General (MAT) March of the Machine Aftermath Previews

[MilesOfficial]

Most of the set (~35 cards) were leaked today from a YouTube video (Imgur album here) where some dude thought he was buying a MOM CE box but it was for Aftermath instead. Looks like he'll be opening another soon, so we'll likely have the full spoiler shortly. Kind of disappointing for it to happen this way from a storytelling POV, but I'm excited to dig into the cards since I have family over this week and had to miss pre-release/drafts/arena play and will have to miss release weekend as well, so I'm eager for bite-sized Magic experiences.

For the sake of anyone waiting for the proper spoiler season, I'll put the cards I find interesting in spoilers below.

Spoiler: MAT Leaks

A two-colored Goro-Goro and Satoru-style haste-lover. I'm very excited to run this alongside Ardoz, Cobbler of War if I can find room in Gruul.




It's a 2/2 that'll usually enter as a 3/3, has the right kind of incidental gravehate/synergy for GY decks, and can do silly things. Not sure I strongly prefer it to any of my other black 3s but this is a fun effect and it's the best version of this kind of card yet imo.


These are just neat, no immediate plans for testing though:

 

[Velrun]

Nissa is a legendary creature again!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Nissa is a legendary creature again!

So is Sarkhan. Obviously more planeswalkers sacrificed their spark to help their phyrexianized colleagues!

 

[Zoss]

There's some good stuff in here, but so far I'm interested in almost none of it. The one exception is Ayara's Oathsworn, a ?/? (Probably 1/1, unfortunately) (Onderzeeboot confirmed it as a 2/2, which is great news!) for with menace that gains a +1/+1 counter when it connects with a player and which tutors for a card at 4 counters. Seems like a nice cross-pollination card for Blaggro, ninjas, and maybe even a counters deck!

New Narset is fun but clunky. Samut is plausible if a little loud for what is effectively a haste signpost uncommon. The human lord is fine if boring. Let's see what the other fifteen cards look like, but I'm glad that This Set Is Not For Me at this time.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

The one exception is Ayara's Oathsworn, a ?/? (Probably 1/1, unfortunately) for with menace that gains a +1/+1 counter when it connects with a player and which tutors for a card at 4 counters. Seems like a nice cross-pollination card for Blaggro, ninjas, and maybe even a counters deck!

I've seen it confirmed as a 2/2!

 

[Zoss]

I've seen it confirmed as a 2/2!

That's dope. It's a lot of text but with that it's a windmill slam for sure as it fits into the space of being hard to deal with but not unkillable.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Not loving most of these cards so far, I wonder what they're supposed to be showcasing? Most are a lot less spoiler-y than The Kenrith's Royal Funeral! I also dislike how they desparked both Sarkhan and Narset. The Khans story made it seem like they had a direction for these characters, but so far it seems like they have only shown up briefly in event sets and done nothing other than act as window dressing. Sad.


Anyway, cards.

Green/White is perpetually in need of good Gold cards, and this seems to fit the bill! Three mana for an instant speed unearth is a little steep, but the fact that you can simply regrow any permanent makes it much better in my opinion. Excited to try this one!

Here are some good Humans cards for people on that archetype. @shamizy.

This version of Pia could have some legs with a higher density of Adventure cards. Luckily, we're visiting Eldraine again in a couple of months! Not sure this gal makes it for me but I could see trying her if I have enough synergy for her.

Not sure how to use this card, but narrow Gamble for artifacts is cool.

Elspeth is being worshiped as a god now!

I don't think this card is good, but it seems to confirm that Planar Portals//paths between planes are functioning again!

 

[LadyMapi]

I was going to post Ayara's Oathsworn, Cosmic Rebirth, and Markov Baron (what's with WotC lately and printing cards that are pretty much perfect for my dumb Vampire meme cube?)

Some other cards that seem interesting:

Spoiler

This set feels like a Commander set? Like, I'm not sure if all of the ex-planeswalkers are actually ex-planeswalkers now, or if that's a "hey, look at these shiny new commanders!" thing.

Also, it's not like there's anything actually stopping them from printing planeswalkers as creatures.

 

[Velrun]

Many thoughts

1. Some planeswalkers are now without sparks and thus legendary creatures again. Interesting.

2. Like Train pointed out it seems like it is possible to traverse the multiverse without a spark. If this is true and it can be done easily then it was of 0 consequence that some walkers lost their spark.

3. Wizards is yet again doing a set consisting of mostly rare cards.

4. Filter Out seems to be pretty extreme for the cost. Don’t know if the card is good or not. Just extreme.

5. Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival is a cool design. Not very often we see Wizards make these designs where the pay off is disjoint from the fodder.

6. Like Train said, Elspeth is being worshipped. Makes sense since she’s an archangel. Deification seems like an all-or-nothing. Could be really strong in the right deck or absolutely useless.

7. We have a new New-Mizzet. Again all-colored. Still feels weird since it was the face of the two-colored Izzet guild on Ravnica.

8. Leyline Immersion is way over the top in the right build

9. Tolarian Contempt seems really interesting and fun!

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Are these cards gonna be available in normal borders too, or just goofy foil special versions?

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Are these cards gonna be available in normal borders too, or just goofy foil special versions?

I would guess normal versions will be available for the $2 packs. These all seem like collector booster cards.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I feel frustrated by these because the poster is hiding important information like P/T
Like you're buying a magic product, you presumably know how to play, and that corner of the card is important
I'm probably too paranoid thinking this makes it feel manufactured but I can't help it

 

[Brad]

Watching that video is fucking insane.

He's gunning through the cards as if they're well known or something. READ THE DAMN CARDS!

 

[blacksmithy]

it's 100% deliberate viral marketing, they've been doing this since the 2000s

 

[shamizy]

Here are some good Humans cards for people on that archetype. @shamizy.

These are kind of neat as supplements to the archetype, but I think as far as gold slots go General Kudro of Drannith is the best signpost available. Anthem on a body + weird grave hate and sometimes removal option open a lot of lines for aggressive W/B Human shells, especially if there is any kind of token component available. Jirina is neat, but Selfless Spirit just seems like a superior option to me with splashability, evasion, and because Mother of Runes is all the spot protection we need. Vanguard is cool though, might find a slot for it but man are white 2s super crowded with all the options we've had printed in recent years.

I think the card that actually interests me the most from this batch, the only one that really caught my eye on first review, is Ayara's Oathsworn:



Menace is always a welcome keyword to push through that early damage and this card grows itself with every successive hit, it's a human for Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant triggers, and it plays very well with vertical growth ala Luminarch Aspirant and Siege Veteran. I loved the gameplay from Glint-Sleeve Siphoner from years ago but I just don't want energy in my cube so I had to shelve it. The way I see it, the two ways that non-red Aggro can emulate the reach from burn is via vertical growth for pressure or recursion to keep on applying pressure. I think I like this as a cleaner 2 drop for Human Aggro than Tenacious Underdog as I'm always going to have to re-read Blitz, so I might give it a run for a while to test it out.

I think variety of threats is important to distinguish different flavors of aggro and as my two drop slots have ballooned in recent years to:



I'm more inclined to mix it up by swapping out Underdog for Oathsworn as it has the least interesting play to it compared to those other options in my cube (especially when it comes to combo potential and synergies). I think getting to Demonic Tutor is a cool bonus at 4 counters, which isn't impossible with something like T2 Oathsworn into T3 Aspirant or Veteran, but that's just upside at that point. Maybe tutor up a Brutal Hordechief to top off the board state and get those attacking triggers to close out the game. However I'd just be fine with this attacking as a 3 or 4 power menace creature and forcing blocks.

Also superior art + frame is a big bonus for me aesthetically.

 

[Velrun]

You probably noticed this but for me I only noticed it today



Deification makes the planeswalker you choose almost completely immortal. You can sacrifice by removing the last counter yourself. Opponent can have a planeswalker sweeper. But other than that it is almost impossible to get rid of.

 

[MilesOfficial]

You probably noticed this but for me I only noticed it today

View attachment 8260

Deification makes the planeswalker you choose almost completely immortal. You can sacrifice by removing the last counter yourself. Opponent can have a planeswalker sweeper. But other than that it is almost impossible to get rid of.

Yeah, it's Worship but for planeswalkers instead of for you, it's super clever!

 

[LadyMapi]

Some more cards were leaked (maybe they were in the video? I dunno) — mostly just a bunch more buildaround legends, with the only one really standing out to me being:

It's not a proper Enchantress card (Calix is a dude, for one thing ), but there's certainly some snowball-y value to be had here.

 

[ravnic]

The dude with the roughly cut finger nails has uploaded three videos by now, do I guess pretty much the whole set has been spoiled.

 

[Velrun]

Here is what happened to the planeswalkers

Spark Rupture

 

[MilesOfficial]

The dude with the roughly cut finger nails has uploaded three videos by now, do I guess pretty much the whole set has been spoiled.

It has, you can see the whole thing here.

It's quite the unpleasant way to get spoilers. The dude was unbelievably thick in his "analysis" and a miserable presenter on every imaginable axis, which I wouldn't be complaining about if the purpose of him spoiling the whole set was anything besides, by his own account, to grow his own YouTube following. Which he did! In the same video where he was happily talking about doubling his subscriber count, he also lamented that "this isn't how sets should be spoiled, it's less fun this way" (paraphrasing) and announced that the Pinkertons (yes, them) had seized the product.

I really don't get how someone who's been playing as long as he has can have so little understanding of the game / its history / the ability to read cards but hey, congrats on the few thousand subscribers I guess.

On another note, I actually am interested in this Karn after another look over everything, and he's got the old border frame and everything:



No matter how uninteresting this set is overall, I'm really happy we're getting additional old-frame versions of cards. Always a huge plus!

On that note though, the lack of interesting cards in this set is a legitimate shock to me, since I imagined it to be like a 50-card commander expansion. When 1) they don't have to worry about balancing for retail limited, 2) they have the mandate to make super flavorful cards, 3) they have a bunch of interesting and beloved characters becoming legendary creatures for the first or second time instead of much-harder-to-develop walkers, and 4) standard is not the biggest concern for design any longer, I was earnestly expecting this set to be a cube favorite. Instead, I have a few potential marginal inclusions? Huh.

 

[LadyMapi]

Yeah, it's legitimately kinda bizarre how bland a lot of these cards are.

 

[Taamas]

Here is what happened to the planeswalkers

Spark Rupture

To avoid headaches until Scryfall is updated, this is a white card appearing in the first image in the post linked by MilesOfficial just after this message.

But is this card for your planeswalkers or for their planeswalkers?

 

[Brad]

Yeah, it's legitimately kinda bizarre how bland a lot of these cards are.

I'm building an artifact cube and I only got a couple hits and a couple maybes.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

When 1) they don't have to worry about balancing for retail limited, 2) they have the mandate to make super flavorful cards, 3) they have a bunch of interesting and beloved characters becoming legendary creatures for the first or second time instead of much-harder-to-develop walkers, and 4) standard is not the biggest concern for design any longer, I was earnestly expecting this set to be a cube favorite.

Counterintuitively, I think these are all reasons why this slate of cards is underwhelming.

My guess is that they wanted to show how the multiverse is changing in response to the Phyrexian invasion of every world, however, they couldn't fit it all into the main set. Unlike the war with Bolas, there are a lot of important plot points and running threads that are deserving of a card but don't fit in the main set. Having an extra thing just related to showing "the aftermath" makes a lot of sense!

However, given the increase in number of Magic sets being released lately and the problems caused the last time the play design team tried a bunch of novel things all at once, I think they didn't have the resources to test a fully juiced set going into Standard. So, instead of hiring more designers who could balance the cards for competitive constructed, they instead opted to simply play it safe with most of the cards in this set to avoid shaking up any formats.

It's a baffling decision, to be sure, but given what I know about the way WOTC works internally, I think it's the most likely option.