AHHHHHH!
We have so much to cover and so little time! This weekend at a Magic Con in Philly, WotC unveiled new cards that are absolutely ROCKING! MY! WORLD!
Let’s get into what new things we saw.
The mega-cycle that is Omnath has come full circle, beginning with his monogreen version and finally ending with its compleated version, Phyrexian mana and all! This five colour general rewards you for playing cards with three or more mana symbols, which is a new take and riff on the typical five colour commander decklist. Omnath gives you an extra card a turn and turns all unused mana into black mana for you to use whenever. It’s also the Buy-a-Box promo, so expect to see a lot of these running around. Omnath is already super popular and I’d be shocked to see people shrug this one off.
Chandra is back and she is absolutely heartbroken. With key art shown of Chandra meeting a compleated Nissa, we can assume that Chandra is devastated. In fact, in both versions of her new card’s art, flaming tears are streaming down her face.
Chandra, Hope’s Beacon has a static ability that is Double Vision, a five mana enchantment while being a six mana planeswalker at 5 loyalty who can immediately bump you up a card or up two mana. This is a card that will make spellslinger Commander players happy.
Yuta Takahashi, World Champion XXVII has an invitational card of his own in the new Faerie Mastermind.
A 1B 2/1 Flash Flying Faerie Rogue that draws you a card whenever an opponent draws their second card per turn is already a head turner, but for 3U each player gets to draw a card. Nekusar players get a nice return on investment here. This is slightly reminiscent of Ledger Shredder, but I’d say it’s less powerful. That said, it’s likely to be very powerful in faster formats that stack their hands!
Story spotlight card confirms what we all saw coming: the multiverse is being invaded. This big mana spell wants to Phyrexianize a creature from each graveyard after dumping ten new cards into them each. Is this a huge finisher? Damn right it is. Is it a spell I want to copy in Grixis decks like Anhelo, the Painter? Big time. It’s my favourite kind of card for Commander. It’s big, splashy, and makes for fun stories!
4B. Teaser of Battles
Speaking of the multiverse being invaded, art for what people speculate as Battle card art shows many beloved planes being taken over like Mercadia, Kaladesh, and Lorwyn. It all looks pretty gnarly. I still have no clue what this new card type will be.
We’re getting a full cycle of the Praetors that turn into Sagas. They’re just named as their name (ie: Sheoldred, Elesh Norn, etc) and we got a look at Jin-Gitaxias.
Jin, is bonkers level messed up strong. Five mana 5/5 with Ward 2 that turns all your 3+ mana noncreature spells into cantrips is strong enough, but the Saga side is brutal. Double your hand size, then bounce all non-Phyrexia creatures to hands, and then a semi-Omniscience for the cards in your hand before exiling and returning as the creature that draws you so many cards. Not to mention the fact that we just got a whole slew of Proliferate.
These Praetors are going to the so strong and so cool, I genuinely am excited and terrified to find out what they all do.
More beloved (depending on who you ask) legends in Magic are being compleated. It seems that we’re getting a cycle of flip legends with key art teasing Ayara as a black and red legend. We also go Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, an Azorius Phyrexian God (!!!) that reduces how much your spells cost by how many cards your opponents have drawn in a turn. Oh, yeah, it’s also a Vedalken Orrery. What a strange and cool card! The art is devastating! Some of the scariest work is happening in how they compleated Heliod!
One of my favourite things WotC has ever done is combining legends into one single card. We’ve had Gisa and Geralf, but why stop there?
Ghalta and Mavren, Drana and Linvala, Yargle and Multani, Thalia and The Gitrog Monster are all in the main set while Goro-Goro and Satoru, Slimefoot and Squee, and Matilda and Lier are supplemental Commander set cards.
The pairs are all duos from the same plane banding together in ways that make sense. For example, Multani and Yargle are a beefy vanilla 18/6 creature while Slimefoot and Squee combines Squee’s resilience with Slimefoot’s Saproling sacrifice.
Every design is so cool and sweet! Not to mention…
The showcase frames represent where the characters are from! Slimefoot and Squee from Dominaria have the stained glass treatment, while Goro-Goro and Satoru have the Neon Dynasty treatment. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer gets the Kaladesh Invention frame despite not being an artifact.
Wait… Ragavan? What?
THAT’S RIGHT! Following the Brother’s War’s inclusion of a throwback artifact in every pack and Strixhaven’s Mystical Archive, March of the Machine will include a Multiverse Legend in every pack. They’ve already spoiled Ragavan and Atraxa (in a sweet New Capenna showcase frame) and I can’t wait to see who else is coming to party.
Finally, my favourite part – Planechase is back!
With five new planes, five reprinted planes, and a new Phenomenon per deck, this set’s five Commander decks just got really spicy for me. Get your Planar die ready!
Deck colours and themes are as follows:
There is some speculation that Oviya Pashiri is likely a reprint or returning character for Tinker Time, but the biggest hope is that maybe this time, we get a Temur Energy commander in that deck.
That’s it for the first looks from this set! I can’t wait to brew around the pairs we’ve got and more!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
