Buckle up, friends. This is going to be quite a ride.
As I pointed out in my set review (and on the socials during preview season), there are so many good, compelling, interesting, and thought-provoking cards in March of the Machine that I predict I’ll add more cards to my suite of now-70 decks than from any other single expansion or core set product. The problem really will be in finding room for all of it. The easy way to solve part of that problem is to build more decks, which will certainly happen. I’m already looking for the road less traveled on Rashmi and Ragavan. But we’ll get to that.
As is normal, it’ll be difficult to say goodbye to some of the cards that will be headed back to the files in order to make room for the new blood. I’ve found that it’s normally the fault of deck structure that leads to failure, as opposed to an individual card here and there, so sometimes a full refit is in order. I’ve recently been through all my decks on a big database project and there might be some that qualify for a full tune-up, but I’m mostly happy where things are. I’ll be even happier when I get my mitts on some of what follows.
For the most part, the legendary creatures look like they’re better in the 99 than leading a deck. There are certainly several that put themselves front-and-center to be in the top slot; I’ll make mention of my early choices to build around. If you don’t see a card on the list here, the likelihood is that I’m keeping it aside for a new build. That might be especially true for any theme decks.
White
Into: Karador V3.0
It’ll be a simple path for Alabaster Host Intercessor. First, plainscycling to both get the land and the card into the graveyard. There, it will be reanimated in some fashion or recast via Karador, Ghost Chieftain.
Into: Ruhan Next 99
Make some Soldiers to get into combat, especially to turn on battalion and whatnot, and then take a shot at the ultimate ability to bring all the small nonland permanents back from the graveyard. Definitely looking for the intimidating alt-art version of this one.
Into: Ruhan Next 99
In the land where Cowards can’t block Warriors, creatures get into the Red Zone. Rewards for simply attacking are great. That we can turn those cards into Knights is excellent. It does make me think that maybe Chivalric Alliance should also go into a Karador deck, since we could then be discarding things for value.
Into: Halloween with Karador
Set’s top card goes in my top deck. I’ll obviously be looking for one of the scary alt-art versions of the card. In play, it’ll be about holding off a little damage, and then sacrificing three relevant creatures in order to transform Elesh Norn into The Argent Etchings. Then we’ll incubate, iterate, and decimate, only to do it all over again.
Spot removal that exiles is my preference, so I don’t mind paying an extra mana for it. In this case, they also get a creature (eventually), but it certainly isn’t going to be as good as whatever we just got rid of (permanently).
Into: Trostani’s Angels
A little extra card draw is exactly what this deck is looking for. I don’t need any more incentive to get into the Red Zone, but I’ll take it. Sweet card.
Into: Lavinia Blinks
I had wanted to put Guardian of Ghirapur into Rith’s Next 99, which is a blink deck, but I really couldn’t justify taking out anything for it. It’ll do work in my other blink deck, featuring Lavinia of the Tenth. There aren’t any artifacts to regularly recur, but there’s a host of creatures. Imagine soulbonding Guardian of Ghirapur to Deadeye Navigator?
Into: Merieke’s Esper Dragons
I love the backup mechanic and it’s sauce on this card. A flying 3/4 Dragon probably gets in more than a vigilant 6/6 Giant, so this is the direction to go if you want damage to happen. There’s also upside to Guardian Scalelord. If we somehow make It larger, we can reanimate ever-larger things. I’m a fan. In this deck, I’d like that thing to be Tainted Sigil.
Into: (Decision coming soon!)
This card is so wild. There will be times post-transformation into Heliod, the Warped Eclipse that we’ll pay next to nothing to cast our spells, which we can do like we had Vedalken Orrery. The setup is a little more vulnerable since Heliod is a creature and therefore subject to both targeted and mass removal. Nonetheless, the upside is there if you’re willing to take the journey.
Into: Ruhan Next 99
We’re going to bash down that relatively small wall (defense of three) so that we start buffing up all our attackers. I like the nice little touch of being able to sacrifice it to make our team indestructible and hexproof. We can then reanimate Invasion of Gobakhan with Sun Titan or Guardian Scalelord.
Into: Lavinia Blinks
This was going into Heliod, God of Enchantments until I realized that Invasion of Theros has a white and blue color identity from the back face, Ephara, Ever-Sheltering. A true Enchantress, this Ephara will draw a card for each enchantment we resolve. OG Ephara, God of the Polis will complement Invasion of Theros/Ephara, drawing a card on the turn after a creature enters the battlefield—so if what we cast was an enchantment creature, we win on both ends. There’s a Thassa, Deep-Dwelling to search up with the trigger; I think I’ll return that original Ephara to the deck as well.
Into: Alesha’s Knights
The Knight-Errant of Eos and his lion mount are too big to bring back attacking with Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, so we’ll have to get value out of the Knight-Errant in other ways. We’ll want to convoke it with as many creatures as we can, so we’ll get a larger mana value in creature. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do anything when blinked, since nothing will have convoked the new version.
Into: Aminatou’s Demons
A little symmetrical Stax is okay. I’ll try to break the parity a little by putting a few more non-Demons into the deck in the shape of Phyrexians. With three colors to choose from, I’m sure I’ll have options.
Into: Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers
Having the temporary removal here is good, but I also want to leverage Containment Priest, which will exile the creature attempting to come back. Of course, Seal from Existence can get rid of other nonland permanents as well. The strength of the card is having ward 3; it won’t be so easy to get rid of.
Into: Kros Alt Wincon
With some wins coming from Approach of the Second Sun, we’ll need delaying tactics. Sunfall is a pretty good one, not only exiling everything but giving us one giant Incubator.
Blue
Into: Dreaming of Intet
Intet loves to copy big spells. Having help doing it for little to no mana is the sweetest sound. That it copies twice just makes it dirty.
Into: Gisa and Geralf Together Forever
The idea of Zombies driving the card tickled me. What can I say? After that, there’s extra value, as we get to deal out some damage and cast some spells. Because it can be blocked only by Vehicles, I suspect we’re not going to see it blocked at all. As we’re casting everyone else’s cool spells, that damage will start to pile up.
Into: Zombies of Tresserhorn
Mill is the main plan for these Zombies, and Halo-Charged Skaab is a nice addition to the team. Not only does the Skaab mill everyone for two, we get to put an instant, sorcery, or battle from our graveyard on top of the library. That card doesn’t have to be one that just got milled, either.
Into: Thassa, Sea Goddess
This is a go-wide deck, so adding a few more attackers to start makes sense. We’ll battle down that wall to free Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia. The 3/3 Legendary Serpent has two relevant abilities. First, noncreature spells we control have convoke. Never tap out again! Then, at the beginning of our end step, we get to untap four creatures. This is good for blocking as well as activating abilities.
Into: Ikra and Sakashima
The Ikra and Sakashima deck is reserved for only the finest shenanigans. The deck is packed with weird stuff like Endless Whispers and Shriveling Rot. Invasion of Vryn provides decent card draw and then becomes easy to transform. After that, the sky’s the limit, as we can copy any kind of spell. There are many creatures in the deck I’d be happy to double up on, although copying an instant like Makeshift Mannequin is really attractive.
Into: Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers
Jin-Gitaxias is a silly card that draws more silly cards in a deck that likes to really draw cards. Ward 2 might protect it long enough to get transformed into The Great Synthesis, which is just three turns of explosive growth. The card could be a killer with Psychosis Crawler. If that’s not it, then Chapter III just allows us to dump the entirety of our hand onto the battlefield, which should definitely be enough.
Into: The Threat of Yasova
The deck has well enough things to put the mana into, not the least of which is Yasova Dragonclaw’s combat-triggered ability. Other stuff includes equipping Sword of Fire and Ice and fueling up Memnarch.
Into: Muldrotha, Gravely Speaking
Rona, Herald of Invasion is such a Muldrotha card. She offers looting for no mana to get what we want in the graveyard. She transforms into Rona, Tolarian Obliterator; she’s a 5/5 with trample. Then, whenever a source deals damage to Rona, that source’s controller exiles a card from their hand at random. If it’s a land, we can play it. If it’s a spell, we can cast it without paying its mana cost. Seems not busted at all.
Cloning is what the deck does, and moving into artifacts is like opening a new market. The nice is thing is that if there’s something we like, such as a Sol Ring, we can make another copy of it each combat. We could diversify, or we could keep charging straight ahead.
Into: Ever-Changing Dane
One of my favorite cards in the set, with See Double we get to either copy a spell (which can end up as a permanent) or create a token that’s a copy of a target creature. We get both modes if an opponent has eight or more cards in their graveyard. I’m playing the card in this deck because I want to see what chaotic situations we can create by copying just the right things.
Into: Thassa, Sea Goddess
Thassa’s deck isn’t 100% Merfolk. It’s Merfolk and sea creatures. Tidal Terror applies. In addition to being able to islandcycle it, Tidal Terror can be unblockable by tapping two untapped creatures, so the beatings come hard.
Into: Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers
Unfortunately, we can only give away Hippos, and this isn’t the deck version that can go infinite (that’s the PreDH Phelddagrif). We’ll have to settle for somewhat normal amounts of mana. Once we get that big hand and the Maro Sorcerers start slamming, we can use Transcendent Message as a combat trick. Fun card.
Into: Admiral Beckett Brass
I like Zephyr Singer as more of a single-card strategy and only put it in the Pirates deck because of its creature type. It would go into anything blue and creature-y enough to convoke it. In this deck, once it’s done its job handing out flying counters, it’s a damage delivery platform.
Black
Into: Oldest Stickfingers
I momentarily considered putting Archpriest of Shadows into a deck that doesn’t do that much reanimation, just to give it a leg up. Then I realized I’d rather do something sillier, so Old Stickfingers, here we come.
Into: Kresh Into the Red Zone
I’m not sure where I’m finding room for what happens to have been the RC’s preview card for the set, but I have to. It’s such a Kresh card. We’ll sacrifice a creature, like Kokusho, the Evening Star, then transform Ayara before going to combat. At beginning of combat, we reanimate it and it gains haste. It’s scheduled to be exiled at the beginning of the next end step, but we’ll have a sacrifice outlet, like Nantuko Husk, ready for action.
Into: Oldest Stickfingers
Speaking of cards that are great for a deck, Blight Titan will make some chunky Incubators from our graveyard, which usually has eight to ten creature cards in it by the time we would normally cast Blight Titan.
Into: Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign
This card is designed to offer Marchesa a little more activity and aggressiveness. It’s fine to sit on the throne and collect cards, but at some point we have to push forward and win. The mill will take some cards away from them (unless they’re a graveyard deck, obviously) and give us juicy choices. Note that we can take any card from their graveyards, not just the ones milled this way.
Into: Alesha’s Knights
I’m more interested in the +1/+1 counters than the Blood, but I’ll take some card digging. It’s not going to take long for our Knights to pile up with counters.
Into: Aminatou’s Demons
I love playing with Demons that can really hurt you. Clearly, we don’t cast Infernal Sovereign until we know we have a way to get rid of it if need be. Otherwise, the value is there. Drawing a card for dropping a land or casting a spell is sweet. I suspect that there are already engines whirring on how to break this card.
Into: Queen Marchesa, Long May She Reign
The battle that leads to Marchesa, Resolute Monarch must be played! We have a nice between legendary and nonlegendary creatures, which should set us up to defeat the battle very quickly. From there, our Resolute Monarch will be scouring counters from stuff and staying on the throne.
Into: Alesha’s Knights
Good Knight card in the Knight deck? Being 5/5 with menace for just 4B is good enough. Then there’s the triggered ability. When one of our nontoken Knights dies, each opponent loses a life and we draw a card. We’re playing enough lifegain to easily offset that, so it’s all fuel for the fire.
Into: The Millmeoplasm
The deck has been focused for a while on the hard mill. I just want to be reminded that mill is a means to a different end.
Into: Kresh Into the Red Zone
Sheoldred is nasty. When it makes everyone sacrifice a nontoken creature or planeswalker, it’s just getting started. Transformed into The True Scriptures, we immediately destroy another creature or planeswalker from everyone. Then in Chapter II, opponents all discard three and mill three. That sets us up for the bonkers Chapter III, in which we put all creatures from all graveyards onto the battlefield under our control. Then we get Sheoldred back in starting position, with Kresh having picked up quite a few counters over the turns.
Into: Maarika the Most Brutal
The Maarika deck is secretly just stuff I want to Saw in Half. When you Saw stuff in Half, it ends up in the graveyard, ready to use again. That’s where Terror of Towashi comes in. Just a little payment at the end of the trigger sets up another trigger where you eventually target a creature, and it comes back onto the battlefield ready for action—and in this deck’s case, a pretty good likelihood of a triggered ability.
Red
Into: Dreaming of Intet
We’re going to set things spectacularly ablaze. What else do you use a bunch of Plant tokens for?
Into: Angry, Angry Dinos
Silly Etali will go into silly Dino deck and crush things. Transforming it won’t be trivial, and in this particular deck not even relevant. If it happens, however, the bodies will hit the floor quickly, as it becomes an 11/11 with trample and indestructible. It has a triggered ability says when Etali, Primal Sickness deals combat damage to a player, they get that many poison counters.
Into: Karrthus and His Dragons
Kind of a slam dunk here. Dragons will fly over and batter down Tarkir’s defenses, bringing us to Defiant Thundermaw. Being a 4/4 flyer with trample is fine. When you have the triggered ability “Whenever a Dragon you control attacks, it deals 2 damage to any target,” you’ve moved into a different league. It’s trivially easy to roast faces with Dragons these days.
Into: The Swarmlord of Hydras
Mirror-Style Master is compelling enough to break into the Hydra theme for. The deck is pretty much full of modified creatures, so double the army is coming. Things could be over really quickly.
Into: Adun’s Toolbox
I went through lots of decks that Orthion could go into. I ended up on the Adun Oakenshield deck because I think it opens the most possibilities for something epic to happen. I’ll take fun play over best play anytime.
Into: The Swarmlord of Hydras
Double damage is where Hydra lives. The riot ability gives us a choice, and in most cases we’re going in with haste. It’s pretty easy to get carried away with wanting to steamroll stuff.
Green
Into: Jared’s Revels
Big Dino is going to party with Jared and his squad, where there will be more creatures to convoke Ancient Imperiosaur. It will come out quite large.
Into: Jenara Proliferate
I kept staring at the card, knowing there was a little something that I wasn’t processing. It finally struck me that there was no reminder text for backup, so I had to remember what that is. Then I came around to getting the trigger for two creatures.
Into: Animar’s Swarm
I think the play with Emergent Woodwurm is always to put the counters on itself. That way, when it attacks, we’ll get way larger creatures than we otherwise would have. It doesn’t have any evasion, but attacking is the important part; the damage is secondary.
Into: Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers
Lots of choices at various mana values. The first one we think about is probably Oracle of Mul Daya. Later in the game, it’s all about what the situation merits.
Into: Yidris Rotisserie Draft
The Rotisserie Draft deck has some big, splashy stuff that would be nice to get onto the battlefield for free. The defense is very easily overcome, and we’re on our way to Leyline Surge.
Into: Yarok Energy
In the worst case, Invasion of Zendikar is Explosive Vegetation with potential upside. Knock down the wall and get a 4/4 Elemental with vigilance and haste; it can also tap for a mana of any color.
Into: Zegana and a Dice Bag
Hopefully we can get that Kami larger in order to have it produce more mana in order to fuel more stuff, like a ginormous Tyrant Guard or Contortionist Troupe.
Into: Karador Next 99
A different +1/+1 counters matter deck that could use a little boost, the Karador Next 99 will enjoy the simplicity of this Ozolith. Just put counters on. Extra counters.
Into: Purple Hippos and Maro Sorcerers
Since we’re putting a battle in there, we might as well put a battle card / mana creature in. I’m really interested in what these battles might do. They’re already part of Magic becoming ever more like a board game than the 1v1 card game we started with.
Into: Karador Next 99
I like the fact that Sandsteppe War Riders is just going to keep feeding people. It doesn’t matter if they’ve gotten large—if they’re the smallest, they get the bolster. Things can get out of hand quickly.
Into: The Threat of Yasova
I wanted the card to be in a deck where the +1/+1 counter could be even more meaningful. I took the line of removing the -1/-1 counter from Woodfall Primus being a pretty good thought. Additionally, I’d like the opportunity for Yasova Dragonclaw to get counters so that she can borrow bigger things. I may search around for stuff that puts counters on her in other ways.
Into: Prossh (Was Karrthus Next 99)
This one is about drawing cards most of the time and occasionally dropping on some counters.
Into: Jenara Proliferate
I want to slip Vivien’s Talent on any of the eight planeswalkers in this deck and use its triggered ability to get to those ultimates. Vivien Reed would be first, getting an emblem which gives our creatures +2/+2, vigilance, trample, and indestructible. Then we move on to the chainsaw phase.
Into: Oldest Stickfingers
I think I might resist the urge to transform this version of Vorinclex, just letting myself have a 6/6 trampler with reach for only five mana. A Vorinclex, by the way, who has also given me two Forest cards on the way in. Transformed into The Grand Evolution, the first order of business is to mill ten and put two creatures from the ten onto the battlefield. I suspect we’ll nearly always get decent hits. In Chapter II, we distribute seven +1/+1 counters however we like (we like better when All Will Be One is on the battlefield). Then, in Chapter III, each of our creatures can pick a fight with someone for one mana. Then we restart with Vorinclex beatings.
Into: Muldrotha, Gravely Speaking
I’m in mostly on letting all my lands tap for any color of mana. The +1 ability isn’t interesting in the deck, but the -2 might be, as it mills us for three. We can put a permanent from among those three into our hand. The other two will stand available for Muldrotha to do the graveyard thing with.
Multicolor
Into: Breena Will Do It to You
In addition to being the first commander I want to build with, I’m slipping Drana and Linvala into my Breena deck. A little ability thievery will be strong, since we take away things like the ability to tap Breena, preventing her from savaging someone.
Into: Jared’s Revels
Sure, it’s a Dinosaur, but I wanted it to shine outside a theme deck. Jared has sometimes had a little trouble closing out things, so I thought a 12/12 trampler that can bring along a similarly sized friend would do the trick.
Into: Satoru Shadow Ninjas
I’m just looking for a little value, that’s all. Okay, and maybe some free spells. That’s not too much to ask from an Ogre Demon Dragon, is it?
Into: The Millmeoplasm
Some more sauce for my favorite mill deck, Invasion of Amonkhet is easily defeated and then rocks on as the copy of something cool (although it’s only a 4/4, no matter what).
Into: Halloween with Karador
The search will be on to squeeze Invasion of New Capenna into one of my signature decks. I like that it exiles something in doing what we want anyway—namely getting creatures into the graveyard. Once it becomes an Equipment, it’s okay in this deck, which has both Human and Phyrexian sub-themes. We’ll see where the value rests.
Into: Breena Will Do It to You
This does what I want on both sides. The reanimation is easy. Transformed into the enchantment The Broken Sky, all of our creature tokens get +1/+0 and lifelink. That’s a pretty good life for an Inkling. The enchantment offers friends to the Inklings by way of the end step ability.
Into: Angry, Angry Dinos
I love this card just for the discard ability. Its offensive capabilities aren’t to be sneezed at, since it’s a 7/7 and can have haste and trample the turn it shows up. Still, discarding it to a great and useful effect (and less counterable, by the by, since it’s an activated ability, not a spell) and having it replace itself are well worth the mana investment. This is a card that I can see myself always thinking about in any R/G/x build.
Into: Pako and Haldan
The card we’ve all been waiting to play, Rashmi and Ragavan is going right into Pako and Haldan, because there are plenty of things I wouldn’t mind casting before leading Pako into the Red Zone. I suspect we’ll see Rashmi and Ragavan leading decks more than hanging out in the 99, since it has a certain build-around quality.
Into: Halloween with Karador
An extremely popular card from the set plus my favorite deck (taken in the long term) make a very nice match. So much love for opponents’ creatures entering the battlefield tapped.
I’m not yet putting this into a deck; I just want to talk about it a little. The ability is super-strong, but it’s gated by being limited to the two creature themes. It’s not in the cards due to other builds and projects, but it’s really attractive. If I find some time, I’ll dig into it.
Into: Haktos with Gavin Verhey
The convoke part is really going to help here, as we tend to be conservative about what we go into battle with. The optimal time to run a Wildfire Awakener out there is when we have interaction, so that might safely convoke on our own turn. I suppose the Elemental tokens are a little bit of protection, but that’d be throwing away the investment.
Into: Muldrotha, Gravely Speaking
This is a super value Magic card. Do not complain when someone uses spot removal on it. I’ll be sacrificing creatures that I then recast with Muldrotha. The extra land drops just make things silly.
That’s more than 70 cards, crushing my previous record of just over 50. It just goes to show you what an exciting set March of the Machine is for us as Commander players. We have many choices for putting together the kinds of Commander decks that will provide memories for years to come.
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