March of the Machine is upon us and is a gargantuan set full of amazing Commander cards. Today, I’m going to review what’s good in March of the Machine for Commander — but only the universal stuff. Nobody has time to read about random commons or niche cards.
And remember, If you like what you see, you can find other recent set reviews here:
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- The Brother’s War
- Dominaria United
- Battle for Baldur’s Gate
- Streets of New Capenna
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: WHITE
Archangel Elspeth is a wonderful callback to Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Instead of jumping, she converts a creature into an Angel, giving it flying and some counters. She exchanges an ult of invulnerability for recursion and can do it two turns sooner.
Elspeth is a solid include for tokens decks and Angel tribal decks, and her ultimate is pretty easy to achieve if you have Flying blockers.
More white card draw, this time for putting +1/+1 counters on this vampire. Sadly it’s limited to once each turn.
Does that matter? Maybe not as much as those of us who sigh when we see that clause on a white card might think. Seems solid in RW/WB counters or some Vampires decks.
Elesh Norn might be one of my favorite cards of the set. Four mana for a punisher effect that dissuades attacks? That alone interests me, so let’s check out the flipside.
Sacrificing three creatures to get there isn’t the worst in decks that make tokens or reanimate, especially considering you incubate five times for the first mode. Mode two pushes through damage really well — Double Strike is serious business. Mode three? It’s a one sided wrath in the right build, and it then flips back to the punisher effect.
This card is a serious beating, and one I think should see plenty of play.
Invasion of Gobakhan might seem like a 60-card all-star, but it’s still amazing in Commander. The front side is a pseudo-one shot Reidane, and if you can grab the Wrath, then it buys you time to hit the flipside, which then protects you from it.
Honestly, even if we just see this card as two-mana for Lightshield Array and an opponent gains 3-5 life, that’s still more than playable. Adding counters and Hexproof takes this beyond Selfless Spirit. I’m excited to play this — in Neyali, in particular.
It’s nice that Oversimplify isn’t the only five mana exile all creatures wrath. It’s nice we get one in white. Is it good?
Well, yeah, kinda. Getting to choose when you incubate can mean the token isn’t just removed, as is often the case for Phyrexian Rebirth.
Will you see a lot of it? Well, probably not.
It’s only really going to be played extensively in tokens or control decks, because losing your own creatures permanently sucks. How much Farewell do you see? I’d argue you’ll see less of this.
Top 5 White Common/Uncommons:
- Surge of Salvation: This is great interplay vs Blasphemous Act, and also a one mana way to make your own Act one sided. It does other stuff too. Solid.
- Phyrexian Censor: Another Rule of Law effect. It’ll play like Ethersworn Canonist for Phyrexian decks, but see less play, as it’s less flexible.
- Seal from Existence: Giving Oblivion Ring Ward {3} makes it way more playable.
- Invasion of Dominaria: This triggers making an Angel token on most of the popular producers, and then flips into one. Neat.
- Tiller of Flesh: Heroic decks like Feather might be able to make use of this one.
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: BLUE
Sharknado 2: The Second Will Be One is gloriously ridiculous in all the right ways, and very, very playable. It blocks like a champ and starts building you an army. Plenty of archetypes will enjoy this, from Spellslinger to Artifacts, and from Control to Enchantress.
Complete the Circuit is Electrodominance on steroids. Don’t forget you’ll need a board to afford to cast this AND whatever it is you want to enable, generally speaking. But from there?
This is an extremely powerful enabler, and one that will sow fear into those sat across the table. What’s the most disgusting thing you can do with it?
Ah, a new contender for passive card draw. In a world where Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora and Esper Sentinel see near universal play, what does Faerie Mastermind offer? Well, if you’re doing anything that involves combat damage triggers, he’s got you covered.
Making treasure, drawing cards or just keeping Planeswalkers and Battles in check. While he’s not as absurd as the aforementioned cards, he’s still highly playable.
I think Invasion of Arcavios is better than it looks. The going rate for a static copy spells enchantment is seven mana, so getting a five mana tutor for the best spell to copy with Invocation of the Founders seems like a good deal.
Seven defense counters is a lot, though, so make sure you can reliably burn or attack this one to get it to flip. Decks already set up to do so will happily slot this in to find their win conditions.
Segovia may be the smallest in stature, but don’t let that fool you — It’s one of the better battles. The Kraken tokens are forgettable, and largely fodder for convoke unless you can grow them.
Once you get this flipped, getting convoke on all of your noncreature spells is sweet, as is untapping four creatures on your end step. I foresee this one overperforming.
Jin-Gitaxias is here to tell you all about The Great Synthesis, and if you just let him in, he’ll regale you with the whole saga. Much like a vampire, you don’t want to let him in.
On the front side he’ll help keep your hand topped up and has a little resilience. But once he flips, he does some silly stuff. Drawing a bunch of cards, bouncing opposing creatures, and then giving you a turn of more-or-less Omniscience? Yeah that’s pretty good.
Kill it with fire.
See Double has a line of text I thought I’d first see on a white card. Now that we’ve gotten that predictable joke out of the way, let’s investigate.
Four mana for a card roughly adjacent to Saheeli’s Artistry and its many iterations, but for two mana less? Yeah, there’s a reason you aren’t allowed to copy this. And it’s not just because it would sneeze and go infinite if it could be copied.
Copying it only once at four mana would still be very, very good.
Fly away on my Zephyr Singer. Well, not quite on it, but Universally Speaking, it invites you onto the Aeroplane to scoot Around the World. I don’t want to cause a Storm in a Teacup, but this card is Easily one of the best flyers we’ve had in the 21st Century. If You Have to Ask if this is playable, Me and My Friends would take One Hot Minute to tell you it’s Transcending.
If you didn’t quite follow, I’m not going to Give it Away now. Take a Walkabout and think it over.
Top 5 Blue Common/Uncommons
- Omen Hawker: Think of this like a one mana Training Grounds and you’ll start to see what it could do.
- Invasion of Vrynn: Four mana for this many cards is pretty standard, and getting a one-shot copy effect on the other side is tasty.
- Artistic Refusal: Free spells are powerful, and while this will more often be two to three mana, the fact it can be free is worth noting.
- Moment of Truth: Filtering through the top three cards in this way is powerful. Just look at Expressive Iteration.
- Oracle of Tragedy: There’s not much else going on in blue; Oracle is at least playable, though.
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: BLACK
Archpriest of Shadows isn’t particularly innovative, but I do like how it offers some on-theme, Human-based reanimator to any Human decks. It’s also a lot more certain to connect and stick around than, say, Rakshasa Debaser, who only grabs opposing creatures anyways.
Giving this ability to a token or other forgettable creature for a turn is pretty neat. The art is on point, too.
So what if Sepulchral Primordial, but once, with mill ten? Well, Breach the Multiverse does that, but also lets you bring something back from your own yard.
It’s a big, splashy effect and should see a home not only in Reanimator but in Dimir Mill strategies to keep yourself alive while milling out.
Grafted Butcher is quite the lord. Granting Menace to the team on EtB is potent, and having a built-in way to bring it back to play means you can keep reusing the combat trick while ensuring the buff is never far away.
Hoarding Broodlord made me chuckle. I don’t think anybody asked for this card, but it’s actually really interesting. It’s rarely going to cost eight, and more often around four.
The spell you get with it could be a big X spell, or an Omniscience. But don’t lose sight of the fact that it grants all spells you cast from exile convoke. If you’re playing red as well, that could be quite a few spells.
Invasion of Fiora sees our Queen return. On the front side, it serves as another snap include for Legendary-matters decks. The fact you can make it a Day of Judgment, if you like, is actually pretty useful. On the flipside? Dang, she’s radiant. And she’s here to slay.
Marchesa will win all of your battles, and dispatch every Planeswalker that comes her way. She also gives a pseudo-monarch card draw effect, too. Very playable card.
Recently I named Lethal Scheme as one of 20 Essential Commander cards for playing black. Pile On plays in the same space — with convoke giving you what amounts to a free spell, roughly speaking. It’s not quite as good, but it’s an excellent budget option if you want more interaction.
Never count Sheoldred out. Spider-mom asks each opponent to sac a nontoken creature or walker, which is a tasty upgrade over most other edicts. And as long as an opponent’s yard is a healthy size, you can flip her, which is one of the easier conditions to meet.
The True Scriptures offers removal, resource denial and enables what amounts to Rise of the Dark Realms. Objectively speaking, it feels like Sheoldred and Elesh Norn are the cream of the Praetor-crop for Commander.
Rounding out our rares and mythics, Terror of Towashi keeps getting in and has repeatable recursion stapled to it.
Some of the time it’ll just trade with whatever an opponent throws in front of it, but at that point, you’re often happy you got to use it as removal. It’s an attack trigger, after all, so it doesn’t need to connect.
Top 5 Black Common/Uncommons
- Gift of Compleation: a roleplayer in any Phyrexian deck. Two mana for this feels more than fair.
- Seer of Stolen Sight: it’s not quite Stony Silence, but it helps you set up while opponents sac treasures
- Render Inert: if you’re going all-in on battles, or want to remove walkers in Oathbreaker, this card is pretty “baller”.
- Deadly Derision: Murder for one more that makes a treasure. A neat budget option.
- Mirrodin Avenged: There are decks that want a second copy of You Are Already Dead. Maybe.
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: RED
Chandra, Hope’s Beacon is another spell copier at less than the usual seven mana rate. She costs less because she triggers once a turn and can be attacked to be removed from the board. She makes up for that with the ability to dig for a spell to cast, or add two mana to help cast one.
She can also trigger in an opponent’s turn, and she can remove pesky fliers. A pretty great Chandra, all said and done. Will definitely find multiple homes.
City on Fire is Fiery Emancipation for the masses in more ways than one. That’s a French thing, a Double Entendre. We could learn a lot from the French when it comes to this sort of thing 😉
I’m not sure what deck I want to be tapping my creatures down for double damage in. Maybe a Kykar Spirits deck with burn? Yeah, that sounds good. Triple Damage will often be overkill, but reducing the cost of the effect goes a long way to making it worth it.
Invasion of Karsus is a typical three mana red wrath, but for four. The extra mana gets you a surprisingly relevant creature on the other side.
Refraction Elemental pings for 2 to each opponent when you cast a spell. Countless decks want these pingers, and being able to staple one to a wrath before deploying the others will always be good.
So I think Invasion of Tarkir will be really good in multiples, as they can target each other. Sadly, we can’t do that very easily in Commander, so how’s it looking otherwise?
Well, it’s two mana for usually three, maybe four damage. The flipside gives you damage when dragons attack.
Top heavy decks running Utvara Hellkite don’t need the extra reach, but Feywild Visitor background decks? Those running Changelings? Worth a second look.
Orthion is sort of what Rite of Replication looks like in red. We’ve all seen how strong Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is, and Orthion lets you copy Legendaries to get that sweet, sweet EtB action.
I think he slots well in any Human or Soldier deck, and potentially other builds that copy stuff, such as Rionya. Honestly? If you want to copy Dockside Extortionist for value, you probably play this alongside it.
Rampaging Raptor is Questing Beast in red. Sort of. You don’t get the delicious death touch, but you do get the chance to pump it, and you can also splash damage onto Battles.
If you’re building with Battles, this is a great include. Otherwise? Still great in a meta with lots of walkers. Oathbreaker really is a sanctioned format, isn’t it?
Urabrask! My boy. Forever underrated. My OG Urabrask always eats removal. He’s that good. So what about his latest iteration?
Well, it’s not a haymaker in the traditional sense, and will generally perform better in 60 card formats. However… Birgi is a staple for storm and pseudo storm decks.
It’s hard not to like another mana source that also pings, especially when the flipside can set you up for a bonkers turn. Combined with blue and red spells that proliferate as part of their effect? You have my attention.
Voldaren Thrillseeker is a Fling on a body, to put it simply. You can run Kazuul’s Fury/Kazuul’s Cliffs already in any red deck, so why would you want Thrillseeker?
Well, it gives Vampire decks a bit of reach. Vampire love +1/+1 counters, and this can help you swing out at one player, while nugging the other for a tasty vam-pyreball. Ahem.
Top 5 Red Common/Uncommons:
- Beamtown Beatstick: Another fantastic equipment. Menace elevates this into budget staple territory.
- Invasion of Mercadia: Fun enabler in budget go-wide decks.
- Scrappy Bruiser: I can see decks that enjoy the ability to reuse EtBs here, or dodge “End of Turn” clauses.
- Furnace Reins: Maybe one of the cheapest Threatens we’ve seen. Double strike or extra combats refunds more of the cost.
- (Oathbreaker Card of the Set) Lithomantic Barrage: Oathbreaker is here to stay, if the design of this set is any indication.
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: GREEN
Deeproot Wayfinder is more than playable in Merfolk decks, especially given UG enjoys landfall synergies and fetch lands so much already. It might also find homes elsewhere, as Erinis, Gloom Stalker has done a lot of work in decks that want to play around with lands in the bin.
Doomskar Warrior will most likely find homes in Human decks, but also in +1/+1 counter builds. Digging through a bunch of cards to find what you need is powerful, and Trample is what counters decks most value on their creatures. No use going tall if you can’t convert the damage.
Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria is one hell of a payoff for winning a Battle. “Supertrample” is underrated, and Zilortha is happy to sit and protect you if someone tries to get you on the crackback.
But that’s nothing compared to the front side, really. Getting to tutor from library or graveyard is a powerful effect, and only really Finale of Devastation has this beat due to the additional buffs. This is a great budget option.
Invasion of Shandalar is pretty on-rate in regards to three cards for five mana. The flipside is actually better than I’d have expected, giving us the good part of Court of Bounty with fewer hoops to jump through.
I’m gonna say it: I think this one will remain underrated until people play against it. It’s hard to run out of cards in green these days.
There’s no two ways about it: this Ozolith doesn’t inspire nearly as much awe as the previous one. We have so many redundant copies of Hardened Scales these days that it feels redundant to get another.
But that’s okay, because you can cycle this one if you don’t need it. It also works with Incubate, which most of the others don’t.
Surrak and Goreclaw are having a riot on this team-up, and I love everything about it. Trample, powerboosts, haste… all the things that make the combat step the best part of Magic.
You don’t even have to choose how to conduct your riot, because you get the +1/+1 counter and the haste. Ultimate chaos in the greenest way.
Triple green is meant to somewhat balance this card, but it’s hard to ignore the sheer power on offer even with a restricted casting cost. This thing grows your dorks and lets you draw cards from your payoffs.
There are plenty of effects that care about total power, or power three/four or greater, and Tribute grows your small supporting cast to step forward and fill that role. It’s not The Great Henge, but what is?
Vorinclex isn’t bad. He’s not. Five mana to draw two forests? For a 6/6 that blocks Angels and Dragons? That’s honestly decent, even if not overwhelming.
The Grand Evolution requires eight mana, which in green, isn’t too big an ask. It’ll excel in Golgari decks, or Deathtouch matters builds.
Wrenn and Realmbreaker is great for three mana. It fixes you, protects itself, enables graveyard shenanigans and can potentially give you a permanent Gaea’s Will. What’s not to love?
Top 5 Green Common/Uncommon:
- Kami of Whispered Hopes: Honestly more exciting than Ozolith 2.0.
- Invasion of Zendikar: Ramp is always good
- Tandem Takedown: Sniping battles is a niche effect outside of red burn.
- Ravenous Sailback: Dinosaur decks get a Reclamation Sage!
MARCH OF THE MACHINE: MULTICOLOR, ARTIFACTS, LANDS
Both Heliod and Ephara got Azorius cards this set. Heliod combines enchantment recursion with a Control player’s dream: Vedalken Orrery with cost reduction based on how many cards opponents are drawing. This’ll be super fun to build and play.
Invasion of Theros is a worthwhile tutor, and Ephara is a blue/white Enchantress. It’s a good combo on one card, but I’m a little sad to not see another mono white Enchantress… again. I rate this card pretty highly.
Rona is the first Dimir card I’ve seen for quite some time that looks fun to build. Did we finally break Tim, Prodigal Sorcerer?!
Her front side filters you into action, and when transformed, she provides a serious threat that can generate a lot of advantage and inevitability. Ping her yourself if your hand is gas. And otherwise, force blocks.
Ayara can damage battles, which is already pretty saucy. More importantly, she provides free, repeatable recursion on her transformed side.
Because of the way it’s worded, you absolutely can sacrifice or otherwise move the creature you brought back to another zone, and it won’t be exiled.
Etali, Primal Storm is a super fun card. Etali, Primal Conqueror continues the tradition.
Sure, you can break this wide open with Displacer Kitten, but even on her own, she provides superb value.
Getting basically Blightsteel Colossus on the other side is a demi glaze of a gravy, but I know most of us will want to mess around copying or flickering her front half.
Getting Polukranos on the board for three mana feels like cheating. The flipside is an homage to Wurmcoil Engine, trading deathtouch for reach. Reach and lifelink are pivotal in Commander, and I think this is better than it looks, especially as it triggers off of other Hydras.
There’s a bunch of cool team-ups in the set, and I don’t have the time to review each individually. Plenty of them look great for the Command Zone, while others will serve better in the 99.
Errant and Giada are flexible in this regard, while Hidetsugu and Kairi speak to more of a flashy way to use extra turn spells. It’s Yuriko for a more civilized age. Spin Sensei’s Divining Top and Scroll Rack, set up the big spells, clone your Commander, and profit.
Omnath is a meme, and honestly it may be better to just use the four color version.
Inga and Esika is such a fun card, both in art and gameplay. How can you resist those double rainbow cats?
Rankle and Torbran, like Inga and Esika, can easily helm a deck, but I think both ultimately find better homes in the 99.
Thalia and the Gitrog Monster, however? Well, be prepared to see a lot of Abzan across the table for the foreseeable future. Pack removal for Glacial Chasm. Exile their graveyard. This deck is gonna be strong.
Back to creatures in the deck, Djeru and Hazoret do their best Winota impression for Legendary-matters decks. Free spells are always great, especially when linked to card advantage.
Drana and Linvala might try to poke into cEDH, but overwhelmingly we’ll see them as a hate bear in Angels or other similar decks. It’s a very powerful card, and one I’m hype to play.
Kogla and Yidaro is, shockingly, not a card you want in the ‘Zone. It’s not super interesting, but not a card I’d dismiss for RG/+ decks either.
Blue/white Knights is a big archetype in Standard right now, and Invasion of New Phyrexia is both a Knight producer and a token producer that blows Eiganjo Uprising out of the water.
It also flips into Teferi…? Very rarely am I not going to want to Emblem twice if I flip this. Reminds me of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, but better.
If any team-up deserves highlighting, it’s Kroxa and Kunoros. The stats are already fantastic, but the reanimation ability is what you need to keep an eye on.
Giving anything Escape is good. But given you can get K&K into your graveyard before you choose to exile five cards, that means you can keep bringing it back provided you have cards to exile.
It’s a speedy way to find your combo lines if you have Altar of Dementia. Either as a Commander or in Dihada, this thing is going to be popular.
Closing things out, Realmbreaker is a ramp card for any deck with a hard stop on fetch lands. It also tutors up Praetors, if that’s your jam.
Sword of Once and Future finishes the cycle, and is pretty medium for me, if I’m honest. It needs prior setup to be good, which many of the other Swords don’t ask for. Surveil isn’t drawing cards, either.
Pro Blue & Black is good, but not the greatest. This falls into the bottom half of Swords, unless you build around it.
Top 5 Common/Uncommons
- Marshal of Zhalfir: Knight Lord!
- Invasion of Kaladesh: The J-type 327 Nubian Starship is a beautiful vehicle, and it hits like a truck.
- Invasion of New Capenna: Cheap(ish) removal, and a payoff for creatures decks? Nice.
- Halo Forager: It can cast Ancestral Recall!
- Sculpted Perfection: Phyrexian decks need cards like this to pad out the 99
END STEP
Whew, this set is huge. I only covered the best cards, and we still ended up with quite the Saga. I’m quite ready to relax when Aftermath rolls around. Let me know what you’ll build on Twitter.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer, and member of the Commander Advisory Group. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.