Preview season for March of the Machine is officially off and running. Wizards of the Coast (WotC) launched the debut video for the set, followed by an episode of Weekly MTG covering new mechanics, main set cards, Commander cards, and more!
You can watch both streams below before diving into the new cards.
Battles
Battles are the new card type coming to Magic: The Gathering from March of the Machine and they steal the show. Check out how they work in this quick video.
Players cast a battle and choose an opponent to defend it (block or protect it). Battles have a number of defense counters that function similarly to planeswalker loyalty counters. The player that cast the battle gets the effect of the card then can choose to attack or deal direct damage to the battle in an attempt to defeat it. Once a player deals enough damage to defeat the battle, it transforms and the player that cast it gets to cast the back side of the card for free (as none of the back halves have a casting cost). The back side of a battle can range from creature, spell, or even planeswalker.
There are 36 battles in the set and each Draft Booster pack has one, making them a huge part of the upcoming Limited formats. Let’s take a look at Invasion of New Phyrexia, which notably transforms into the new Teferi planeswalker.
The next three battles all transform into creatures. Check out Invasion of Fiora, Invasion of Ikoria, and Invasion of Ravnica.
Each Battle depicts a different plane and features landscape style art on the front half.
Characters And Booster Fun Treatments
Now, let’s check out some of the key characters that are central to the March of the Machine story and some of the booster fun treatments. All of the praetors return, but this time as double-faced cards with a saga on the back. Here is Elesh Norn.
Below is the inked variant of Elesh Norn, followed by a prototype of the serialized version.
Here are a couple of the new team-up cards and their accompanying showcase treatments.
We also get new cards depicting Quintorius and Glissa.
Another cycle of cards are DFC creatures that can transform into their Phyrexian version. Check out Etali and Polukranos.
More Previews
The previews keep coming. Feast your eyes on the tenth sword in the cycle of mythic rare equipment: Sword of Once and Future!
And here is the card for Realmbreaker.
Another new mechanic is backup. Boon-Bringer Valkyrie features it and is an absolute bomb in Limited.
Convoke returns in this set and it shows up primarily on blue and red cards.
Here are a few more story-centric preview cards. See where all that awesome art from the March of the Machine story ended up.
Reprints
We got to see a few reprints as well. Monastery Mentor returns with new art along with a card that plays well with it — Stoke the Flames!
And a staple sideboard counterspell comes back with new art featuring Ajani as he returns to his non-compleated form.
Multiverse Legends
We also got to see a bunch more of the Multiverse Legends that are included in the bonus sheet of the set. All five original praetors get a new treatment, as well as Emry, Kroxa, Niv-Mizzet, Yargle, Zada, Atraxa, and Skithiryx.
Promos
Five Promo Pack previews feature uncommon creatures from different planes.
Commander Face Cards
The previews keep going with Commander Deck cards. Here are the five Commander Deck face cards in all their versions.
Planechase Cards
We saw four Planechase cards. Jund and Panopticon are returning while Esper and Nyx are new additions.
Secret Lairs
Finally, we got to see all three Secret Lair drops that are coming with the set. These drops feature the showcase frames and none of the treatments are repeated.
Read the official articles from WotC to get more information on the mechanics and how to find the sweet alternate art versions of cards you want to collect.
March of the Machine is scheduled to release on April 21.