You probably clicked a link titled something like “Everything That I Know About Magic’s New Card Type: Battles” to get to this article. I want the record to reflect that if that were my call, the article would be titled “What’s a Battle?” or, if I really had my druthers, “What’s That Rattle?” You’ve probably seen this The Simpsons reference on your social media feeds, and as somebody who was raised by TV, it’s my job to be part of the problem. [Copy Editor’s Note: This is why you don’t monologue your plan before it happens.]
If you’re somehow reading this article but haven’t heard, Magic is getting a new card type with the release of March of the Machine. Battles, originally teased in the reminder text of Atraxa, Grand Unifier, have been revealed, and we know what the card type actually does. For a crash course in how to play with battles, I’d check out Matt Tabak’s breakdown on the mothership. As Matt points out, the rules outlined mostly pertain to the battle subtype Siege, but that’s going to be the only subtype for battles upon March of the Machine‘s release. There are quite a lot of battles already previewed, so I imagine that they’re really hoping this card type is popular, and I’d expect to see more subtypes in the future if this turns out to be the case.
O Say Can You Siege
For today, we’ll keep it to Sieges. Sieges in March of the Machine all have an enters-the-battlefield ability, a number of starting defense counters, and a back side you can access if you can successfully remove all of those defense counters. In a two-player game, when you cast a Siege, it will be on your opponent to defend it while you try to defeat it. These battles ultimately bear a lot of similarities to planeswalkers.
Sieges are like reverse planeswalkers in terms of accessing their big payoffs. Curving defensive creatures like Wall of Omens into planeswalkers sets you up to increase their loyalty, where with Sieges you’ll want to curve offensive creatures into them to deplete their defense counters. Of course, the quiet part of that comparison is probably the most important piece of assessing Sieges. Planeswalker ultimates and defeating Sieges are difficult to guarantee, which means that a lot of the determination around how playable a Siege is will have to do with the impact that Siege has on the battlefield the turn that it’s cast.
If that’s not clicking immediately, the numbers on the cards help to paint the picture more vividly. Most of the Sieges in March of the Machine start with four or more defense counters, which is more than a Lightning Bolt’s worth of damage output, fully one-fifth of your opponent’s starting life total. There are absolutely payoffs that can make it worthwhile to commit that kind of damage, but anyone with a history of casting burn spells has played their share of games where pointing four damage at a creature rather than their opponent cost them a win.
How Useful Are They, Anyway?
A number of the new Sieges are priced for Limited, and beyond that, there are cards that are clearly better fits for Commander than any 40- or 60-card formats. If I have one opponent and their life total is 20, there’s no way I’ll spend seven damage on Invasion of Arcavios. If I have three opponents, and they all have 40 life? Suddenly that exchange becomes far more appealing, as does waiting to have three permanents in my graveyard to maximize Invasion of Shandalar.
A handful of Sieges in March of the Machine pass the sniff test for me in terms of Cube playability, though I think it’s more meaningful to provide broad-strokes evaluation tools than individual assessments at this time. This is especially true considering that a Peasant Cube will have radically different qualifications from a Vintage Cube. The long and short of it for me comes down to whether the front side of the Siege comes with an enters-the-battlefield ability that is worth the price of admission at sorcery speed. Here are some standouts for me on this front:
The Utility of Sieges
The range of abilities here is vast, with decent removal, sweepers, or threats being some of the most appealing things that a Siege can offer. Invasion of Tolvada being able to recur a range of permanent types is fascinating space. Invasion of Innistrad is particularly appealing for having flash, making it one of the potentially easiest battles to take down in combat. I haven’t seen anything yet that really fits the bill for the highest-power-level Cubes, though I do wonder if some of that might pour in with The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. I’ve decided that I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see a card for the Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Sieges with lower starting defense counters also make me more strongly consider their playability. Invasion of Gobakhan is very intriguing to me. The enters-the-battlefield ability is not bad, but definitely isn’t worth two mana. That said, both abilities on the back side could really shine in a combat-centered Cube. With cheap three-power creatures like Adanto Vanguard and Porcelain Legionnaire in abundance these days, I could see Invasion of Gobakhan actually being a solid performer as a Siege that you aim to consistently defeat.
There are some applications for battles that come to mind beyond just setting up to attack or otherwise damage them, and I’d like to offer some food for thought on other ways to utilize the new card type. There’s definitely more going on here than if we just saw the fronts of these cards printed as sorceries.
Removing Counters
Render Inert serves up the punchline in March of the Machine, and I’ve heard rumblings of using Vampire Hexmage as a way to defeat any Siege immediately if you’re really interested in the back side. I already liked Vampire Hexmage for its ability to combat planeswalkers, and I could see an uptick in the card’s Cubeability coming. It offers a particularly nice combination with Invasion of Ikoria. It’s not on the level of Dark Depths combo, but as a fan of Finale of Devastation, I do think Invasion of Ikoria is one of the more playable Sieges we’ve seen so far.
I’m sure we’ll also see an uptick in ways to damage battles, planeswalkers, and/or creatures that can more easily remove a lot of defense counters than the types of burn spells that can target players. I’m not the biggest fan of cards that can only target creatures or planeswalkers, and part of me wishes we could see errata to some of these cards to account for battles. Presumably I’ll have to settle for whatever new cards that efficiently take down battles they offer as they print them. The more easily a battle can be defeated, the more we can start to consider defeating a battle as our goal for playing it, so this is absolutely space to watch.
Taking Advantage of Battle as a Card Type
The other thing that makes the wheels turn for me in Cube is making use of battles as an additional card type. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of delirium in Cube, and anything that grows the Tarmogoyf is going to get some attention from me. Battle isn’t easy to use in this way like Tribal was, but there are some things to consider here.
Given the nature of Sieges, battles don’t tend to make their way to the graveyard very easily by way of casting them. Discarding them and milling them will likely be the best avenue to making use of them as an extra card type in your graveyard. The two battles that really catch my eye for Spooky Cube as delirium enablers are Invasion of Amonkhet and Invasion of Mercadia.
Invasion of Amonkhet provides decent value when you cast it, and Invasion of Mercadia is a solid discard outlet that you’ll have no problem discarding if it’s more useful as a card type in your graveyard. I still expect that the question of how appropriately costed the enters-the-battlefield ability is on a particular Siege will be the ultimate metric for which I decide to Cube with, but the fringe appeal of just existing as a new card type in the graveyard is something to think about.
Battle Rattle
New card types are difficult to evaluate, and I’m excited to see how everything shakes out with battles. Will battles be the next big thing like planeswalkers were, or will they fall flat after seeing print in a handful of sets? I imagine we’ll be seeing more of them, and I’m looking forward to it.
