantage by recasting your spells from the bin.

Casting a removal spell from the Halo Forager will be nice. Expedition Lookout gives you a nice un-blockable creature when your opponent has 8 or more cards in their graveyard, and 4 for a 5/4 menace is a decent rate when Tenured Oilcaster has this extra boost too.

I'm not sure on this colour-pairing; in general I like blue/black, my worry is that there isn't enough to get back when you do mill yourself; and also having 8 cards in your graveyard will activate your opponents spells with this ability too.

Let's see.

Two more to go....

Red/Green: Battles

BATTLES!!!!!

I haven't mentioned these new card types yet because I wanted to focus on the colour-pair themes first; but there's no escaping them with red and green!

There are a lot of these new cards in the set (more than 30), and with red/green having them as the focus, it might end up being a very strong advantage!

What is a battle?

When you cast a battle, it comes into play under an opponents 'protection'. You can choose to attack a battle as you would an a player or a planswalker, and each point of damage removes a 'defense counter' from the battle card (this includes when it is targeted by direct damage spells).

Once all defense counters have been removed, the card transforms and return to play under it's owners control.

Rampaging Geoderm is the sign-post uncommon, and if you've got a battle or two to attack, putting +1/+1 counters on your creatures is going to feel really good!

Red/White: Backup Aggro

We've seen back-up already, and R/W is the colour-pairing that wants to really take advantage of this new mechanic.

Mirror-Shield Hoplite is the sign-post uncommon, and gives you the opportunity to double each of your backup triggers (and even target new creatures with them).

With cards like Boon-Bringer Valkyrie, your creature could be getting some really nice boosts each turn.